When Arifah Tahsin and her husband moved to Canada from Bangladesh in 2023, she was planning to find a job and establish herself in their new home country. But it was a tough transition.
“I was going through depression — the sudden change of life, I had no community here and I was all alone,” she said. Her husband would go to the office all day, so she was alone, and that further impacted her mental health. During this time, she also found out that she was pregnant.
Arifah’s pregnancy so soon after her arrival in Canada meant she wasn’t able to work to support her family as she had planned, and she felt guilty and anxious as a result.
It didn’t help that she hadn’t yet received a health card. “I was scared of the financial burden that would be on my husband if I got sick. How am I supposed to go to the doctor?” Luckily, Arifah was able to access the lower cost support of a midwife while she was pregnant, and her health card arrived just before her baby.
“For me, it was lifesaver, because I had to have a C-section at 36 weeks and my baby was born with low birth weight. He had to be in hospital in the neonatal intensive care unit for five days.”
Right after the birth, Arifah began experiencing post partum depression. “I felt as though I had failed as a mother,” she said. “My body failed. My body lacked all those things that my baby needed.”
Combined with sleep deprivation from a colicky baby and back pain from the epidural, Arifah was clearly struggling. Her mother came to assist before the baby’s birth but had to leave shortly after for a family emergency back in Bangladesh. That left Arifah feeling even more isolated and overwhelmed.
Her spouse is their sole income earner, and they couldn’t afford for him to take time off work to help. And, because she has no other support system, she wasn’t able to attend counselling appointments or support groups, which greatly affected her ability to recover physically, mentally and emotionally.
Then she heard about VHA Home HealthCare from a pc28Public Health nurse. VHA Home HealthCare (VHA) is a not-for-profit organization that provides quality care and support at home to people of all ages, including parents with limited supports and resources.
Arifah was referred VHA’s Connected Families: Parenting Support program —one of its Responsive Community Care programs—which is funded by the United Way Greater Toronto.
The program assists parents by providing emotional support, teaching parenting skills and connecting parents to broader community support.
VHA care providers offer understanding, friendship, skills and hands-on help in clients’ homes, allowing parents like Arifah to take positive steps toward rebuilding their well-being.
Within two weeks, Arifah was assigned a VHA Child and Family worker, Munira, who provides support to Arifah and her family for three hours each week.
Munira helps with whatever needs to be done, from preparing meals for the baby to folding laundry and sterilizing bottles — and she’s also there to listen. Arifah, in turn, can rest, cook, clean or run errands. She can also attend online counselling and support groups.
Arifah now has someone to talk to — someone who can answer questions about motherhood or navigating life in Canada. “My mental health is getting better,” she said, “and they have given me lots of information about how to get help from the community.”
For more information, visit or learn more about VHA’s Responsive Community Care programs at .
