'Mummy Meet Ups': How 'overwhelming' feeling led Donegal mum to set up new group

A first-time mother from Donegal has formed Mummy Meet Ups a group designed to promote post-partum anxiety and depression and encourage positivity new mums.

Killea woman Sinéad Feeney is leading the group of mothers, who meet each week and is open to anyone.

The group met at Swan Park in Buncrana and Inch Levels Wildfowl Reserve on their first two outings.

“Picnic benches for a yarn or two, or for a dander to get up the steps,” Sinéad says of the “laid back and easy” group. You can follow Mummy Meet Ups on Instagram or Facebook.

“I spoke to a few other mammies and so many of them said things like: ‘I’d rather if I had mum friends to go for a coffee go for walk go to a play area/park’. They just wanted something that’s not too much of feeling like going to a class.”

Late in 2023, Sinéad discovered that she was finding motherhood “a bit hard and overwhelming”.

She gave birth to beautiful daughter Abbie-Leigh in September. Three months later, she found that she wasn't going out much and “using every excuse in the book to stay inside”.

After confiding in close family members, Sinéad recognised that she might have post-natal anxiety and reached out for help.

“I would make plans and cancel just so I didn’t have to take my baby out of the house,” she said.

“I started to think I’d always feel this way and started asking family about it.

“Post natal depression and anxiety is perfectly normal for first time mums. One in five new mothers can develop PND/PNA.

“We are literally thrown into the deep end. Parenting doesn’t come with a manual.

“Everyone warns you in pregnancy about the first trimester, second and third and labour.

“Nobody warns you about how mentally challenging the fourth trimester is trying to adjust your life around a baby when really the baby is supposed to fit into your life not the other way around.

“I started therapy after reaching out for help. I cannot recommend enough talking to someone who is completely out of the equation with no judgement and just basically a listening ear.

“I started to develop coping strategies with my thoughts with some cognitive behavioural therapy; changing the way I think, taking the negatives out and becoming more positive.

“This was also for me to look after me because an unhappy mammy is an unhappy baby and nobody really wants that do they?”

Having avoided mother and toddler, baby massage, baby yoga or mums on the run groups (“I was scared of people possibly critiquing my parenting”), Sinéad came up with the idea of the regular meet-ups.

“Basically, it's to get the steps in, get some fresh air coming into the summer months, and to talk and support fellow mammies,” she said.

Mummy Meet Ups was born – and has grown rapidly over the first couple of meets.

“There is nothing more refreshing than talking to a mum who knows what your going through and can say ‘I’ve felt like this too’,” she said.

“I decided to set up the group for mums who maybe need some mum friends, a breath of fresh air and a few yarns of: ‘naw but wait to you ye hear what my wain done’; 'I can't cope with it today'; or one of my favourites 'I love him/her so much but by God he/she’s doing my head in’. Everyone can relate so much to this.

“Every week the turn out is getting bigger. It’s great to see mammies interacting - especially with their babies. We have had babies at just two weeks old as part of the group and we'll have a different location for each meet up.

“I'd encourage all mums to give it a go because the hardest part is getting out and fighting with the voice that’s saying it’s easier to stay in the house.”