Motherhood

Most parents have their sights set on baby's arrival, but postpartum presents its own challenges. As a postpartum doula I can help with many of these, but not all of them. I like to be upfront with my clients and let them know what my scope of expertise is, and if my skills can’t tick all their boxes, assist them in connecting with the right provider to address their unique concerns.

I began writing this document some time ago. It provides a list of, and links to, the types of services and prof…

This article was first published elsewhere in September 2023. 

Did you know that as well as my individual services, I also have a low cost online membership? It's hosted here on my own website and app, and includes a community forum where you can ask me and the collective brains' trust your questions, regular social, co-working and circle-style zoom calls, private blogs and an archive of some of my previous courses and resources. Feel free to check it out here.

How often have you as a Defa…

This article was first published elsewhere in September 2023. At the time I was using a user-pays subscription newsletter service, which quickly morphed into just another social media platform with many of the same pitfalls as advertiser-pays social media models. I have now left this platform too and started a low cost membership hosted here on my own website and app, which includes online community forum where you can ask me and the collective brains' trust your questions, regular social, co-wo…

This article was first published elsewhere in August 2023.

What do you say when someone asks what it’s like having kids? I say “kids” purposefully because this is how the question is often raised with me, partly because I now have two children which makes “kids” the plural relevant, and partly because one child families are still treated as an unfortunate aberration rather than a valid family structure.

I’ve found those asking the question aren’t much interested in my analysis of sociolingui…

This article was first published elsewhere in June 2023.

There was a time in the distant pre-kids past when I was a gym junkie. With an exercise science degree under my belt, this was fraught with danger. Every time I stepped through the doors of a gym I was met with a wave of unqualified people giving their only slightly less experienced training buddies the shittest of shit advice, barely-teenage personal trainers cluelessly writing pelvic floor destructor programs for postnatal mot…

This article was first published elsewhere in June 2023.

What makes a Default Parent? Hint: it’s not your body parts.

Default Parents are the ones whose own lives are intertwined with their child(ren)’s to such depth it is impossible to prise them apart.

They are the ones who, if out for lunch on a weekend, are asked who’s looking after the kids.

They are the ones who know if their children’s school fees, vaccinations and dental checks …

This article was first published elsewhere in June 2023.

No matter how big or small, every business owner sometimes gets the urge to throw it all into the bin and get a “normal” job. While this happens only occasionally for me, I recently had the unsettling revelation that this option isn’t available to me right now. Not because of some virtuous reason of “serving families” or “doing my life’s work” but, depressingly, because my kids and I are sick too often for me to hold down a…

This month’s topic on the Anna Asks podcast is “Queering Motherhood” and my guest is Melbourne-based doula Rafferty Hallows (they/them).

We recorded this episode with an unsettled four month old (me) and from a car due to nearby construction noise (Raff).

Both of us feel it’s important to share the messiness of motherhood, so the editing is a bit rougher on this one. There are places where I just couldn’t find a segue thank…

This article was first published elsewhere in May 2023.

Have you ever walked into a home and been smacked in the face by the smell of milky baby? I have. Over and again at friends’ and clients’ houses, I have opened the door to their early postpartum world and been whacked fair in the nostrils by the sweet smell of baby love. And yet, I can not smell it in my own.

We know smell is such an important sense for our babies. Baby’s first exposure to smell is that of their amniot…

We now know it's important to be on the lookout for signs of postnatal depression, anxiety and even psychosis in the early days, but what happens if a mother experiences a mental health crisis further down the track?

In this episode of the Anna Asks podcast, Emmeline Tyler (she/her) shares openly about her birth and blissful postpartum, and how these assisted in helping her be well. She explains how personal and societal factors influenced the unravelling of her mental health during the toddler…