Mothers in Mallorca – there are some groups in our community that have been more affected by the pandemic than the average people. Imagine having your first baby in 2020. There were no pregnancy group classes open at all, so you got no chance to meet others in the same situation, and once the baby was here, how did you find and socialise with other mums that recently had babies? This week I meet with Anna who found a solution that has turned out to work very well for her.
Anna Jacobsson is Swedish and has lived in Mallorca for a couple of years. She is an adventurer that has worked and lived around the world for the past 20 years, ticking off amazing places like Hong Kong, Israel, South Africa and Thailand. She even had a stopover in Rwanda with the gorillas during her travels. Before moving to Majorca, Anna and her partner bought a 13m Hans Christian Ketch boat in Malaysia. They restored it themselves in the shipyard in Langkawi and Phuket before sailing the Thai and Malay waters and finally adventured out on a challenging and mind-blowing circumnavigation of Sumatra. When they finally anchored back outside Langkawi, they decided it was time to settle down, at least for a while. Sweden was too cold and UK, where her partner is from, was not an option, yet. “Since my partner Sam is a marine engineer and we both needed to live close to the ocean, mountains, and sun - Mallorca was a perfect option. We have lots of friends in the yachting community and there is never a shortage of people coming and going through this island, which makes us very happy and content. Friends and family have a huge importance to us. My grandparents also moved to Almunecar , Spain, back in the days, so I grew up spending dreamlike holidays under the Spanish sun - eating Chirimoyas and letting the sound of cicada’s putting me to sleep. It all felt natural to come back and living under the Spanish sun”, says Anna.
She was 9 months pregnant when the Balearics went into lockdown and it was quite a scary and unpredicted time for her. While pregnant, they were not sure how it would all play out in the hospital and they constantly got told that partners were not allowed into the delivery room. For Anna, it was a crucial time to keep active, keep walking and keep a clear and positive mind for the final stage of her pregnancy - which was impossible.
Anna need more support “I realised that I had no idea what I was doing and did not know where and how to find all information I needed to go through pregnancy, birth, and motherhood. With family support too far away, I felt a bit lost and alone and thought it must be a way to find likeminded women on the same path as me. The first mamas that since beginning have been the backbones of this Baby B(r)unch group, I met at a pregnancy circle, long before lock down organised by doula An, and yoga class I attended in the beginning of the pregnancy. From there we have added friends of friends and random mamas who reached out, needing some support in these crazy times.”
“The unconditional support and joy from our WhatsApp Mama group is the best that has happened to me in 2020. We are 40 odd strong women from more than 10 different countries, we have two things in common, English language and we all had a baby during the pandemic year. We have first time moms, to mothers of 4, super hero single moms to traditional family moms. We have created a sanctuary where we can openly be ourselves, get support and create a new modern family, in times where we’ve all sadly been isolated from our nearest and dearest and in times when we all have new-borns who should be able to meet and cuddle their beloved grandparents and close family. I am so proud to call each one of these strong mamas my friend and each one has been such an inspiration to me and helped me become a better mom to my baby daughter Alba.”