Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) Womxn’s Centre is hoping to provide some support by helping student moms on campus connect.
The centre is currently in the first stages of planning for a new bi-weekly support group for student mothers to get together, decompress, and get to know other moms, according to Womxn’s Centre coordinator, Daniela Ochoa.
“Being a mom is hard enough, and on top of that being a student, it can be very overwhelming,” said Ochoa.
While mothers sometimes visit the centre’s cozy space in the University Centre to breastfeed or rest, this will be the centre’s first program specifically for mothers.
Erika Lind, a third-year art history student and a mother of two, understands the importance of a good support system.
“I struggled a lot,” she said of her first year at Carleton, balancing a busy course load and raising a newborn. “Once I was able to find a group of people who were able and willing to help me, it made things a lot easier.”
When support is lacking, stress becomes a major concern, said Amina Mire, an assistant professor of sociology and anthropology at Carleton, who was also a mother when she was a student.
“The stress comes from trying to meet the commitment to educational needs, the desire to achieve career success, to achieve degree success, and be good mothers.”
As well as managing stress, loneliness can be a factor for new mothers which makes work-life balance harder.
“Sociality is very important,” said Mire. “Motherhood is a very demanding task; it’s something that I don’t think people really appreciate.”
Lind said the support of friends and peers who could take care of her baby while she went to class allowed her to strike a balance that worked for her. Accommodations from professors, especially those who were parents themselves, also eased some of the pressure.
Lind said she hopes a support group for mothers could provide an opportunity for her, and other students with children, to combat these feelings.
“Especially as a young mom, you don’t really have many people you can relate to,” she said. “It’s so nice to just talk to other moms, because they get it. They get where you’ve been.”
For Mire, childcare support was the most vital factor to her success.
“By the time [my daughter] was 18 months old, she received a spot at the university daycare, and it was fully paid by the province. There was an understanding that the best way to provide support to mothers was through proper daycare service.”
According to a 2019 Statistics Canada report on childcare arrangements, about 12 per cent of parents across Canada have difficulty finding childcare, which can impact their work.
Ochoa said establishing a support group for mothers is a natural extension of the centre’s goal to provide resources and a safe space to women on campus.
“Given that we have a space on campus that’s safe for women and femme-aligned folks, I think that it’s great for us to provide that space to help people and make a positive change in someone’s life.”
While it’s too early to say what the group will look like, Ochoa said it will be based on the needs of the mothers hoping to get involved.
“I’m gonna be working closely with them to get feedback on what they want out of the group,” said Ochoa. She said an initial meeting will likely be held next week.
Featured image by Spencer Colby.
