IRVINE : Mothers Get Together to Fight Blues

They had left sometimes grueling and sometimes glamorous jobs, these 70 or so women who gathered Thursday with strollers and bottles and babies to talk about their new lives.

The women, on a 3-mile trek around Woodbridge Lake, were part of a program for new mothers sponsored by Newport Beach’s Hoag Hospital. In part, it offered an opportunity for exercise. More important, it helped them beat the loneliness of staying home.

“You get isolated when you’re not with your working group of friends anymore and you’re home with your baby,” said Cindy Stechmeyer, 36, of Santa Ana Heights, a mother of a 2-month-old. “This is a good chance to get out and be with other adults and still spend time with your baby.”

As they pushed strollers around Woodbridge Lake, the women talked about shared problems, about teething and missing naps. Helen Galuppo, a nurse who set the pace during the trek, also organized the program.

“We felt it was important for nurses to be out here leading the group because so often the mothers have medical or personal concerns that they want to discuss,” Galuppo said. “We occasionally have speakers, such as doctors and physical therapists who come and present relevant topics.”

Most of the women “come for the support, more than the exercise,” she said. “They’re absolutely lost at home.”

Twelve-month-old twins Stacy and Patrick Morrisette sucked orange juice from bottles as their mother, Geri Morrisette, 32, of Irvine, pushed them around the lake. A little out of breath, at seven months pregnant, Morrisette said she comes here “because it’s a social gathering. It’s an excuse to do lunch, and we compare notes.”

Toting a 12-month-old in a backpack, Nancy Townsend, 34, of Irvine agreed: “This is a good place to make friends. When you quit work, it’s real stressful. But, you start talking to other moms on this walk, and you find out everyone is just like you. They had to go through making the same decision to stay home, and they have the same fears about being bored and becoming mindless.”

For Stechmeyer, the transition from working long days as a computer specialist to stay-at-home motherhood was difficult, she said.

“People ask me what I do all day, and I say, ‘I’m not sure but it consumes the whole day,’ ” she said. “I fight the challenge of asking myself if I’ve done anything beneficial all day. I want to be home with my baby, but I still need stimulation. Here I run into other sales reps in computers, so I can still talk business at times.”

Catherine Ellis, 34, of Huntington Beach said she “was a hard-core career woman.” She was a fashion model in New York when she quit to have a baby. In addition to moving away from her friends and work, she left behind her family on the East Coast.

“It’s scary bringing up a baby when you don’t have any family or support nearby,” she said.

The walks begin at 9:30 a.m. every Thursday at the Hoag Health Center, 4870 Barranca Parkway.

“It’s just good to know other mothers are also going through hell,” said Susan Sipple, 26, of Irvine. “And that someone else has been up all night.”