mongomock - preserve mock mongodb collections across unit tests with pytest

Question

I am using mongomock to mock MongoDB collections in unit tests, which are built around pytest. I usually have to create a mock database and collection and then perform the assertions for every single test like this:

import mongomock
import pymongo

@mongomock.patch(servers=(("server.com", 27017),))
def test_func1():
   # create mock collection
   docs = [{"Name": John}, {"Name": "Jack"}]
   mock_client = pymongo.MongoClient("server.com")
   mock_client.db.collection.insert_many(docs)
   
   # perform assertions as required for func1

@mongomock.patch(servers=(("server.com", 27017),))
def test_func2():
   # create mock collection
   docs = [{"Name": John}, {"Name": "Jack"}]
   mock_client = pymongo.MongoClient("server.com")
   mock_client.db.collection.insert_many(docs)

   # perform assertions as required for func2

The above works fine, but I would like to have to avoid creating a mock database for every unit test. I have tried to create an helper function that creates the mock database and returns the mock client, but when I call that function within an unit test, the mock databases do not persist. How can I make the mock database to persist across tests?