Healing the Tigress: An AAPI Maternal Mental Health Podcast

*Special Thanks to our sound engineer Dr. Tony Huynh, PharmD for helping us edit this episode and introducing us to Dr. Jenny Kim*

*Trigger Warning: This episode discusses infant loss.*

We had the honor of interviewing our guest today on Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day last month (October 15) to hold space for her story and loss. Dr. Jenny Kim, PharmD, BCPPS is a Chinese American board-certified pediatric pharmacy specialist who has worked in the NICU, PICU, and CVICU for almost 10 years in places like Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford, Boston Children's Hospital, and UCSF Benioff Children's in Oakland. 

On today's episode, Jenny shares with us in poignant detail the tragic accident and story of losing her son Joey Tate Kim right around 7 months old in 2022. We also talk about:

• What it was like being on the patient side of things after having worked in pediatric critical care for so long
• What the stages of grief looked like for her and how they evolved over time
• How Jenny processed Joey's loss with her two older sons
• The complicated emotions and decision around trying to conceive again after losing Joey and being blessed with twin girls
• How Jenny is supporting other parents now on their grief journeys and the customizable children's book she's written to honor angel babies

This episode is deeply raw and vulnerable, and we thank Jenny for bravely sharing her story and feelings to help others feel less alone if they are also going through infant loss or any sort of loss journey. We also love the work she is doing to honor lost babies and creating a beautiful keepsake in remembrance of others' angel babies. Please check out her work if you're looking to support a loss mama and also see ways to connect with Jenny below:

• Instagram: 
  @whatjoeytaughtme for my grief space
  @grieversandfriends for updates on support items for grievers and friends
• Book Website: https://www.grieversandfriends.com/
  This is a platform to customize children’s grief storybooks to nurture grief conversations through the lens of living with grief while carrying grief forward with memory, care, and love. The first book, Look To The Sky, just launched on Joey’s 3rd Angelversary on July 23rd.

Send us your thoughts!

Support the show

✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

We had the great pleasure of talking with Kriti Lodha in today's episode about her postpartum story that surrounds the highly stigmatized and misunderstood topic of postpartum psychosis, which can affect 1 to 2 in 1000 women. While Kriti didn't have noticeable risk factors for postpartum psychosis, her experience with being a first-time pandemic mom while also grappling with the postpartum mental health emergency has profoundly affected and shaped her motherhood journey and career path going forward.

Kriti is a South Asian mom who was born and raised in Luxembourg, Europe and moved to the U.S. when she was 11 years old. Kriti is a seasoned marketing and technology executive with a track record of building and scaling multi-million-dollar businesses, brands, and teams across the SaaS and CPG industries, including Toast and Procter & Gamble. Today, Kriti proudly serves as Executive Advisor at the Center for Women’s Mental Health at Mass General Hospital, on the Board of Directors at Postpartum Support International, as well as a peer support group leader for fellow psychosis survivors. 

In this episode, we talk about Kriti's story, thoughts on breastfeeding and societal pressures, how being South Asian played a role in her journey, and why she now chooses to pursue work that advocates for maternal mental health. We also pointedly talk about why it is important not to "rarify" postpartum psychosis and see it only as the sensationalized version portrayed in the media. Because while postpartum psychosis is a medical emergency, it is often not the sensationalized version and also highly treatable so families need to be equipped with the tools to recognize symptoms and know how to take action.

We loved this discussion with Kriti and we are excited that she is now working on marrying her lived experience and professional expertise to design new models of care that expand access to specialized treatment for families navigating severe perinatal mental health challenges!

Find More of Kriti:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kritilodha/

Resources Mentioned:

• Dr. Ruta Nonac's blog on breastfeeding/mental health 
• More than Blue documentary - this is where folks can check out trailer, sign up to host screenings, etc. 
• Postpartum Psychosis (PPP) Get Help Page from PSI- one stop shop that includes discussion tool, support groups, etc. 
• So Glad You Asked Podcast (Available anywhere you get podcasts too!)

Send us your thoughts!

Support the show

✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

This month's bonus content is an immersive, grounding and meditative sound bath provided by none other than our Season 1 guest, Katrina dela Cruz. 

(We highly recommend enjoying this sound bath with headphones on! Otherwise, normal speakers is fine as well.)

Katrina dela Cruz is a licensed mental health professional (LCSW), psychotherapist, spiritual coach, counselor, and the mother of two Spirit babies. She worked with patients in hospitals for over a decade, including in care for maternal mental health on OB/GYN and L&D units, before beginning her private practice, where she integrates Western psychological theory with energy work, sound healing, plant spiritism, and ancestral healing traditions.

Katrina shared her story of womb loss in Season 1, Episode 5 and continues to support folks through grief and loss in both her psychotherapy practice and spiritual coaching. 

She has rebranded her practice and can now be found on Instagram at @anguyobhealingarts

Send us your thoughts!

✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

We've had several guests on the podcast talk about postpartum depression, but fewer have notably admitted or recognized depression during pregnancy too. In today's episode, our guest Serein Wu shares about how she was worried about postpartum depression with her mental health history going into motherhood, but she did not expect to have prenatal depression while she was pregnant too.

Serein goes into depth sharing her story about the complicated emotions of losing her mother, who she shared a very close relationship with, before becoming a mother herself. Then when she thought she was ready to conceive, the pandemic had started closing in on the world and Serein suddenly found herself even further isolated from loved ones while navigating pregnancy without her mom and/or community. In the episode, we dive deeper into:

• Maternal health care during the pandemic
• Serein's traumatic birth with PUPPP (Pruritic Urticarial Papules and Plaques of Pregnancy), pre-eclampsia, and an emergency C-section
• Prenatal depression, postpartum depression, and ways to heal--including Serein's thoughts on how she wished she had tried medication in hindsight
• The shame of not bonding with your baby right away and recognizing that not everyone has that instantaneous connection
• Serein's work of moving through the grief of not having her mom with her through her motherhood journey and finding pieces of her mom in her life now
• Deciding whether or not to have a second child while also considering her partner's experience in this parenthood journey

Serein Wu is a Taiwanese/Chinese American mother, a certified nutritionist through Precision Nutrition, and a Lagree Level 2 certified fitness instructor. She has dedicated her career to helping people improve their overall well-being and has had 10 years of experience creating digital content on her YouTube channel, her blog, and more.

Find more of Serein:
Instagram: @sereinwu
TikTok: @sereinwu
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MoreSereinWu

We want to say a sincere thank you to Serein for being so vulnerable and open about your motherhood experience and loss, and we hope her story might help someone else out there who is also going through any similar stories. 

Send us your thoughts!

Support the show

✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

In today's episode, we sit down with Shivani Berry, CEO and Founder of Career Mama, to talk about the raw realities of balancing career and motherhood. Shivani is a Harvard MBA, a LinkedIn Top Voice in Leadership, and has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Nasdaq. But more importantly, she is a mom of two who has lived through burnout, identity shifts and even a near-death experience just days after giving birth to her second child.

Shivani shares candidly about the identity shift that came with becoming a mother, the burnout she faced during her second pregnancy, and the life-changing perspective she gained after her postpartum health crisis. We explore how cultural expectations as a first-generation Indian-American shaped her motherhood journey, why supportive partnerships matter in sharing the mental load, and what ambitious moms need most to thrive both at work and at home.

If you're a new mom or even a seasoned mom who has wondered what it means to "do it all," Shivani's story reminds us that leadership and motherhood are not about perfection, but about presence, intention, and creating space for support. This is not just for the career mamas out there, but for any mama wondering if they have to choose between career and motherhood.

Find more of Shivani:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shivaniberry/
Website: https://careermama.com/

Send us your thoughts!

Support the show

✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

Peggy and Jasmine are back for a third season of Healing the Tigress! This opening episode goes over a few updates and recaps, and we also answer some listener questions that we collected from you guys!

One of the biggest updates over the summer is that we've switched to Buzzsprout Subscriptions! This is a way that you can give us a little more support if you resonate with our mission to continue to destigmatize mental health and open up more conversations in this space for AAPI parents. We go over how to sign up if you're interested and once you're subscribed, we'll have bonus episodes available for you to listen! (We even tease our next bonus episode coming up VERY soon!)

As always, we appreciate if you can drop us a rating or review and if you follow the show! These steps can help boost our show visibility in searches and that's what we really hope to accomplish so an AAPI mom struggling with her perinatal mental health can find the stories she may need to feel seen and find the resources to heal.

Please follow along, share the show, catch us on IG, and we'll be back really soon with our first bonus episode and guest of the season! Thank you for all your support; we couldn't do this without all of YOU amazing listeners!

Send us your thoughts!

Support the show

✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

We started off Season 2 announcing that Peggy had decided to leave her health tech job to go back into practicing therapy, specifically as a perinatal mental health therapist after getting her PMH-C! There was a learning curve in starting her own private practice, but it didn't take too long for Peggy to fill her schedule.

We thought it might be helpful to share some of her learnings with those who might also be considering a path of starting their own practice or even in general considering pursuing working for themselves, so this episode will go into Peggy's journey and experience over the past year. 

We talk about:

• Why she decided to go back into practicing therapy
• What were the first things to set up and third parties to consider
• Pros and cons of accepting insurance
• Considering working for a group practice
• Benefits of extra certifications, like PMH-C
• How she was able to get client referrals organically
• The transition from working for corporate to working for herself
• What the turnover of clients is like
• Reflections and learnings on the journey

Hope this episode helps someone out there with their journey or provides some insight on the process!

**Thank you for supporting us if you are listening to this Subscriber Only episode!** We are not here to make a profit, but it does really help to get some support to keep this show running. So from the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU again for that!

Send us your thoughts!

✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

**Thank you for supporting us if you are listening to this Subscriber Only episode!** We are not here to make a profit, but it does really help to get some support to keep this show running. So from the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU again for that!

After pursuing and passing the PMH-C (Perinatal Mental Health Certification), both Healing the Tigress co-hosts Peggy and Jasmine decided it would be a great idea to provide some high-level information and their unique experiences on what to expect when preparing for it, especially since they did two different trainings that qualify for the certification. This original episode was recorded at the very end of 2024.

Since we know life can get busy, we thought this audio would be an easy way to listen to some of the ins and outs of the PMH-C while pooling together our experience. This episode goes in depth about everything from how to apply, what the criteria are, and ways to study (without revealing details about the test content itself!). If you are interested in pursuing your PMH-C, this would be a great resource for you, as well as a supplement to Jasmine's newsletter about her experience preparing for the PMH-C.

What you will get with this episode:

1. What is the PMH-C?
2. Who can get PMH-C?
3. What are the qualifications for getting a PMH-C?
4. What are the steps to getting the PMH-C?
5. Personal experience and difference between the 3-day training vs. the 8 week training
6. How we studied and a review of the new Blueprint
7. Our personal reviews of the exam
8. What are the costs of the exam and training?
9. How to get listed on the PSI provider directory and get clients
10. Other helpful tips

Disclaimer: We are not affiliated with Postpartum Support International (PSI), but Jasmine has volunteered and worked with PSI and Peggy is listed in the PSI provider directory. This is our individual experiences and background research. Jasmine got her PMH-C at the end of 2023; Peggy got her PMH-C in the middle of 2024. We both passed on the first try. Good luck!

Send us your thoughts!

✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

**Thank you for supporting us if you are listening to this Subscriber Only episode!** We are not here to make a profit, but it does really help to get some support to keep this show running. So from the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU again for that!

This episode originally aired to our Patreon subscribers last year, but as we sunset Patreon, we're going to slowly release those Patreon episodes here within Buzzsprout Subscriptions and continue producing new bonus episodes for subscribers to listen to. (Disclaimer: Jasmine's audio was a little weird this day, and we apologize that the sound quality is not up to our usual standards! It will be better going forward!)

In this episode, Jasmine and Peggy chat about what is known as the "mental load of motherhood" and how this has evolved over time for them from being moms to babies to now being moms to school-age children. We talk about how our generation has a different mental load than our parents' generation also because we have more access to social comparison at our fingertips or even how some of these stressors are uniquely American.

We chat about kids in extracurriculars, what we've learned about communicating with our partners in parenthood to split the caretaking and household work, how moms just "worry better," and even a Bluey episode that resonates! It's all raw and unfiltered conversation, so you'll hear how we typically chat with each other. 

Let us know if there's more topics you'd like to hear about in the future!

Referenced in the episode:
Jasmine's Newsletter on Productivity and Boundaries in Motherhood
Bluey Episode Faceytalk Season 3 Ep 24
Healing the Tigress Episode 7 with KJ Althoff (@gentlehealingmom)

Send us your thoughts!

✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

On our final episode of the season, we were thrilled to interview another AAPI mom duo, who host a podcast named "Not a Tiger Mom Podcast." We have been wanting to bring on AAPI moms who identify as neurodivergent or are raising neurodivergent children, and both of these moms identify as neurodivergent themselves AND are raising autistic children AND work with neurodivergent children in their careers (behavioral analyst and speech therapist)!

Jenny Lai, MA, BCBA and Bettina Lopez-Lam, MS, CCC-SLP, IBCLC, are the amazing duo behind Not a Tiger Mom Podcast. Jenny is Chinese-Cambodian American, and Bettina is Filipino American and they met on Instagram in 2023 through their shared experiences of raising autistic sons. Bettina is a late-diagnosed autistic and ADHD (AuDHD) individual, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and birth trauma, and has navigated postpartum depression and anxiety. Jenny is self-diagnosed with ADHD, identifies with highly sensitive person (HSP) traits, and has a clinical history of anxiety and depression.

In 2024, they launched the Not a Tiger Mom Podcast, where they speak candidly about their lives as neurodivergent AAPI mothers raising autistic children. Through heartfelt and relatable conversations, they aim to break cultural stigma and encourage others in the community to find connection, healing, and acceptance. 

On our podcast episode today, we discuss:

• The journey of how Jenny and Bettina discovered they were neurodivergent themselves (both found out later in life)
• How being neurodivergent may have impacted Jenny and Bettina's postpartum experience
• The experience of getting autism diagnoses for their kids and how it affected their mental healths
• The importance of using neurodivergent-affirming language 
• How being AAPI adds another layer to being neurodivergent and raising neurodivergent children
• The importance of having neurodivergent-identifying providers such as Jenny and Bettina in the space of support for neurodivergent kids
• The controversy behind traditional ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) therapy versus neuro-affirming ABA therapy.
• Addressing the harmful comments and misrepresentation of the autistic community

We encourage those who want to learn more about Jenny and Bettina's journeys to check out their pages and podcast!

Find more of Jenny and Bettina:

• Not a Tiger Mom Podcast
• Jenny's Instagram: @msjennybx
• Bettina's Instagram: @beeingaudhd
• NATM Instagram: @notatigermompodcast

Note: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. If you need more support or advice, please reach out to your own medical professional who can answer your questions with your individual medical history and background in context.

Please take a moment to RATE and REVIEW our show if you enjoy the episodes we bring to you! It helps others to find our show when you do. Thanks so much! =)

Send us your thoughts!

Support the show

✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)