Ruchita Dar Shah's Moms Club

First Moms Club is not a one-way ‘gyan’ giving platform, but one where every woman can voice her opinion

Ruchita Dar Shah grew up in Mumbai, went to Xavier’s and Sophia Polytechnic. In her previous avatar, she was an advertising professional, married to a banker. Two kids, three countries and four cities later, Ruchita finally found work-life balance as she began freelancing as a graphic designer. Around the same time, in 2010 she founded First Moms Club.

She started First Moms Club (FMC) to connect with my mommy friends. Facebook made it easy to share their experiences. “While we were different in many ways – be it our education, our career choices, where in the world we lived, the one thing common to all of us was that we were also grappling with this thing called motherhood and needed to reach out and figure it out together without worrying about being judged or being labelled not good enough,” she says.

Over the last 5 years, her friends invited their friends who then invited other like-minded women onto the group and slowly but surely (and despite screening and it being a closed group) FMC is now a 45K+ strong group (and growing).

FMC has been built and grown organically.

While most websites or platforms address only parenting concerns, FMC is completely dedicated to the woman behind the mother, who is often forgotten in this roller coaster journey called Motherhood. As against most parenting sites or expert pages, FMC is powered by the mommy members themselves.

It’s not a one-way ‘gyan’ giving platform, but one where every woman/mom can voice her opinion and bond over common issues. It’s almost like each mom has a megaphone in her hand and she is not afraid to voice her opinion on this platform. FMC members have to adhere to certain rules, so that the group continues to remain meaningful as it was in its early days and yet is a space for moms to hang out.

Many new initiatives online and offline are planned to keep the community growing strong each year. The mother is always at the heart of each initiative that FMC has planned or plans to do in the future.