The story discussed how one new Newcastle mother had wanted to get back into exercise after the birth of her child but felt stressed leaving her young baby. After finding Kangatraining, where the mother or father can exercise with their baby attached to them in a baby carrier, she felt much better mentally and physically.

But in a comment the mother, Rebecca Smaus, was basically admonished for 1) suggesting that it was good bonding time with her baby, and 2) because she felt stressed leaving her baby with the father of the child.

New parents, fathers included, are under enough stress as they attempt to navigate their way through parenthood. I don’t think they need any other reason to feel stressed about it. The comment stressed me so I can only imagine how the new mother felt upon reading it.

In the article, Rebecca said she felt guilty when she went out to exercise and left the baby with the father. Now, I am pretty sure she was not stressed for the fact that the baby was in the father’s care, as the comment suggested, but rather the fact that she was away from the baby and worried that the baby may be upset.

Now I know exactly how Rebecca felt because I felt exactly the same after the birth of all of our three children upon returning to exercise. But the stress was not for the fact that I was leaving them with my partner. I knew they were in good hands but sometimes the only way we could settle them was through breastfeeding, which he obviously could not do.

Only one of our three children would take a bottle if I did express and leave some milk, so in those first six months, especially with our first who seemed to want to feed all the time, it was a stress to leave the house for more than an hour.

On a positive note, I think it did make me a quicker runner. One year I did the City2Surf then, knowing I had to be back by lunchtime to feed our daughter, I ran the four kilometres back to the train station at Bondi Junction to get back to where we were staying as quick as I could.

So when I read the story of Rebecca Smaus finding Kangatraining I thought, ‘What a great idea.’

In my years of post-birth training, at times with my kids in tow, I often ended up holding them as I worked out.

A great point Rebecca also made was that through new mothers joining an exercise group they were also able to establish a social connection. Having connections as a new parent can have positive results in many ways for your overall health.

As I have said many times in this column before, I think as a community we should be working harder to support those around us as much as we can. And where the health and fitness of our community is concerned, why don’t we try to keep it positive, because the health of our region as a whole is struggling and we should be doing everything we can to help those around us.