An initiative that began in Almaty in the autumn has grown into an international mutual-aid flash mob for women after childbirth. At first, the idea was to meet a mother and her baby at the maternity hospital and help them get home, but it soon became clear that other everyday support was even more needed: bringing diapers and formula, buying medicine and groceries, cooking food, or helping around the house. The material was first published on the website of the project Vetër.
In late October, Almaty psychologist Saltanat Muradova wrote on Threads that she was ready to meet women who found themselves in a difficult situation after discharge. She said the idea came after she read about a mother who had been forced to travel home alone, with bags and a newborn, by bus. Muradova said she did not have large financial resources, but she could provide “micro-help”: carry bags, pay for a taxi, and help a woman get into her home.
The post quickly drew thousands of likes and hundreds of responses. Women shared stories of postpartum loneliness, of having to travel home in extreme heat or at rush hour, of tears, panic, a sense of being unwanted, and a lack of support even from those close to them.
After that, Muradova created a WhatsApp group that now includes more than two hundred women. Some had long been involved in charity work, while others were simply ready to help in whatever way they could: bringing soup, passing on children’s items, or sharing formula. Muradova said she herself has personally met a woman from the maternity hospital only once so far: the woman had been urgently transferred from a settlement in the Almaty region, so no one was with her, and volunteers arranged a special taxi for her.
In November, the flash mob spread to Russia. Yulia Komar, a resident of Anapa who had previously helped raise funds for stray animals and for children’s treatment, published a similar post after seeing Muradova’s message. Several years earlier, Komar had already helped a young mother whom no one came to meet from the maternity hospital after an argument with her husband: she arrived, helped gather her things, and drove the woman and her baby home. She said she was initially afraid to publish the new post, but by the next morning it had already received hundreds of comments, and similar messages then began spreading across the country.
Komar says that no one has yet asked her specifically to pick them up from a maternity hospital, but women regularly ask for help buying medicine or delivering groceries and belongings. In her view, women are especially vulnerable after childbirth, and sometimes the simplest support becomes decisive: the chance to sleep, spend time with the baby, and receive hot soup and a clean bed.
The stories of those who have already used such help show how much the initiative is needed. A young mother from St. Petersburg, Aleksandra, said her husband had left for shift work for several months, her son was six months old, and at times she could not even get to the store. After a friend’s advice, she wrote to volunteers, and a woman named Natasha bought groceries and stayed briefly with the child. Tatyana, from Novgorod, who was left alone with two children after her husband’s death, asked for help after surgery: an acquaintance named Yekaterina picked her up from the hospital by car and drove her home, while another woman offered to bake a cake for the children.
The movement was also joined by Moscow entrepreneur Anastasia Vishnyakova, who several years ago, while still living in Omsk, gave birth to twins. She recalled helping a ward neighbor whose newborns were left without their mother nearby, and later, in winter, meeting another woman with a premature baby when she feared no one would come for her in December cold reaching -35. After Yulia Komar’s post, Vishnyakova launched a Telegram channel that attracted nearly eight thousand women within a month. Some are seeking help, while others are ready to meet mothers from maternity hospitals, bring clothes, buy diapers and formula, clean homes, or cook meals. She said men are also participating in the chat, and many women write that the main thing they found there was the feeling that they are not alone.