Gauri Prasad has lived in Snoqualmie for a few years, but when she had her daughter nine months ago, she says her needs for community shifted.

“Once you become a parent, I feel like your need or desire for community grows a little just because you want to find other people that have that shared experience,” she said.

In an effort to connect with other moms, she took to the internet and discovered The Mom Walk Collective, a California-based organization that has chapters in more than 350 cities around the world. Prasad initially hesitated on starting her own group until she attended a mom walk in Bellevue.

“I was honestly kind of surprised by the other moms that I met there and how I was able to relate to them,” she said. “While I loved it … you want to meet people nearby instead of making a drive 30 minutes. So I was like, what does it take to start one in Snoqualmie?”

Prasad applied to be a Mom Walk Collective ambassador and is officially the host of the Snoqualmie chapter. Her inaugural mom walk is May 9 and her next event, on May 23, will be for the whole family. There will be at least two Snoqualmie walks a month going forward.

All mom walks are open to kids — strollers and baby carriers are very welcome. And as Prasad said, it’s important for kids to have community, too.

“Especially at that young age, depending on if they’re at daycare or they’re just at home, I feel like kids also need that sense of connection and friendship,” she said. “My daughter’s only nine months old. I can see when she’s around other people, she just kind of lights up and she’s so happy and she loves being outside.”

Being outside is good for a child’s mental health, Prasad said, and for a mom’s mental health, too. May is maternal mental health awareness month, and The Mom Walk Collective is hosting Mile-A-Day for May, a campaign where moms document their mile walk each day of the month for a chance to win a resort stay.

Along with the Snoqualmie and Fall City Mom Walk chapters, Washington has chapters in Bellevue, Bremerton, Tacoma, Ellensburg, Wenatchee and more.

In Fall City, Gretchen Rohrbaugh started her chapter recently as well, with her first walk on May 1. Rohrbaugh, a registered nurse and certified lactation consultant, is also the owner of The Clutch, a Fall City business that provides birthing classes, lactation services and other programming for moms and moms-to-be.

“We do cohorts for pregnant families that kind of build community,” she said. “It’s been so cool because I had my first cohort, and a few weeks ago all the babies were born, and now they come back for walks and for yoga and they know each other.”

As someone who works with new mothers and is a mother herself, Rohrbaugh said she knows how lonely postpartum can be.

“That’s when all the attention, and at least the medical care, really drops off, and people are stuck at home with their babies and nap-trapped,” she said. “It’s such a beautiful time, but it’s also a hard time.”

While online communities can be a good resource, both Rohrbaugh and Prasad agree that in-person community goes a long way.

“You have to slow down and go back to the basics of actually having a conversation with somebody and sharing something and just enjoying being outside,” Rohrbaugh said. “I think there’s definitely an aspect of, in the postpartum phase, even if you don’t have clinical depression, just that isolation.”

Rohrbaugh said moms in all stages (grandmas, too) are invited to mom walks. Rohrbaugh’s children are older now, but she said another benefit of the walks is holding the babies so moms can have a break.

“There’s just something so beautiful to share the experience of having other people admiring your baby, and having your baby meet other babies,” she said. “There’s so many layers. There’s no comparison to connection in-person versus online.”

• Check it out: Visit @themomwalkco.fallcity and @themomwalkco.snoqualmie on Instagram for walk dates and more information.