WITHOUT other new parents around, the initial post-birth months can be very isolating. At a time when a good support network is critical, opportunities to meet new people are often scarce.

Thanks to apps and social media however, mums can say farewell to days spent on the sofa with no adult conversation and hello to new friends with whom to share the highs and lows of parenting.

After her caesarian section, Vicky Leigh couldn’t drive for six weeks. By then, she was desperate to get out of the house. “The rush of visitors died down, and I didn’t have friends with young babies, only older children or none at all,” she says. “That’s when I saw an ad for Mush on Facebook.”

Dubbed ‘Tinder for mums’, Mush is a smartphone app that lets mums search other mums by location, interests and their children’s ages. Peanut is a lesser known app that sees users swipe through a seemingly endless stream of photos, but since Mush lists mums in order of distance it’s much easier to find mums close by.

Vicky moved to Hedge End from Winchester in January shortly before giving birth to her daughter Helena. When she spotted someone on Mush listed as being ‘0 miles away’, she thought there must be a glitch.

“It turns out Karen lives on the same street as me,” says Vicky. “I’m sure I would have bumped into her eventually, but whether I’d have stopped and spoken to her is another matter.”

“When you’re using the app, you know everyone’s on there to meet people,” says Karen Stevens, whose daughter Isabelle was just five weeks old when she started using Mush. “It’s like the ice is already broken; much less intimidating than walking up to someone random in the street.”

Vicky and Karen are part of a group of 11 mums who all met via the app or the Facebook group Hedge End Mums. They stay in touch via a group chat on Facebook, where they talk all things baby-related and arrange weekly meet-ups in parks and cafes, like Hedge End’s new tearoom Kettle & Cake.

Amy Davies, mum to 16-week-old Piper, meets up with at least one friend she met through Mush every day.

“It’s great to meet people who are going through the same thing as me, with the long days and sleepless nights,” she says. “I can call someone up at a moment’s notice and say, ‘Are you free?’ or text them in the middle of the night for that feeling of solidarity.”

Kaylee Nyberg was still pregnant with her daughter, Layla, when she found the app. “Mush saved me when I was on the brink of depression. With my partner working more than 40 hours a week, it dawned on me that being stuck at home with no adult conversation was going to be very lonesome. Discovering Mush has made motherhood enjoyable.”

It was through talking to local mums that Vicky and Kaylee found the inspiration to set up their new baby group, Craft ’N’ Crawl, at the Hedge End Youth and Community Centre: “We felt there was a lack of activities for parents with babies and toddlers in the area, so we decided to do something about it,” she says.

Amy sees the potential for long-term friendships with her ‘mum army’. “I first went on Mush to pass the time while I’m on maternity leave, but if our kids go to the same schools and grow up together we could be friends for life,” she says.

Of course, meeting up with anyone you find online carries a risk, which didn’t escape Vicky’s husband. “He couldn’t believe I was taking our daughter to meet a total stranger! But as long as I met people in a public place and told people where I was going, I felt safe.”