Advertiser Foundation Blanket Appeal 2024: Inside The Village Co’s mission to help new mums
Former midwife Stephanie Malan’s relentless mission of love is changing thousands of new SA mums’ lives – and she needs your help.
SA Weekend
Don't miss out on the headlines from SA Weekend. Followed categories will be added to My News.
As the adage goes, it takes a village to raise a child. But what happens when the village isn’t there?
That’s the question mother of two, midwife and The Village Co. managing director Stephanie Malan asked after seeing a staggering number of women – heavily pregnant and about to give birth – walk into hospital with nothing more than a plastic bag, and then leave with a newborn and just a bus ticket.
As a bright-eyed 20-year-old, Malan started her first shift as a trained midwife in 2007, looking forward to the exhilarating rollercoaster of helping with childbirth.
Reality hit when she soon realised that, for many women, the experience was anything but joyful.
Malan has spent the past 17 years working at the Lyell McEwin Hospital and the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, seeing the desperate and alarming isolation many new mothers face.
Distressed by what she saw, Malan tried in her own small way to help ease the mental load of those first terrifying days for new mums without their own support networks.
“No one was picking them up. Some women were going home by themselves on the bus to absolutely nothing – no support,” she says.
“We would smuggle pads for these women from the hospital, because so many of them were leaving very quickly after having a baby and had no pads or nappies at home.”
Malan quickly realised that wasn’t enough. Having spent much of her 20s thinking about launching a wellness and day spa business, she gave birth to two children (Edward and Claire, now 12 and 9), and her profitable plan changed to an altruistic one.
“It really wasn’t until I had my own kids that, when I was fixated on thinking about how many singlets and nappies I had and packing my hospital bag, I really thought about all those mums who had nothing and were by themselves,” the now 37-year-old says.
“I realised that there were all these mums who were having to do this by themselves, without access or the financial means to purchase things as simple as clothes or formula.”
In 2018, alongside Nicole Doak, she co-founded and launched The Village Co., a not-for-profit organisation with the simple goal of providing vulnerable new mothers with the essentials they need after giving birth.
“There are other amazing services in our state that support mothers – and children in particular – but this is about closing that gap that exists for when these women are in hospital or going home from hospital, before those services start,” Malan says.
“I said to Nicole, ‘There are so many mums that need help … we could do that instead’.”
‘Welcoming babe’ bags for the right start
The Village Co. now provides women with a “Welcoming Babe” bagcontaining goods to help with critical short-term care for babies and new mums, including soap, shampoo, conditioner, nappies, clothes, wraps, nappy cream, underwear and breast pads.
Six years ago, armed only with a small chest of drawers at home filled with donated items, a close-knit group of friends and no prior corporate or not-for-profit experience, Malan ordered 100 bags ready to fill with the essentials for new mums.
She believed that number of bags would last her at least a year, maybe two. They were handed out within a matter of months.
“I had a chest of drawers in my house that was empty and I thought it was going to be the little Village Co. spot, where we could put donations,” Malan says.
“It filled up within a couple of months and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we’ve done it. Job done’.
“We had friends come over and help us pack bags. There was no system, it was just chaos and it was so slow. Those 20 bags took us about an hour. We ended up using all of those 100 bags in that first year and then some.”
Her infantry of friends soon became a charge of volunteers, both individual and corporate, with teams of men and women now helping pack and deliver the bags at the organisation’s warehouse at Welland.
But the desperate commitment to making change did not come without its challenges.
“It was so much harder than I ever thought it would be,” Malan says.
“There are so many components in terms of registration and making it legitimate that I had no idea about, so I had to learn really quickly.
“Because we were working directly with the government, we needed to make sure things were run to the book and we were following all of the policies to the letter.”
Sipping a coffee just a stone’s throw from the industrial site now regularly packed with volunteers for the organisation, it’s impossible not to be drawn in by the passion that escapes Malan when talking about The Village Co.
There’s no question of why she does what she does. Her smile is infectious – and so is her heartache. Every word is underscored with a palpable and furious desire to help others.
“I thought people’s experience of pregnancy and having a baby was far more joyful and exciting than what I actually saw it to be in the hospitals,” she says.
“It was just really confronting just how stressful, how sad, how lonely the experience was for so many mums.
“A lot of people have the belief that, because we’re in Adelaide and we’re in a really lucky country, we have amazing government services and financial support and this shouldn’t be happening.
“But that’s just not the reality.”
More than just a bag
Drop-off locations are spread across the city, with shopping lists on The Village Co.’s website and social media pages regularly updated with the things the organisation needs most to fill the bags.
Once filled, the bags are taken to public hospitals and community organisations across the state.
“The criteria is essentially women who are lacking support or might be isolated,” Malan says.
“The way we have created our structure is that midwives and social workers in each of the hospitals or community programs that we support get education and learn about our service, and what our criteria is for women who are eligible to receive a bag.
“They can then give the bag as they see fit; they then just have to fill out a form.
“We’ve found that a lot of women that are having babies aren’t wanting to ask for help because they’re scared of how that’s going to be perceived … people are really worried about losing their babies.
“So the mums don’t need to ask for it, which means that no one is leaving hospital now without those essentials.”
The contents of every Welcoming Babe bag are worth about $150, but it is hoped that, along with practical items, the gift offers a sense of dignity and self worth to those in challenging circumstances.
For many mums, it’s the only gift they’ve ever received. That’s why every bag is prepared not just with love and care, but with brand-new, high-quality products.
“We’re trying to send that message of self-worth,” Malan says. “If this is the only gift they’ve ever received, we want it to be beautiful.
“Some women didn’t even know the essentials they needed to be a new mum. If you don’t have a mother, an aunty or another figure in your life to teach you those things, you don’t know that you need pads, or about lactation.”
After a couple of years, Malan realised there was a need for more than basic necessities. She created the Mama Milk Kit, which contains a manual breast pump, storage bags, instructions and expert videos and breastfeeding advice.
“We respect anyone’s choice about whether they breastfeed or not, but we know that affording formula for many women is a huge concern,” Malan says.
“So we just want to provide whatever tools we can to support their breastfeeding if that is what they choose.
“One mum said to me, ‘Without that little pump, I would have had to give up feeding’. When we met her, her baby was 18 months old and still breastfeeding. For her to say that, without our support, she wouldn’t have been able to breastfeed and now has this beautiful bond with her baby, that’s so special.”
Last year, The Village Co. supported 1000 mums, and that number is expected to grow significantly. Since the start of 2024, the organisation has already provided 500 bags.
That figure, Malan says, hardly touches the sides of the desperate need in South Australia. She believes 4000 to 5000 vulnerable women give birth each year, with that figure likely to grow as the cost of living crisis continues to hurt the state’s households.
“While we are growing and working on being sustainable, we’ve got so much more work to do because we want to be able to reach all those mums and more,” Malan says.
“It’s not just mums that can’t afford things that are struggling. There are a lot of mums struggling with mental health or domestic violence, which don’t discriminate financially.”
“You are worth more than your situation”
The spectrum of mums helped by The Village Co. is broad, with a high number of the women who receive bags either having been in or currently in foster care, or experiencing homelessness or domestic abuse.
The organisation also helps mums who are teenagers, who are experiencing mental health issues, are refugees, are Indigenous, from rural areas or in emergency situations.
“We see a lot of women who have been in an abusive relationship and had to leave … they’ve left all of her belongings and have nothing left for them or their baby,” Malan says.
“We have a lot of women in motels across South Australia that we support. They’re trying to plan for their baby but the cost of living is so high that starting from scratch is impossible.
“We have a lot of women whose partners or ex-partners are incarcerated for abuse.”
Not all of the new mums are single. Many are in tough financial situations or have partners with disabilities, may struggle to work or find parenting challenging.
The Village Co. also provides Self Love care package bags to women who have lost babies or had their newborns removed by social services.
By the end of the year, Malan has ambitious plans to open The Village Co. Lounge, a one-stop shop providing a welcoming, safe space for new mothers to be supported in person.
She says there will be trained volunteers who will support the women “like an aunty, mother or grandparent”, make them a cuppa and “just sit with them and talk”.
“There will also be a store, which gives women the dignity to go and pick and choose the things that they need but with no charge,” Malan says.
“There will be a lactation consultant there and a breastfeeding cafe, which will provide assistance and facilitate an environment where they can come and learn.”
If there is one guiding ethos for The Village Co., it is that all support comes without judgment.
“We also get a lot of feedback along the lines of, ‘If a woman is using substances then they don’t deserve support’,” Malan says.
“But what we’re trying to understand is, what has this woman had to go through in her life that she has now ended up in this situation? Why does she not feel like she’s worth more?
“We want to change those women’s perceptions of themselves to know that they are worth more than those situations and there is more out there, no matter what your choices have been or what life has dealt you.”
After helping thousands of new SA mums, Malan believes that the key to breaking cycles of abuse and poverty lies in supporting all families, no matter where they have come from.
“We want to make sure the next generation is supported and has happy and healthy mums and parents,” she says.
“We want these women to know that you can start afresh and there will be people to support you, especially when you are bringing a new life into the world.”
More Coverage
The 89 secrets behind RecipeTin Eats’ meteoric rise
From accountant to food success story writing the biggest-selling book in Australia in 2023, Nagi Maehashi reveals the secrets of her success.
Newest addition to Peel St dining strip is a cocktail of success
A new Mexican eatery has muscled in on trendy CBD dining strip Peel St. As our reviewer finds, it is poised to set tongues wagging for more than its food offerings.