A Letter from Emmy McCarthy to the Amsterdam Mamas Community

Coronavirus Resources and Information

Strategies for Managing Stress in Your Relationships During Lockdown

Tips for Managing Anger During Lockdown

Financial Aid for Your Business During Coronavirus

Helping Your Children Cope with the Challenges of Lockdown

Long Covid: What Is it? Where Can I Get Support?

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A MESSAGE FROM AMSTERDAM MAMAS’ EMMY McCARTHY 

Hello Community,

This has been a bit of a week so far, hasn’t it? As Prime Minister Rutte said on Monday night, we feel that we are on a roller coaster going faster and faster.

These are unusual times, in ten years of Amsterdam Mamas we have never seen anything like this. In my lifetime, I have never seen anything like this. It is completely understandable that right now we are all experiencing a whole range of emotions.

I wanted to talk to you today about Amsterdam Mamas, and about you as a community. You will have seen that in the past couple of weeks the admin team has been working hard to bring you trusted, reliable information, to direct you to posts to get your questions answered and help you share information with others. It’s been a very challenging time for the admins, the workload is high and we are extremely grateful for all our volunteer admins, current and former, across all our groups who are pulling together to support you.

It’s been a hard time for the community. You are naturally worried and fearful; you’re dealing with school and work closures, many of you are far from loved ones and your home countries.

Every day, before he leaves for school I ask my son to do two things, be brave and be kind. Today I am asking the same of you.

We have so much compassion for you right now. These are very challenging times, but we will get through them and the way we’re going to do it is together.

Every day, before he leaves for school I ask my son to do two things, be brave and be kind. Today I am asking the same of you.

We are going to need to be brave. Our children are looking to us for guidance and reassurance right now, when they look back on this time we want them to remember that the grown-ups around them kept them safe and calm. We want them to feel that way, even if we don’t feel safe and calm on the inside. We need to be brave so that our children can feel brave.

And we’re going to ask you to be kind. To yourselves, to each other, and to those of us who are working to keep you informed in a fast-moving situation. I have been very proud of the community this past week. You have leaned into the values that we built Amsterdam Mamas upon, particularly those of trust and support.

These are hard times. We are a global community and we know that you are receiving information from everywhere right now: from your friends, your families, social media, the press, and the government. We are in a time of information overwhelm.

As an organisation, we are listening very carefully to the advice of the Dutch government and WHO. They are the ones with access to the experts, we are not.

Here in Amsterdam Mamas, we can see that all you want to do is keep everyone safe; you want to share what you’ve learnt to keep your families safe and each other safe. However, we need you to be mindful of what is a fact, what is best practice, and what is opinion. We want to make sure that we are sharing facts and that the facts are coming only from official sources. Please help us do that.

As an organisation, we are listening very carefully to the advice of the Dutch government and WHO. They are the ones with access to the experts, we are not. We believe that following the advice of the government is the minimum that we should be doing. That means that we socially distance, limit our contact with people outside our families, and make sure that we stay as healthy as possible. It is the minimum. If you are able to do more than that – and we recognise that not everybody can – then we believe that it is good to do so. This is not official advice and we are not presenting it as official advice. We cannot do that, we are simply asking you to reflect as a community on the difference right now between what you need and what you want and to ask yourself “do I need to do this right now or could it wait?”

We will continue to provide the best information we can; we will continue to adjust our admin approach in line with new information as it occurs; and we will do our very best to keep supporting you, our community, with whatever you need.

For my family, we are staying indoors away from others for as much as possible. We have limited our supermarket trips and only one person goes out when we need to shop. We go outside for fresh air and exercise but we have chosen not to visit playgrounds or have playdates. This is a choice we’ve made because it is right for our family and we believe it is best for the community around us.

We recognise that your choices might be different.

While I know that many of you would feel safer if you saw more people socially isolating, staying away from playgrounds, etc. I hope you also recognise that unless the government changes their position on this, it will not be a requirement. Please try to be compassionate to each other through this. We cannot know why people make the choices they do, if you don’t understand please try asking before you judge. Stay connected to each other, we have never needed each other more and it will take all of us to beat this. Shaming and judging others very rarely makes them change their behaviour anyway. It just causes unrest and division. Let’s not do it.

As for the admin team: We will continue to provide the best information we can; we will continue to adjust our admin approach in line with new information as it occurs; and we will do our very best to keep supporting you, our community, with whatever you need. We are lucky to have direct support from Facebook’s Community Team as we do this and we are grateful for the relationships we have built over the years with other organisations in the Netherlands who are helping us through this time. Make sure you are checking the weekly discussion post and the Coronavirus Unit in this group. You can find them by clicking on the word UNIT on the menu inside the group.*

Above all though, we are grateful for you, our community, you have shown immense resilience already and we know more will be asked of you in the coming weeks. This is truly a time where we will stand and face what is coming, together.

Stay brave, stay kind, stay healthy.

Emmy McCarthy
Founding Mama

SUMMARY:

– Amsterdam Mamas continues to follow official advice concerning Coronavirus and we ask for your help to do this.
– Do more than the minimum that is being asked of you, if you can.
– Be brave and be kind to each other.
– We are all in this together and we are here to support you.

* Amsterdam Mamas’ website will be updating its article on Covid-19/Coronavirus Information and Resources as new information arrives

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This past weekend we hosted a successful Annual Easter Egg Hunt with beautiful weather and next weekend the whole country will be enjoying Koningsdag (Kings Day) in honour of the king’s birthday. But nestled in between these two weekends is our own special event that I believe deserves recognition as well: Amsterdam Mamas is celebrating its fourth birthday! And in honour of this special occasion, I want to take this opportunity to share with our growing community some of my reflections of the past few years and some of my visions for our future.

Now that we have over 5,200 people in our group and are a stichting, or non-profit organisation, it is easy to forget that Amsterdam Mamas began as a small and informal group of six women who wanted to share information and support each other during pregnancies and parenting in Amsterdam. When I look back at how rapidly we grew, I am astounded.

Within the first year Amsterdam Mamas had around 50 Facebook members – mostly people who heard about the group from friends – and just 18 months later we were over 200 mamas and papas, who were eager to join in the conversation. That was when I realised that Amsterdam Mamas fills a real need within the international parenting community and I decided to make it official by registering us as a formal foundation.

For fun, we began organising community events to bring people together to meet offline. We launched a website to be a resource of interesting and relevant information for our members. And we started circulating newsletters to inform our families on the activities, events and discounts our city had to offer. To keep all of this going, we launched The Village Card discount card program to help fund our efforts (while offering our members discounts around town) and we established a team of volunteers, who dedicate their valuable time and skills to keep the community running. It hasn’t always been the easiest journey and we have faced our fair share of challenges.

We work with a dedicated, but fluid volunteer team and are nearly always understaffed in one or more areas. We have a vocal, engaged community that we would love to do everything for but are often forced to choose based on our resources and finances at any given moment. Nevertheless, I am so proud of everything that we’ve accomplished in just four years and of how beneficial our thriving community has become to the city.

Looking forward, I believe that great are things in store for Amsterdam Mamas and we are already building towards a better community. Last month we began upgrading and improving the Amsterdam Mamas website, so that we can offer our readers a much smoother and more user-friendly experience. We have listened to what you are telling us and we’ve decided to focus our efforts on the information that you are truly searching for. We have vamped up our events strategy and are planning new and better events that will be useful and fun for our community.

Next month, we are hosting our first Ask The Mamas! information fair which will include seminars and workshops on topics surrounding pregnancy, babies, toddlers and even teenagers, and will provide answers to many of the questions that often arise within our community. After that, we will begin planning our autumn and winter events, including our highly anticipated third annual Vintage Tram Ride with Father Christmas.

To continue efforts and help Amsterdam Mamas grow, we have decided that it is time to move towards forming a small core team that will work for the organisation on a regular basis and receive a symbolic compensation for their commitment. In this way, we hope to resolve some of the problems that we face in retaining a consistent team to run the organisation. As a foundation, Amsterdam Mamas is not in a position to hire a complete team, nor can we offer the salaries that our team deserves, but we feel that this is a good first step in the right direction.

To support this team, we will continue to rely heavily on volunteers and I would like to encourage you to consider helping the community out. Volunteering for Amsterdam Mamas is a great way to brush up your professional skills or gain new ones and it is an excellent stepping-stone for parents looking to keep their resumes alive and transition back into the work force. I firmly believe that by implementing these changes, Amsterdam Mamas will be in a stronger position to keep up with the international parenting community’s needs.

I will do my best to communicate with the community and remain as transparent as possible throughout our journey, so that our members understand what we are doing and why. And in the meantime, I sincerely hope that you all enjoy the fruits of our efforts. Despite the changes that we’ve seen over the past few years and the ones that we anticipate for our future, the core of Amsterdam Mamas – an organisation that strives for an informative, reliable, respectful and non-judgemental international parenting community – remains unchanged. We are all parents, doing our best to raise our children and we all understand that even in the city, it takes a village.

photo credit: Kim Faires via Flickr cc

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The simple answer is we can’t, but birth is where Amsterdam Mamas began, how every Amsterdam Mama begins. So here we go!

This month on Amsterdam Mamas we will be sharing even more Birth stories From our community, real mums, real births – celebrating the broad range of experiences of people giving birth in the city. We will bring you the details of our favorite midwives and kraamzorgs.

For the uninitiated we will also be sharing the joys of a kraamzorg with you, what is this mythical being who comes to take care of you after the birth all covered by insurance? Amsterdam is filled with support services for birth, doulas, pregnancy yoga, massage, acupuncture, and we will be listing our favorites. There will be an update on one of our most popular articles, shopping for maternity wear in the Netherlands. As well as tips for grandparents who are becoming overseas grandparents for the first time, and so much more. 

Last night, I attended our charity seminar hosted in conjunction with MumKnowsMum. Our speaker, Julie Sharon showed a short video at the end of her talk. In it mothers were asked what they would tell themselves in the days before the birth of their first child. Their answers are funny, poignant and heartwarming. Rather like motherhood. It seems like a good way to begin our birth month, reflections on motherhood. What would you tell yourself?

Welcome to Birth month.

photo credit: Randi Deuro via Flickr cc

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 New beginnings: I love them! A clean start, a fresh slate. Time to adapt and reinvent. How exciting. Except that it’s not always that easy. Sometimes new beginnings also mean saying goodbye, staring into the unknown.

Amsterdam Mamas turns three this month. It will be three years since six mamas-to-be met over brunch and became a Facebook group. It was the best of new beginnings as we all looked forward to the start of something exciting. Those six women became the founding mamas of Amsterdam Mamas – and wow, have we done a lot since then! Our families have grown and our humble Facebook group of 6 is now closing in on 3,000 members.

We have a website which attracts thousands of readers from all over the world every week to read along with our adventures in international parenting. We run multiple events and an expanding programme of workshops. Our newsletters remain hugely popular. At the beginning of the year we launched The Village Card to help our community connect better with family-friendly businesses in Amsterdam and beyond.

In September we will help the City of Amsterdam celebrate 400 years of the canals with a huge international family festival as part of Amsterdam 2013. More details on that coming very soon! And we are still doing all of this as an entirely voluntary, not-for-profit, organisation which receives no funding for what we do. It’s pretty amazing when you sit back and look at what our new beginnings created.

On the website this month, we will be looking at all sorts of new beginnings: single parenthood, career changes and more. It seems like a good time to celebrate brand new starts, especially after what has felt like a never-ending winter this year in Amsterdam. So here’s to new beginnings, embracing change and looking forward to whatever is coming next. Happy April.

photo credit: Xerones via photopin cc

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How much do you know about Amsterdam Mamas? You may have read a bit About Us, but do you know the whole story?

In April 2010, six friends of a friend got together for a pregnant ladies brunch.  After that brunch, the friend set up a Facebook group so we could all connect and keep in touch during our pregnancies.  We started swapping tips and articles and news and more.  Soon we met other mamas to be and they wanted to join the conversation, they told other mamas and we grew, slowly.

In the summer of 2011, we had about 60 members and then suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere there was an influx of people wanting to join.  We’re still not exactly where they all came from but it was clear that something had changed. Amsterdam Mamas was becoming something new. After talking to the other Founding Mamas about what to do, I asked if I could take on the group and see if we could develop it into a lasting resource for English speaking parents in Amsterdam.

In August 2011 I took a deep breath, a not inconsiderable hit to my cash funds and registered Amsterdam Mamas as a stichting (a not for profit foundation). As soon as the ink dried on the paperwork we announced to our group of 178 members that they were now part of a formally registered foundation whose purpose was to provide information and support to English speaking parents in Amsterdam and the surrounding regions.

And then we snowballed! From 200 members in September 2011, the floodgates opened and solely through word of mouth the mamas started to find us.  By December we had a membership of 600, by February 2012 we numbered 1,000 and I had ripped up the woefully inadequate business plan that was projected on the basis of 500 members in our first year of operation. It quickly became apparent that Facebook was the best place to connect each other, but utterly hopeless for being able to re-find all the valuable information being posted all day, every day.  We needed a website.

Rather like our babies, the website took nine months to bring to life.  In that time we endured serious illness, the death of a family member, a staggering amount of hard work and when we launched on the 1st of May 2012 we knew it had been worth it.  The response from the community was overwhelmingly positive and has remained so ever since.  We have welcomed readers from over 180 countries but remain enduringly popular in our home city of Amsterdam.  

We remain true to our original purpose of providing a community voiced resource for international parents in Amsterdam and beyond and we cannot wait to see what year two will bring. I often get asked, why I did it.  How, when we were so small, did I have the forethought to see the potential in Amsterdam Mamas.  The answer to that is always slightly complicated.  Why did I do it?  Because I was that mother-to-be, who really knew no one, who was so lonely and about to have her whole life turned upside down in a foreign country.  I knew that if I could make a difference to even one other mother to be who found herself in the same situation then I had to do it.  I joke that it is an American Military approach “NO MAMA LEFT BEHIND!”

As for the forethought, it is slightly more complicated.  J K Rowling once said that when she started to write the Harry Potter series, the character of Harry walked, fully formed into her head as though he was a real, live boy.  To a certain extent that was my experience of Amsterdam Mamas, I had a crystal clear vision of what it could be and how it could support parents both now and in the future.

Amsterdam Mamas was, for me, always a real thing, not just a concept.  However, nothing could have prepared me for the sheer speed and tenacity with which it built itself from a small Facebook group to a community of real force and influence in Amsterdam.  Keeping one step ahead of the good ship Amsterdam Mamas is a daily challenge! But I love it, every single day of it (ok, most of them!), and I can assure you that a bad day on Amsterdam Mamas is still the very best day at any job I have ever had.  I am proud of the team we have grown to be, that we do it all with no assistance and no funding.  It is all sheer hard work and dedication from the incredible volunteers who make Amsterdam Mamas work on a daily basis.

With the Marvellous Misfits (aka the Management Team) we just cannot wait to show you what we’ve got coming up for Amsterdam Mamas in the next twelve months and we cannot wait to see what you’ve got in store for us because without you, our community, there would be no point to what we do.

So thank you, every last single one of you for being along for the ride.

photo credit: CJ Sorg via Flickr cc

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It has a been a whirlwind at AM Central. We have so much to be thankful for and so much to celebrate that, what else could we close 2012 with, except a month of articles on the theme of celebration?

Sinterklaas is currently crisscrossing the country before leaving for Madrid again. Many of our families will then start to prepare for the arrival of Santa Claus (or Father Christmas – depending on your cultural heritage).  

Our Jewish mamas are anticipating the start of their festival of light, Hanukkah, on the 8th of December and many of our other international parents have holidays from their own cultures to celebrate. On the website this month our families will be telling us how they celebrate, how they maintain their cultural traditions when they are far from home and how they are blending in new traditions for their families from their new home country. We will be telling you about the things that Amsterdam Mamas has to celebrate this year and how we will be paying it forward in 2013. We will also be helping you find unusual presents and well-loved classics as you prepare for the gift-giving season.

I am not sure how many people will have made the connection that the Overseas Grandparent is, in fact, my mother. Every month she turns in her article (on time!) and each time I learn something about my childhood or her childhood that I never knew and probably would never have known without the articles she is sharing here. This month she will be talking about creating traditions with your children. Whether you are near or far from your family this year, I would urge you, if you are still able, to ask them more about their lives. The stories I am learning now from my mother are the ones I will be passing down to my son, but I would not have had them, nor thought to ask the questions, without the prompt of this website. So take the opportunity of the celebrations this month, if you can, to ask your families questions about what has been important and special to them in their lives and why. Hold those stories tight in your heart. It may turn out to be the best gift you receive.

On every world, wherever people are, in the deepest part of the winter, at the exact mid-point, everybody stops and turns and hugs. As if to say, “Well done. Well done, everyone! We’re halfway out of the dark.”

Halfway out of the dark. I like that. Winter seemed to start very early in the Netherlands this year and all our fingers are crossed that spring starts to peek through just as early to compensate. But, until then, we will light our candles. We will hold our families closer in our hearts, even when we cannot be with them in person, and rejoice that we are halfway out of the dark.

Celebrate: welcome to December.

P.S. Yes, that quote is from Doctor Who.

photo credit: State Farm via Flickr cc

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As I mentioned in my last behind the scenes update, Amsterdam Mamas is growing up as an organisation. We now have a core team who run AM on a daily basis, and a larger volunteer team performing various roles on a regular or semi-regular basis.

Since the beginning we have always worked as a scattered team: from our homes, at our dining tables, in cafes and sometimes from our sick beds. Occasionally we would meet and catch up. But as Amsterdam Mamas has grown we have found ourselves facing the need to work together more regularly. And we really enjoy it. We like the companionship of working alongside each other and having the ability resolve quick questions in person rather than going through a chain of e-mails. So we decided that if we could manage it, working together would benefit the team and the community as a whole.

As most of you know, space is limited in Amsterdam and often comes at a price that a young non-profit cannot afford. Thankfully, our amazing Amsterdam Mamas community came through for us once again and once we quietly mentioned that we were looking for space, we got a great tip and found a location that is perfect for our organisation. Amsterdam Mamas is joining a community of wellbeing-related businesses on Hygiëastraat, just off Stadionweg. Our neighbours are all businesses dedicated to families, including dieticians, speech therapists, children’s physiotherapists and more. Those of you who attended Baby Sensory or Toddler Sense classes when they first began will already be familiar with the location because that is the new Amsterdam Mamas Head Quarters!

At the moment we are busy preparing the office – there is still a lot to be done – and we will begin gradually moving in over the summer. Right now the office is an empty room with a single plant and one desk.

Our goal is to be fully operational in our new space by the start of the new school year in August. You won’t find the whole team there every day. Amsterdam Mamas will continue to work flexibly as we have always done, so that we can combine the work we do for the parenting community in Amsterdam with our additional responsibilities and family lives.

Nevertheless, having our own office gives the team some stability for their work and demonstrates that Amsterdam Mamas has an established role within our community. It also opens up the door for additional opportunities such as hosting volunteer coffee mornings for those of you who would like to find out more about working with Amsterdam Mamas and similar community events.

As with everything else about Amsterdam Mamas, the way we utilize the new space will evolve organically over time as our needs and the community’s needs grow. We will keep you up to date every step of the way. For now though, we are busy settling in to our new home and we will be back in a few weeks to tell you all about it.  

Article photo credits: amsmamas

Feature photo credit: Diana Parkhouse via photopin cc

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This month is PARTY! month at Amsterdam Mamas, not only did we just celebrate the 3rd anniversary of our Facebook group, but we will also (fingers crossed!) welcome our 3,000th member!

To celebrate our third birthday we asked The Mamas, what it means to them to be a member of Amsterdam Mamas, what difference has being a member of our community made to their lives and why they enjoy being a member. Here is what they had to say:

“We moved to Amsterdam with a 3 month old baby and a 20 month old toddler. I still remember looking out of the window and thinking what am I going to do here, I don’t know anyone, I have no friends nor do I know the language and then I met someone who told me about Amsterdam Mamas and the rest was history….I have come across some fantastic mums, my kids have such great friends, we have been part of so many activities, seen so much of Amsterdam all thanks to Amsterdam Mamas. You all have made my life so much easier….it’s such a pleasure to be a part of this group.”

Anonymous via email

“Being a re-expat after leaving for a second time a country I loved I felt very lost when I arrived to Netherlands inspite I had been here before. The difference: I was a mom. However when I came in contact with Amsterdam Mamas I didn´t feel alone, I felt I could ask mostly anything and suddenly I had a huge support inspite being far away from home. So what does it mean to me: It has been my saviour in soo many ways!”

Elivira B-M

“AMs showed me we are not special or weird or terrible parents. it made me realize there are others of our kind, and other kinds, out there and we all share similar problems! And even if we’re all different, we are all awesome parents!! In our own way! And that’s ok!! (and I never felt embarrassed to ask any question here, no matter how silly asking it has seemed to me) I AM!”

Lisa S

“Sharing of knowledge, experiences & ideas. Provided free access to allow one to recycle baby & house hold items.”

Deepti J   

“AM is proving to be a valuable recourse & I’m not even living in Amsterdam yet. AM is allowing me to learn all about Amsterdam before I even get there! Thank you for all your hard work and dedication”

Janine B-A

“I moved to Amsterdam just before the expat fair last year. That was the first thing I participated in the city. As I have two kids (5months and 27 months at that time) AM’s stand was the first thing that caught my attention. The Ladies were extremely kind when they found out that I am very new here. They made me promise that I will join their Facebook page. They meant it seriously. And to my greatest surprise, this was my first thing to do when I got back to our hotel room. Because I felt that they really care. The last thing I expected after moving to a totally new country without any friends/relatives here was to feel cared about. And this is what I feel each and every time when I log in here, ask your advise, read your posts, receiving your newsletters, attending your programs… Thank you for doing what you do and being who you are!”

Emese S-C

“AM made me realize that you never know a city well without help. Having lived in Amsterdam since 2003,and speaking Dutch (I’m only Belgian – no exotic mama speaking), I thought I knew Amsterdam pretty well. But when my new and wonderful friend Lynne pointed me towards AM on Facebook, I realized I didn’t know Amsterdam at all from a mother’s point of view. I’ve been an avid fan ever since! Thank you, Team AM, for making it possible to get the best out of Amsterdam (and thanks, Lynne!)”

Emily G

“It’s my home-away-from-home (even though I am originally from here), a huge pool of resources and a great insight into Amsterdam (having lived there for 8 years but realizing I don’t know the city at all!) and motherhood.

AM is like a cellphone – HOW the hell did we get by before we had it??!!”

Olga G

“AM is the best support I have ever had in my entire life … I can feel a genuine warmth and care in all the responses I have received with whatever issues I have posted. I enjoy the newsletter and learnt so much about the city’s activities through it … I even worry what will I do when I go back to India as this huge group will not be there … I don’t feel lonely or lost in NL as a new parent after joining AM .. I’m addicted to it and reading the posts is a stress buster for me . Its an encyclopaedia you will always find right answers . I admire all the effort put in my the management and volunteers ..thanks for bringing such a positive experience in my life”

Anusha S

“It’s like a good cup of tea, always there when needed…”

Manda H

“AM is an amazing support system for those of us so far away from home and from our immediate family. someone there to give you advice, listen to your rant”

Veomani B

“AM is incredible! Absolutely treasure it! The funny anecdotes, the advice to all questions, and what moves me most …the generous support & help always offered to a parent in need. Thinking of copying the concept & setting it up in my own hometown.”

Barbara R-A

“This really has been a family away from home. A *great* family. When I joined this group a year ago I had no idea how much it would change my life. The group gave me all the information I could dream of. People have great responses with first hand experience. From top tips on the best tapas in town to emotional support and to more serious stuff such as rescuing from tough situations. In the darkest hours in the fall out of my relationship, some of these women, whom I never met at that time have been there for me. Ready at the waiting for anything I needed. I cannot tell you how much that has meant to me. It meant *everything*. I have a strong belief in community. That societies work best together. I never thought that I would be fortunate enough to be at the receiving end of such an amazing community. I cannot even begin to express my gratitude. I don’t know how I would have survived without you. Thank you so much to the amazing women (and men) out there that make this group what it is. Cheers to all of you and I hope it continues for a long time to come XXX”

Karen R

“Over a year ago, I joined Amsterdam Mamas as one of the out-of-towners. Thanks to Alodia S who spoke so highly of the group. AM’s sense of community is humanity in action, a celebration of diversity and respect for every other parent out there. I am honored to watch it grow, to participate in very intense discussions and to be made very welcome by the other members. Although I am Hague-based, the AM group is truly extraordinary with the banter, the support and the sincerity in every post. I occasionally drop by to catch up and it always feels like coming ‘home’ even if I only know a few of you in person. Do note you are one of the role models for Parenting and The Hague and I am glad to follow your trail. Hats off to AM and congratulations on your 3rd year!”

Rosanele G

“I am always amazed by how fast you get an answer on your post here and how useful those answers are! Even as a Dutch mother I get a lot of information from here. And my biggest personal accomplishment was having my birth story published on the AM website!”

Annebet vM

“We were here in Amsterdam for 7 years before I joined this group, but the friendship and support of this group has made it truly feel like home”

Claire M

“Any Q on AM, could be baby related or be a random question, and 19 people take the time to answer your post. Whereas we are all Mamas and time is scarce!”

Anon via FB

“Amsterdam Mamas is great though, most of all in an emotionally supportive way. I see us as a big, big net, thousands of us holding it round the edges, a new mama drops out of the sky, we all shout “CATCH!”

Anon via FB

“Yesterday I was 6 days overdue. I ordered a Village Card in the afternoon. In the evening, labour started, and 2,5 hours later I had a beautiful daughter. How quick is that for service?”

Florence B

“Congrats to AM!!!!! Wow I joined as a newly prego mama and from that day on AM has been my group friend/support network. It’s such a valuable resource for parents, a real community!! I have always been helped when in a pinch for milk, diaper recommendations, things to do, finding plumbers, schools, therapists….. you name it and we’ve got someone who can help! AM has great shoulders to cry on as well. Thank you for being a friend as individuals and as a group! Xoxo”

Li N

“What I value most is the knowledge that this group exists. If I ever have a doubt or a question I know that all I have to do is ask and tap into the collective wisdom of other experienced mamas. Sometimes even the thought of formulating the question is enough reassurance. Sometimes I have to remind myself to limit to 1 question per day. Thank you for being such a great support network. Thank you for being there when we need you.”

Ninna N

Thank you Mamas.  Everybody working on Amsterdam Mamas was really touched by your words. We love what we do and we are committed to building Amsterdam Mamas into a sustainable resource for the international parenting community here in the city.  Roll on year 4!

photo credit: Shereen M via photopin cc

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