Marin is fortunate to be fruitful grounds for more than 1,000 nonprofits aimed at helping people.
Most often, they grow from someone who sees a pressing need and starts a small program to help others.
For Ivana Jagodic, founder and executive director of Postpartum Support Center, her focus on helping new mothers was the result of needs she faced after the birth of her second daughter.
She was dealing with symptoms of postpartum depression and facing it alone. The support she longed for, her family, was back home in Bosnia, her native land.
“I just felt like everything I did was a failure, like I couldn’t do anything right, like I was drowning,” Jagodic told our reporter.
That’s not an unusual anxiety faced by new mothers, but Jagodic felt she was alone. When she sought medical help, she was told by her health care provider she had to wait weeks for an appointment. It felt like “an eternity,” she said.
She joined a Facebook group and found that she was far from alone in facing this mental health challenge. Some, Jagodic said, are too ashamed or embarrassed to say anything about their problems.
Jagodic saw the need and created a place for new mothers to get a much-needed helping hand – for free. It is intended as a boost to help new mothers and their children get off to a better start.
Jagodic started the center in 2019. It included a diaper bank, distributing diapers to families in need. One of the center’s programs is ROSE, an acronym for reach out, stay strong, and essentials for new mothers.
Today, the center is in its new headquarters at 4162 Redwood Highway, just north of the Manuel Freitas Parkway interchange.
It serves about 500 families per month and provides pre- and post-natal support. First 5 Marin gave the center a $95,000 grant to help it with its move into its new headquarters.
The nonprofit’s board of directors and advisory board is comprised of broad-based expertise, including medical, social work, community service and finance.
The center is a place where mothers can find help, someone who has shared their experiences and can hold a new mother’s hand, providing guidance and advice.
It is not there to replace professional therapy and psychiatric help, but to provide support and experienced help in dealing with their new role, new symptoms they are feeling – from so-called “baby blues” to longer-lasting postpartum depression.
In some cases, the center’s staff and programs are there to provide help and support before the mothers can get appointments for medical help.
It is also a hub for mom-to-mom support.
Jagodic saw an important problem – one that she herself experienced – and did something about it. The new center is a reflection of the community’s support for meeting that need and the center’s success in providing that help.
