GUJARAT : A woman’s quest to fight ‘baby blues’ led to a formation of an online community of 5,000 active women members in Gujarat’s Vadodara city. After experiencing prenatal and postnatal depression, weight gain, social pressure for years, 38-year-old Priyanka Kapur a resident of Vadodra, started an online community, ‘Moms of Vadodara’ to seek and help women who have similar issues pre or post childbirth.
Born in New Delhi, Priyanka moved to Vadodara after her marriage at the age of 23. With no family, and friends in the new city, she became a recluse. Talking about her state of mind then, Priyanka shared, “The whole city was new to me. I started feeling low as there was no known person here, no family, no friends and a completely different working environment. I could not adapt to these changes so quickly in my life. I didn’t know what was happening; I felt that if I started working again, everything would be fine, so I took up a job. After five years, we were blessed with a baby but soon after I went into depression. At that time, I didn’t even know there was something called postnatal depression.
I just knew that I was not my usual self and was not able to understand and adapt to the changes my body was going through after the childbirth.” Priyanka adds.
With fitness as her strength, Priyanka began running and engaged other moms as well. “I realized that there must be a lot of mothers going through the same phase that I was. They must also share their problems and help fellow mothers. With this vision in mind, in 2018, ‘Moms of Vadodara’ came into existence. My initial challenge was to convince mothers and make them understand what I was trying to convey. Slowly they realized that it would help them and joined,” she said.
The community started with 10 women members eager to help each other in life problems such as solving queries, building business networks, motivating each other to pick fitness as a lifestyle, and getting ‘me time’ through cultural events. In its five-year journey, more than 5,000 women have joined ‘Moms of Vadodara’. “I started with 10 moms, a number which has now grown to 5,000 and includes 300 women runners. I organize several events like and fitness workshops throughout the year. Our focus is primarily on physical fitness, mental health, and entrepreneur mothers. ” Priyanka said.
Geeta Sonawane, a member of ‘Moms of Vadodara’ praising the group said, “I am a 45-year-old woman, I wasn’t keeping good health for past few years when a friend informed me about this group. Priyanka really worked on me and motivated me and pulled me up whenever I was low. In 2019, before the lockdown, I attended her Red Saree Run event. We feel like family in this group.”
Another member, Jagruti Gohil who was also in a similar situation as Priyanka, said that she now feels much healthier. “I was suffering from diabetes for the last seven years after my pregnancy and struggled to keep it in control. One day I came across Kapur’s blog and decided to join the Moms of Vadodara. Now with regular fitness workshops my sugar levels are now normal and I feel fresh all day. My weight has also reduced. This is the magic of our group,” entrepreneur Dhara said.
“We as women have our own life too apart from kids and home responsibilities. Moms of Vadodara has always encouraged all members in sports, hiking and trekking and provides good social groups for business development,” Dhara added.
Priyanka now wants to expand her wings across the nation and has a vision to develop similar groups in Delhi, Indore, Punjab, and Pune in the future. Priyanka also organizes ‘Red Saree Run’ on Women’s Day every year to promote menstrual hygiene.