Why oPPal
Why peer support matters
“Peer support normalizes postpartum through shared experience rather than through expert reassurance. Littles can expect their Big to serve as a witness outside of their inner circle. The people closest to a new mom are usually too invested in her being ‘OK’ to hear the hard stuff without flinching—a Big isn’t. She’s been there, she’s not going to be alarmed, and she’s living proof that you come out the other side, which matters enormously when postpartum time feels permanent.”
Dr. Sanam Shamtobi
Founder & Lead Clinical Psychologist, The Mother Hood LA · oPPal Constellation expert
What makes oPPal different
1:1 Matching
Every match is thoughtful, personal, and designed around shared experience.
Trained Big oPPals
Bigs complete oPPal’s Starmap training before being matched.
Real Connection
No fixing. No judgment. Just a mom who’s been there too.
What it feels like to have a Big oPPal
What it feels like to be a Big oPPal
The goal isn’t more answers. It’s connection.
Support isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about helping moms feel seen, supported, and connected enough to trust themselves.
That’s what Big oPPals do so beautifully. They don’t tell Littles where to go. They help guide them to the place they were always going to get to on their own.
Because every family is different. Every mother is different. And every mom deserves the space to find her own way.
The motivation behind oPPal
How our founder Melanie’s experience inspired the birth of oPPal
After the birth of her first daughter in 2022, Melanie experienced postpartum depression and anxiety — something she hadn't expected, even having worked through mental health challenges earlier in her life. At four months postpartum, things reached a crisis point that required her to temporarily separate from her family to recover.
Through recovery work that centered on self-care, community, and consistent support, Melanie emerged with a radically different experience of her second postpartum period following her daughter Jade's birth in 2025.
That contrast — from isolation and crisis to connection and confidence — became her mission. oPPal was born from the belief that no mother should navigate postpartum alone, and that the best person to support a new mom is another mom who has been there.
Melanie Kaplan
Founder, oPPal