By Alicia Ranford

Having newborns is daunting enough. But when you live far away from family and friends or your husband works FIFO/DIDO on a mine site, it can be particularly tiring and stressful. 

When our first bundle of joy came into the world, she did so with a crack. Yes, as she popped out she left the lasting gift of a broken coccyx.  So as I struggled through the weirdly amazing first few weeks of motherhood with a husband working 12-hour shifts on a mine site and my family far far away, I did so hobbling around or lying on my side as sitting was too much to bear. 

At the time we lived in Cobar, in outback NSW - a fantastic town filled with great people. But as we had not been there long, the support network of parents and life-long friends wasn’t available. Those who did lend a hand (I will be forever grateful, Michele!) did all they could, but they had full-time jobs themselves.

Thirteen months later our second bundle of joy arrived (I know, I know, crazy!) via the "sun roof" (that's nursing code for caesarean).  After the 13-hour drive back to Cobar from Adelaide (I was not able to deliver in Cobar due to the lack of obstetric care) my husband went back to work the very next day. So again, there I was: recovering from a caesarean with two small children to care for and my mother 1300km away. It was, needless to say, chaotic, daunting and overwhelming.  And you can imagine how desperately I craved and needed help and support.

After reading my story, you'll no doubt understand why I want all the new mining mums of Perth to hear about White Oak - a fantastic service for new mothers who need a helping hand. I'm sure it would be invaluable to families of all shapes and sizes, but particularly those doing the FIFO/DIDO thing. To find out more about the service, we asked Treasa Lonergan from White Oak to tell us all about it…

Q: Tell us a bit about yourself and your experience as a FIFO family.

A: My husband has just recently started to work away; he works two weeks on and one week off. I have a five-year-old and am six months pregnant. I know how hard it was as a first-time mum. (I knew it was going to be a bit hard, but didn’t realise just how much until my little girl Sienna came along!) My husband will be taking time off when the new baby is born, but that will only be for four to six weeks. I am very lucky as I have great family support and with my daughter being five, she will be at school fulltime. For those mums who have multiple little ones at home and a husband working away, I really don’t know how they do it, I take my hat off to them.

Q: What prompted you to start White Oak and how long have you been running for?

A: White Oak Home Care services was founded in 1998 to service the aged care industry by Mary Lonergan and Angela Anderson. In 1998 one of the director's daughters had a baby with complications. The baby was born six weeks prem and she had to have a caesarean section. It became evident at the time that there weren't any services out there to help those mums who needed extra assistance after having a baby. The baby was in neonatal care at King Edward Hospital and the mum was unable to drive in each day, so Mary organised some support workers to help out with driving her to the hospital and doing some cleaning around the house, as her husband worked fulltime. Mary and Angela then decided to create a service to help out new mums, or mums who needed extra assistance, and White Oak Baby and Family Service was born.

Q: Describe the services you provide at White Oak.

A: White Oak Baby provides support and assistance to new mums. This can be social support, home support, care of siblings so mums can bond with their newborn, companionship and encouragement to adjust to the new role of parenting, evening and overnight care, transport to appointments, before and after-school care.

Q: What do you see as the major benefits for families utilising your services, especially those doing FIFO/DIDO?

A: For women with husbands working away, a new baby can become quite stressful, especially for first-time mums. Some women don't have extended family support, so when their husband is working away they don’t have any support at all. White Oak Baby can provide that extra bit of help, even looking after bub while mum pops down to the shops - or we can clean the house, or help with toddlers. Mums sometimes need a couple of hours of respite to feel like they are back in the real world, and White Oak can help out in all of these situations.

So instead of buying the standard baby shower gift or pressies for new babies, family and friends are increasingly buying our gift vouchers for mums - it's a gift that is a little different and very useful. Gift vouchers can be purchased online, with blocks of time selected or services customised to the individual.

For more information, visit www.whiteoakbaby.com.au or call us on (08) 9301 0299.