freemom, conversations for modern mothers

I don't know about you, but even as we’ve started adjusting to a life post-pandemic, a lot still feels off. As parents, there is an extra layer of worry we have to contend with, both for our physical health as well as what’s happening inside the minds of our families. The big question that seems so hard to answer is: Are kids going to be ok after all of this?

The truth is, some might not be. We don’t yet know what the long-term mental health effects of the pandemic will be, but the short-term outcomes hit hard. According to CDC data, mental-health-related visits to the E.R. by people aged 12 to 27 were more than 30% higher in 2020 than in 2019. In the early days of the lockdown, hospitals saw a 24% increase in mental-health-related emergency visits for children aged five to 11, and a 31% increase for those aged 12 to 17. Add to this the rising pressures from social media, body image acceptance, and a news cycle teeming with doom and we can’t help but wonder how young people can come out of this unscathed. 

Joining us on the show today is Julie Cipes, a Licensed Clinical Therapist who works with kids aged 6-19 that are suffering from mental health in a way that’s impacting their day-to-day. Parents come to Julie when they see their children struggling with relationships, self-efficacy, and overall daily functioning, which is a bigger chunk of the kid population than any of us want to see right now. From anxiety to depression, social skills to self-esteem, Julie’s work with young people is more valuable to the world right now than it probably has ever been, and we all need to take some notes.

From mental health and managing relationships to raising changemakers and advocating for support, freemom is a podcast dedicated to ensuring that every mom feels heard. You can find us on the gram at @freemomcast or on the web at www.freemomcast.com. You can also support the show and help fund production with a sweet little five-dollar donation right here. Thanks for listening!

From mental health and managing relationships to raising changemakers and advocating for support, freemom is a podcast dedicated to ensuring that every mom feels heard. You can find us on the gram at @freemomcast or on the web at www.freemomcast.com. You can also support the show and help fund production with a sweet little five-dollar donation right here. Thanks for listening!

I started freemom because I wanted to create a platform that gave women a chance to explore the big issues facing mothers today. I don’t think there is an issue bigger than the hijacking of our reproductive rights, right here and right now. 

So what can we do about it? 

Donate to the ACLU or the Center for Reproductive Rights or your local Planned Parenthood. If you don’t have the money, donate your time. If you don’t have that either, put a sign in your yard or a post on your Instagram feed. There are so many ways to get behind the people fighting for this cause. Energy alone goes a long way.

Call, email, and write to your local legislators - especially if you’re in one of half of the United States that would either ban abortion or limit access to the procedure if Roe v. Wade is overturned. If you live in a pro-choice state, say thank you to the people who are fighting for your neighbors and friends. 

Hit the streets. If you’re in a city, join a rally. If you aren’t, start your own. If a rally isn’t your thing, find a way to make your voice heard your way.  Your local mom group or school is a great place to start brainstorming. 

Every single person in this country should have the ability to decide their own future, make their own decisions, and put themselves and their health first. If we can’t teach our children these basic principles, who will? 

We will be back next week with another great conversation for you, but until then, if you’re here, you’re a freemom - and that is the only way it should ever be. 

From mental health and managing relationships to raising changemakers and advocating for support, freemom is a podcast dedicated to ensuring that every mom feels heard. You can find us on the gram at @freemomcast or on the web at www.freemomcast.com. You can also support the show and help fund production with a sweet little five-dollar donation right here. Thanks for listening!

During the pandemic, women here in the United States lost more than five million jobs. Now, of course, many people faced layoffs and have since been re-employed but those who are back to “business as usual” are mostly men. Women became the ones to quit their careers in order to care for their families while schools and daycares around the country shuttered, and many haven’t been able to return.

The pandemic uncovered a pretty heinous underbelly of our government and systemic structure. It turns out that women are expected to do it all with very little support and the value that we place on working people all but disintegrates if it’s not wrapped up in a revenue-producing bow. Which leads me to wonder, what kind of world do we live in if the people who are bearing and raising the next generation of changemakers don’t really count? 

Here on the show with us today is Angela Garbes, author of the brand-new book Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change.  Essential Labor is one of those books that activate your brain in ways you never thought possible, bringing to light a multitude of social injustices faced by mothers and caregivers and especially those of color. Angela asks so many questions about how we value the most essential role on the planet and how much different our society and our culture would be if we supported people in roles of caregiving. 

From mental health and managing relationships to raising changemakers and advocating for support, freemom is a podcast dedicated to ensuring that every mom feels heard. You can find us on the gram at @freemomcast or on the web at www.freemomcast.com. You can also support the show and help fund production with a sweet little five-dollar donation right here. Thanks for listening!

Being a parent today is more difficult and stressful than it has ever been. We have so many more external factors influencing how we bring up our children and a lot less help. But of all the unchartered territory we have had to navigate over the past few years, none was more challenging for parents than life without school. For over a year, we lost the foundation that we take for granted and our kids paid the price. 

Depending on where you are in the country, education is probably pretty close to “normal” now with the lift in mask mandates and children being back in classrooms full time. But what did that year at home, in isolation, learning from a screen, do to our kids? Are there long-term effects that we should be worried about? And the biggest question right now is, can it happen again?

Joining me on this show is Anya Kamenetz, lead education correspondent for NPR. Anya is passionate about education and technology and we are super excited about her new book, The Stolen Year, How COVID Changed Children's Lives, and Where We Go Now which comes out in the summer of 2022. Anya has written several books including, The Art of Screen Time, which is a must-read for any parent who worries about how much is too much for both themselves and their young ones.

From mental health and managing relationships to raising changemakers and advocating for support, freemom is a podcast dedicated to ensuring that every mom feels heard. You can find us on the gram at @freemomcast or on the web at www.freemomcast.com. You can also support the show and help fund production with a sweet little five-dollar donation right here. Thanks for listening!

I don’t know about you, but the journey through motherhood often has me dreaming up business ideas and solutions to the everyday issues that make being a parent so gosh darn hard. From gadgets that I wish existed to support solutions that I’ve spent late-night hours scrolling the internet for, I have more than once found myself wondering, “why doesn’t that exist yet?”

I am in awe of the mamas who feel the same way and actually do something about it. It’s incredible that there are women who take on a problem and create a solution while juggling kids and an existing career. They are real-life superheroes and I am excited to introduce you to one here today. 

Amanda Gorman was a mom like most of us. With two young ones, she struggled with breastfeeding and felt constantly frustrated by the non-existent support she received from her pediatrician. They say “breast is best” but what if it doesn’t come as easy as we’re led to believe it should? Was there no one else other than Doctor Google to offer help? 

Now I should mention that Amanda was at the time a Board-Certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, so she found herself in a unique situation where the system that she was a part of was letting her down. Why couldn't women have on-call support - a lactation specialist who would be there to guide them through the impossible nights and exhaustive days of early motherhood? Where was that resource?

Amanda is one of those women who couldn’t ignore the problem and had to create a solution, even without any business experience. Her company, Nest Collaborative, is now a network of International Board-Certified Lactation Consultants who conduct online, video appointments to help guide moms through the breastfeeding process all over the country and around the world. When moms need breastfeeding support, the help is only a Zoom call away and it’s almost always covered by insurance.

From mental health and managing relationships to raising changemakers and advocating for support, freemom is a podcast dedicated to ensuring that every mom feels heard. You can find us on the gram at @freemomcast or on the web at www.freemomcast.com. You can also support the show and help fund production with a sweet little five-dollar donation right here. Thanks for listening!

Very early on in my first pregnancy, I was struck by how confusing it was to have a child. I felt like a number to my healthcare providers, which, let’s be honest, was no fault of their own having to see anywhere from 20 to 30 pregnant women in a day. It seemed like everything from prenatal vitamins to preparing for labor and delivery was a bit “churn and burn” and that any deviation from the norm was a hassle. Now I was a lucky one. I was able to have a magical doula by my side which completely changed the game for me, but I realize that many women out there don’t even know these birth angels exist. Fast forward to my six-week postpartum visit, a tick of approval that my bits were in order, whatever that means to a woman with a “this many days old” baby, and I couldn't help but think, what the heck is going on here? 

In more countries around the world than I can count, post-partum care means that a midwife comes to your home for checks and to make sure that you, the mom, are doing ok. I had more time with a doctor after a carpal tunnel surgery than I did after giving a human life. So what gives? And more importantly, what should we as moms be doing after that six-week visit to take care of ourselves if our broken system won’t do it for us? Let’s find out. 

For this week’s episode, I am thrilled to be joined by Dr. Carissa Halas (Hal-ass) Fioritto, a Naturopathic Physician with Connecticut-based Collaborative Natural Health Partners. Carissa is a mom and she’s also a doctor for moms, working with women who suffer from burnout, stress, digestive disorders, and all the mental and physical aches and pains that come with being a parent. As a naturopathic physician, Carissa helps patients get more energy, sleep better, and tackle everyday mom-related health issues using customized using targeted nutrients, herbal therapies, and IV therapy. 

*Please note that the content on this podcast should not be taken as medical advice and is for informational purposes only. Please consult your healthcare professional for questions regarding your personal circumstances and care.

From mental health and managing relationships to raising changemakers and advocating for support, freemom is a podcast dedicated to ensuring that every mom feels heard. You can find us on the gram at @freemomcast or on the web at www.freemomcast.com. You can also support the show and help fund production with a sweet little five-dollar donation right here. Thanks for listening!

Hello There Mamas, my name is Chelsea and I am very excited to introduce freemom to the podcastiverse. We are so grateful to have you on this ride with us. 

freemom was created for moms who want more. More time, more balance, more opportunities, more wellbeing, more than just being a mom. Whether you’re balancing work and kid-life or you’ve ditched a corporate career to raise your little ones full time, we are here creating a community that goes beyond the cheeky memes and salty social media posts. We want to talk about what matters to mothers and how we can all advocate for change. 

This podcast is not chit-chat about pop culture and poop color. From mental health issues to paid maternity leave, money matters to building a business, we are laser-focused on the modern mama who finds a way to balance it all but shouldn’t have to. Best of all is that we are bringing some seriously brilliant and inspirational folks right into your ears in easy 30-minute episodes that you can listen to during your daily commute or stroller stroll. 

If you’ve made it this far, you might be wondering who the heck am I? I am a mom of two little humans and a wife to one big one. We occupy a quiet corner of Connecticut but before living here, I called Brooklyn, Sydney, and Los Angeles home. Prior to becoming a mom, I was a marketer and a publicist, but I’ve always been a storyteller, and that’s what truly excites me about this podcast. 

As mothers, we become very good at putting ourselves last. As women, we are natural-born caretakers, but once children enter the picture, it gets easier to lose ourselves. The needs of those around us become seemingly greater than our own and we lose some of the fortitude reserved for OUR fight. Maybe that is why the system has let us down in such an epic fashion. 

The past few years have pushed moms past the breaking point, but in doing that, it has also empowered us to start pushing back. Rising from the ashes are women who are standing up, asking questions, and demanding more. Taking on the pay gap. Pushing for paid leave. Reimagining education for our kids. Fighting for our health and wellbeing. 

So that’s freemom, my friends. Conversations with people who are on fire, inspired, and want to create better opportunities for OUR generation as well as the next one. 

So strap yourself in mama because this is going to be a ride and we’re thrilled that you’re with us for it. 

From mental health and managing relationships to raising changemakers and advocating for support, freemom is a podcast dedicated to ensuring that every mom feels heard. You can find us on the gram at @freemomcast or on the web at www.freemomcast.com. You can also support the show and help fund production with a sweet little five-dollar donation right here. Thanks for listening!