We asked Sacramento moms how you can help them in the pandemic. Here’s what they said

A mother’s work is never done and often goes unnoticed. That’s especially true during the pandemic where many California moms find themselves trying to hold down their jobs and keep up with the bills while protecting their children from contracting a contagious virus.

The stress shows in a new UC Davis study of low-income Latina moms living in Sacramento and Yolo counties. It found that 52% of them have made economic cutbacks to weather the pandemic, leading to higher levels of stress, depression and anxiety.

About 31.4% of the women who made economic cutbacks held off on buying clothes, 18.6% missed rent, 11.4% missed a car payment, 15.7% bought less food and 2.9% skipped meals.

Now might be a good time to ask the mothers in your life how you can help. Here’s what you can do to support them.

Help mom take a break

For Alexis Martinez, the hardest part of the pandemic so far has been becoming a first-time parent without the physical presence of her relatives. At first, she was looking forward to having baby shower with her friends and relatives. But the pandemic made gathering impossible.

It was difficult, the Sacramento resident, 25, said, “not even having family come over because they don’t want to be around a pregnant person during a pandemic and fear that they’re going to get us sick or the baby sick.”

Martinez recommends giving first-time moms a chance to take a break by offering to look after their little ones for a few hours if you can do it safely.

“I feel like that kind of allows moms, in general, to kind of get a break,” she said. “Even if it’s someone coming over to sit down and play with the baby while you can sit down and drink a cup of coffee or wash (the) dishes.”

Check in

To fight off feelings of isolation, Martinez also recommends relatives connecting with moms often through videoconferencing software like Facetime, Skype or Zoom.

Kids, pick up after yourselves

Silvia Alvarenga, who runs her own real estate brokerage in Sacramento, is often spread thin and said more help around the house would alleviate her stress levels brought on by the pandemic.

The single mom living in Sacramento said she would like to see household members help out with household chores like cleaning tasks and help care for her 86-year-old mother living at home.

Show them how to get financial support

As California mothers struggle financially amid the pandemic, they may qualify for social safety net programs and tax breaks.

Programs like CAlFresh, the state’s main food assistance program, and CalWORKs, a public cash assistance program, are available to eligible low-income mothers Additionally, households earning below $30,000 annually, can qualify for the California Earned Income Tax Credit and Young Child Tax Credit, which recently became available to Californians with Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers.

You can find information about state-provided benefits for families at benefitscal.org.