When Eb Beresford was pregnant with her second child, she found herself sitting alone at a playground hoping to meet new parents.
She had started a social media page and called for mums in her local area to meet up.
But no-one came.
"I was 25 weeks pregnant, already full of emotions, and I remember sitting there crying and I was just like, 'No-one's coming'."
She tried again, but still nobody came, so before her third attempt she contacted people who had followed her posts online and touched base with them individually.
"So many people had come back and said that they were so shy to come along," Ms Beresford said.
"But by building these relationships … all of a sudden up to 20 started coming to these groups."
Mums on the move
Some 18 months on, Ms Beresford organises multiple parenting catch-ups every week in her home town of Bunbury, in Western Australia's south west.
Hundreds of people now follow her Bunbury Mums Movement page and her meet-ups can attract up to 40 mums, dads, and occasionally grandparents.
She said the play dates have helped her through life as a mother of two.
"I had the worst postpartum depression [after my first] and was so down," Ms Beresford said.
"That was, selfishly, why I made the group.
"I wanted to have something to come back to after my daughter was born."
Finding your village
Traditional mothers' groups are organised by child health nurses in WA.
But Ms Beresford said not everyone, including herself, had found the connection useful.
"You just sort of felt quite judged," she said.
"It just wasn't quite as natural as I think this is."
Busselton child health nurse Janine Page said, while they offered support and guidance during the official mothers' groups, building connections was the key.
"Sometimes in a mothers' group, it doesn't work for everybody," she said.
"That's when we offer them a second group with their second baby.
"It's just about building a village and helping people to have support around them … wherever people can build connections."
New mum, new friends
A year ago, Imogen Sinclair saw one of Ms Beresford's social media posts and summoned the courage to attend with her 10-week-old son, William.
"I have a fly-in-fly-out partner, so I was feeling quite alone," she said.
"I was a bit nervous but once I arrived, all the other mums were really welcoming and really lovely."
Ms Sinclair has been attending regular meet-ups since and has made a close group of friends with three other first-time mums, including Bella Brickwood.
Ms Brickwood said the friendships had helped her through some difficult times after the birth of her daughter, Lola.
"With the first six months of Lola's life, I didn't really leave the house. I was quite depressed," she said.
"And once I started going, it just disappeared, basically."
Ms Sinclair said any support made parenting a child that much easier.
"Parenting is scary," she said.
"It's really good to be able to talk about how you feel and what you're going through with other parents … so you're not feeling so abnormal about it all."
