Building a Village Where Mothers Are Held: Amanda Potter’s Health & Wellbeing Journey

For many women we survive the hardest seasons of life. Others return from them carrying a map — determined to guide someone else home. Amanda Potter is one of those women.

Named the 2026 JSP Women’s Awards Health and Wellbeing Warrior, Amanda is the Founder of The Held Project, a registered perinatal mental health charity based in Mackay that has quietly but powerfully changed what support looks like for mothers navigating pregnancy and early motherhood. Grounded in lived experience, compassion and community connection, Amanda’s work reminds women of a truth too often forgotten: no one should do motherhood alone.

“I went through a long journey with perinatal depression, anxiety and psychosis with both of my girls,” Amanda shares. “I spent two months cumulatively in a mother–baby psychiatric unit with my first, and three days under an ITO pregnant with my second.” When she emerged from that darkness, one thought remained constant. “All I could think of was how I could help other mothers who were going through the same thing. That’s what led to me birthing The Held Project.”

What began as a deeply personal response to pain has grown into a vital support network spanning from Sarina to Seaforth. Through peer‑led home visits, playgroups, events and essential item deliveries, The Held Project supported 160 women in the past year alone, offering connection during some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives. Volunteers — all with lived experience of perinatal mental health challenges — arrive with a coffee of a mum’s choice, a carefully curated goodie bag, and most importantly, time. Time to sit. Time to listen. Time to let a mother speak without judgement.

“We come with coffee, a goodie bag, and just offer to stay and chat about mental health,” Amanda explains. “Sometimes that’s all someone needs — to be seen and heard.”

For Amanda, empowerment means transformation. “Empowerment to me is taking a really awful situation and turning it into something beautiful,” she says. “Perinatal mental health disorders robbed me of my joy with my girls in what should have been a beautiful time. I’ve now turned that into something empowering — helping other women in the same situation.”

That belief lives at the centre of The Held Project’s ethos. Alongside emotional support, volunteers provide resources connecting mothers to professional perinatal services, often staying to help make that first phone call. Self‑care items — from body products to essential oils — are included not as luxuries, but as gentle prompts for survival. “If one of our body scrubs gets a mum into the shower that day, that’s a huge step,” Amanda says. “Every mother understands the power of a good shower in the thick of motherhood.”

Beyond the charity, Amanda’s personal load is heavy — and she carries it with remarkable honesty. She works as an Assistant in Nursing, is studying a Bachelor of Nursing Science full-time, raises two young children (one with a disability), manages family life, advocacy, and volunteer coordination — all while living with Autism (Level 2), ADHD and schizophrenia.

“My own mental health has been the biggest challenge,” she shares.

“I’m incredibly time poor, and my mental health has taken a blow multiple times on this journey.” She speaks candidly about misunderstanding and criticism, including hurtful social media commentary in the early days of The Held Project.

“But I’m a super mum — and I’m not afraid to admit it,” she says. “I wear many hats, but the passion for what I do helps me pull through.”

Health and wellbeing are not side considerations in Amanda’s life — they are foundational. “My mental health takes priority over everything,” she explains. “If I’m unwell, I can’t look after my family or my charity — and I encourage other women to do the same.” This philosophy guides every visit, every resource, every conversation The Held Project facilitates.

Amanda’s work has not gone unnoticed within the community. She speaks of a volunteer team built on connection and shared understanding — almost 20 women united by the belief that pain can be repurposed into purpose. Messages arrive daily: thank-yous after visits, and later, offers to donate or volunteer. “We’re a household name in the motherhood community now,” she says. “We’re often the first people tagged when a mum is reaching out for mental health help.”

When asked what she would say to her younger self, Amanda’s answer reflects both grief and hope. “Your mental health struggles may feel like the worst thing in the world now,” she says, “but one day you’re going to turn this into something life‑changing.”

As the 2026 Health and Wellbeing Warrior, Amanda hopes to inspire future generations of women to speak earlier, connect deeper, and build villages that endure. “Women of the world, we only have each other,” she says. “Let’s make a village that lasts for all generations — so we don’t just survive motherhood but thrive.”

In a world that still expects mothers to cope quietly, Amanda Potter stands as proof that strength can look soft, support can look like a coffee, and wellbeing begins when someone says, you don’t have to do this alone.