The silver lining to the breastfeeding woes of Antoinette Marshall and Felicity Morrow was the friendship they struck up in a Werribee maternity support centre.
The new mothers of Frankie and Jack met at a breastfeeding drop-in centre and immediately bonded after discovering they shared similar interests, including plans to return to work.
Antoinette works in marketing and Felicity in health services.
They happened to be assigned to the same Werribee West mothers group, where they discovered that not all mothers were as accepting of their career ambitions or had the same interests or philosophy on motherhood.
“Our experiences [at mother’s group] left us feeling that there had to be a better way to help connect new mums with local women who were like-minded and not just residing in the same area or had children of the same age,” Antoinette said.
So they looked into building a smartphone app that would buddy-up new mums with other women with similar interests, outlooks and locations.
While researching, they found an app already existed that fit the bill in the UK, called Mush, so they set about bringing it to Australia.
They are now Mush’s Australian representatives and are intent on spreading the word about how beneficial the app has been for them.
Antoinette said she’d already made 15 good friends through using it.
“You go from being successful in your job, going to the gym every other day – then suddenly you’re on your own with this child,” she said.
“It’s really about getting out and about, and feeling human.”
