Hello beautiful listeners, today we are chatting all things body image. We grew up in the noughties which was, quite frankly, a shit storm of body shaming, narrow media representation, and unchecked messaging that weight and image somehow related to our value. We reflect on the early experiences that influenced our body image and how we think about our bodies, the impossible social expectations and narratives we’re all existing within, and how our body image ebbed and flowed in pregnancy and postpartum. 

We also hear from you, our incredible listeners, as you share how body image and the social commentary around bodies has impacted you, plus the sage advice you’d give to your younger selves. We say this in the ep - but we have so much hope for our children's generation being raised by incredible people like you. 

TLDR: stop fricken commenting on our bodies and let us exist.

Some of the resources mentioned in this episode:

If anything has come up for you in this episode, please know immediate and longer term support is available to you:

This podcast was recorded on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri Wilam and Boon Wurrung/Bunurong peoples of the Kulin Nation.

Join our community on instagram ⁠⁠@growingupraisinguspodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to see photos of our weekly guests, behind the scenes moments, and keep up to date with episode releases.

In this episode, we're joined by Joelleen Winduss Paye (she/her), an IBCLC holistic lactation consultant, midwife, naturopath, educator and mother. Joelleen joined us on the podcast to share her journey into motherhood, and how her professional work as a midwife of 13+ years and holistic lactation consult has informed her own decisions around pregnancy, birth and postpartum care. 

Joelleen shares with us her two births - the birth and loss of her daughter at 16 weeks, followed by the birth of her son, Mali. Joellen reflects on how she prepared for and navigated pregnancy after loss, her reasons and desire to birth at home, and the birth story of Mali on a stormy night in late December. She talks us through the unexpected hospital transfer and NICU stay that followed his birth, her breastfeeding initiation and experience as a lactation consultant, and reflects on the first few months of life with Mali earthside. 

It was such an honour to speak with Joelleen, she has a beautiful way with words and weaves her professional tips, strategies and guidance into her personal story. You can connect with Joelleen here. 

Some of the resources mentioned in this episode:

Join our community on instagram ⁠⁠@growingupraisinguspodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to see photos of our weekly guests, behind the scenes moments, and keep up to date with episode releases.

This podcast was recorded on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri Wilam and Boon Wurrung/Bunurong peoples of the Kulin Nation.

In today’s episode, we are joined by the incredible Victoria Prince of Prince Dressed - a fashion stylist here in Melbourne / Naarm. Victoria actually interviewed us for a change! 

She took us through her styling questionnaire and we learnt SO much about our own personal style and our style inspiration. Victoria went through current style trends with us, shared so many tips on making your wardrobe work better for you, and really inspired us to have a bit more fun with our dressing. 

This is such a fun, light-hearted episode and we hope you love it as much as we loved recording it.

Join our community on instagram ⁠⁠@growingupraisinguspodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to see photos of our weekly guests, behind the scenes moments, and keep up to date with episode releases.

This podcast was recorded on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri Wilam and Boon Wurrung/Bunurong peoples of the Kulin Nation.

In today’s beautiful episode we are joined by Lilly Lowrey (she/her) @softcentre, a full spectrum birth and postpartum doula who lives on Bunurong Country in the South-Eastern region of Melbourne with her wife Bec (she/her), and their daughter, Minna. 

Lilly joins us to share her experience into motherhood and reflects on the first months of her daughter’s life earthside. She shares her journey conceiving, birthing and raising beautiful Minna, as well as her two miscarriages or early births that she experienced prior to Minna’s birth. Lilly describes her and Bec’s journey with reciprocal IVF as a queer family, her experience birthing Minna at home surrounded by love, and how she came to know that birth work was where she belongs. 

Lilly is so generous with her beautiful story, and we are so grateful she took the time to speak  with us. She shares her story with love and openness and an important reminder to lean into joy.

Lilly's website.

Lilly's instagram.

Join our community on instagram ⁠⁠@growingupraisinguspodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to see photos of our weekly guests, behind the scenes moments, and keep up to date with episode releases.

We acknowledge that sovereignty of the lands on which this podcast was recorded was never ceded and pay our respects to the original storytellers of this land. 

Hello beautiful listeners, today we have an episode very close to Emma’s heart - a father’s day interview with Em’s own dad, Michael. 

✨️✨️

This felt a bit selfish to record and put out there, to have this incredible memory and recording forever of speaking with my dad of his experience becoming a father and raising me, alongside my mum. 

Much of what I try to emulate in my parenting is from how he raised me - his calmness; his unwavering, unconditional love; his love of learning and self growth; his care and focus on family. He took a few years off work when I was little to look after me (to be a ‘house father’ as he calls it!) which was fairly uncommon at the time. He joins us to chat about this experience, his reflections and memories as a father, and how it's been watching me become a parent.

I really hope you enjoy this episode - and thank you, deeply, for supporting this podcast and enabling episodes like this to happen. We hope you had a wonderful day celebrating the fathers and father figures in your life.

This podcast was recorded on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri Wilam and Boon Wurrung/Bunurong peoples of the Kulin Nation. We acknowledge that sovereignty of the lands on which this podcast was recorded was never ceded and pay our respects to the original storytellers of this land. 

Join our community on instagram ⁠⁠@growingupraisinguspodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to see photos of our weekly guests, behind the scenes moments, and keep up to date with episode releases.

Hello beautiful listeners, today Chels and Em are chatting about all things weaning from breastfeeding. At the start of this episode, we are joined by the incredible Joelleen Winduss Paye - an IBCLC holistic lactation consultant (+ midwife, naturopath and educator) who shares her expert insights on the hormonal shifts and emotions that may accompany weaning. 

Chels and Em go on to discuss their own experiences weaning their toddlers, including their decisions to wean, what the experience was like for them both, and some of the unexpected things that came up - like breastfeeding aversion. Em weaned over a year ago, so she touches on the post weaning experience, while Chels shares her experience weaning more recently. 

We really hope this resource offers support and information for anyone out there who is thinking about weaning, going through the process, or has just weaned. For both of us, it was such an emotional transition and adjustment period that isn’t really spoken about. For however long you breastfeed, if you choose to or want to, whatever your feeding journey looks like - you are doing amazing and we are sending you love. 

This podcast was recorded on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri Wilam and Boon Wurrung/Bunurong peoples of the Kulin Nation.

Welcome to our next incredible ‘In Your Words’ episode, which is on the topic of co-parenting. In Your Words is a newer segment in which we hear directly from multiple parents about their experiences.

Prompted by a beautiful listener, we dedicated this episode to all things co-parenting and were blown away by the wisdom and generosity of the guests who shared their experiences with us, and who you’ll hear from today. 

We asked our four guests to share their own experience with co-parenting, thinking about what it looks like for themselves and their families, and any take-aways or lessons they had to share. This is a really positive episode and we hope you love listening to the insights and stories of our guests as much as we did. You will hear from:

✨️Naomi (she/her) a mama of 4 children and a special education teacher in the US. She describes her family as a  fun loving, full of laughter, on the go, beautiful, non traditional/coparenting family of 6.

✨️Ariadna (she/her), a mother who lives, most of the time, with her 2 daughters. She works at a university and co-parents with her ex-partner. 

✨️Sarah (she/her) a mother to 2 children who runs her own photography business around being a mum. She co-parents with her ex-husband and is originally from New Zealand.

✨️Emily (she/her) who is joined by her current partner, Matt (he/him). Together they shared what co-parenting looks like for their family. Em is mother to her son who she co-parents with her ex-husband. 

We are so grateful to everyone who reached out about this episode, and our incredible guests who joined us and shared a bit of their lives with us. It’s a real honour to us to be able to collate these stories and bring them to you. 

This podcast was recorded on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri Wilam and Boon Wurrung/Bunurong peoples of the Kulin Nation. We acknowledge that sovereignty of the lands on which this podcast was recorded was never ceded and pay our respects to the original storytellers of this land. 

Join our community on instagram ⁠⁠@growingupraisinguspodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to see photos of our weekly guests, behind the scenes moments, and keep up to date with episode releases.

Hello beautiful listeners, today we have a really important episode for you all about perinatal mental health in new parents and families. We are joined by the incredible Frances Bilbao, a clinical psychologist, founder of Mums Matters Psychology, and mother of three. 

Frances joins us to discuss:

We are so grateful to Frances for taking the time to sit down with us and share her expertise and insights. The perinatal period can be a very vulnerable time point in our lives, and include experiences that are often left unspoken. Frances created Mums Matter Psychology to provide affordable and accessible support for all women in the perinatal period, and help them to experience meaning and fulfilment in motherhood. They have more information, including resources and webinars, on their website. You can also find them on instagram at @mumsmatterpsychology.

Please know this episode discusses the topic of perinatal mental health in detail, including intrusive thoughts and what these thoughts may include. This episode mentions maternal suicide and infant death at the 3-6 minute mark (regarding statistics) and around the 58 minute mark (regarding resources). Please skip these sections if you need to, or leave this episode for another time. 

If anything has come up for you in this episode, please know immediate and longer term support is available to you:

This podcast was recorded on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri Wilam and Boon Wurrung/Bunurong peoples of the Kulin Nation. Every month, I Pay The Rent and so can you - click⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠to learn more. 

In this episode, Chels and Em are chatting about their approach to sharing their children online. We discuss our reasons behind not sharing them much online, digital identities, making intentional choices and the evolving nature of this new terrain we’re all navigating. 

We appreciate all parents make the best decisions for their families, and certainly are not saying we have the answers to what is a complex and new issue. We hope this episode opens up the discussion, and also sheds a little more light on how we have chosen to go about things on our own social media. 

Our recommendation this week:

Resources or links mentioned:

This podcast was recorded on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri Wilam and Boon Wurrung/Bunurong peoples of the Kulin Nation. Every month, I Pay The Rent and so can you - click⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠to learn more.

In this episode, we are joined by the incredible Caitlin (she/her), a naturopath, nutritionist and mother of two boys.  Caity’s first son, Rieder, is 10 years old, has a physical disability and is autistic. We hear about Caity’s story of his birth and her experience raising him and advocating for him over the years. Caity also shares the experience of her VBAC birth with her second son, Odin. 

Caity herself identifies as neurodivergent (AuDHD), and she shares with us her journey to finding this out, discusses her evolving identity as a woman and mother, and talks about some of the misconceptions that exist around disability and neurodiversity.

We absolutely loved this chat with Caity, she’s a natural storyteller and we hope you enjoy listening to her story. 

Resources on person first, values based language when speaking about people with disability

We recognise it’s most important to respect an individual with disability’s preference on the language they wish to use about themselves. 

You can find Caity's personal instagram @c.aity_

And her naturopath/nutritionist instagram @becbycaitlin

This podcast was recorded on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri Wilam and Boon Wurrung/Bunurong peoples of the Kulin Nation. Every month, I Pay The Rent and so can you - click⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠to learn more.