Dear VFN WhatsApp Group,
It’s been several years now since I joined this group, at which time I was just over halfway through my first pregnancy. Like many of us, I was far away from my family and friends. I felt thrust into an exceedingly complex and bewildering system and was overwhelmed by a language that seemed to mock my attempts at learning it. I was beginning to realise that maternity leave might turn out to be quite lonely and I was anxious that the most challenging moments I was certain to face would be without the support system on which I had always counted before life made other plans.