After I was discharged from Maternal Mental Health with my 9 month old, I thought "okay. that was PNDA, I am good now". But I quickly learnt, that whilst the intensity of the newborn season was gone, the leftover trauma, general anxiety, internalised anger, and the need to carve out time for me as a person, not just as a Mother, was going to be a much longer journey. When I found Well Women, I honestly was so surprised as a newcomer to the area that this was a self-referred, peer support group centred around the well-being of Mothers - where anyone could attend, with zero triage before you walked through the door, and free childcare if you needed it. There were women from all walks of life, with the shared common experience, that hey, motherhood hasn't quite been the experience we thought it would be. They helped me build up to a place where my anxiety was not going to get in the way of my want for a second child. The facilitators and women were there for me throughout my second pregnancy and helped me form a solid plan, where I was quite frankly very frightened and at times, lost. I had the home visit service in the newborn stage from Cathy (one of the facilitators, who was always in my corner cheering me on), in-home help, referral to Bellyful meals, a check-in service, and attended the weekly peer support sessions where the facilitators even hunted down a comfy couch where we could breastfeed in during session. The consistancy of the facilitators knowing my story was crucial vs someone through the system who you had to explain the context of things to over and over again, the structure of the sessions is so well thought out and the shared experience that you are normal, that motherhood is hard, and hey, we;ve got this. The mantras I have taken with me, like "does this serve my wellness"(thank you Jane). The women who reached out to me in the newborn phase, who didn;t have to and dropped off meals and who have become some of my nearest and dearest friends. This service would serve any new mother, and wraps around us women like nothing else I have ever experienced. Which is sad really, mothers should have this sort of support wrapped around them - but thank god for Well Women. Having a second child has been so healing in a million ways, and a lot of it is because of Well Women and I will forever be grateful for it.