Me Becoming Mom

Designer, podcaster and former star of MTV’s “The Hills” Whitney Port has been open about suffering multiple pregnancy losses, and on the season finale of Me Becoming Mom, she sits down with host Zoë Ruderman to give an emotional update on where she is on her journey to have another child. The mother-of-one gets real about every step of the process and explains how she’s coping along with her husband Timmy and 4-year-old son. There’s no topic off-limits in this episode that covers everything from miscarriage to marriage to mom guilt. We also hear Sonny’s sweet birth story – from the surprise of finding out “It’s a boy!” to having 15 loved ones in the hospital waiting room to share in the joy.

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Hemorrhoids. Vaginal tears. Bloody nipples. Adult diapers. It’s all a totally normal part of giving birth. Actress and model Brooklyn Decker is happy to talk about it all as she sits down with host Zoë Ruderman to discuss her unique road to motherhood and everything she encountered – good and bad – along the way. The "Grace and Frankie" star also reveals (in amazing detail) what her recovery was like and admits that she made her close friend examine her “down there” after childbirth so she could get an honest report. The mother of two also tells us about the homemade care packages that she started sending new moms which led her to invest in Bodily, a company making all-in-one postpartum kits.

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TV personality, columnist and "Bad Republican" author Meghan McCain has made a career out of sharing her thoughts. Though usually political, she gets incredibly personal about her own life with host Zoë Ruderman on this episode of Me Becoming Mom, describing her "much rockier, much more complicated" road to motherhood in detail. The former "View" co-host opens up about the trauma of suffering a miscarriage in the public eye, being pregnant during the pandemic, enduring a long labor that resulted in an emergency c-section and postpartum preeclampsia that left her in the hospital for a week after giving birth to her daughter Liberty. Despite going through one of the darkest times in her life, Meghan reveals how she's healed both physically and emotionally, how her baby has made her feel more connected to her family including her late father Senator John McCain and the perspective she's gained in her new role as a parent. Then, we hear from listeners about the advice they would give their pre-pregnancy selves knowing everything they know now.

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Actress Jamie-Lynn Sigler always wanted to be a mom. But a multiple sclerosis diagnosis left her wondering whether she could manage parenting along with a chronic illness. The mother of two tells host Zoë Ruderman how MS affected her pregnancies and taught her how to surrender and accept what she couldn’t control. In fact, her first-born son Beau inspired her to publicly reveal the disease she had been hiding for years. The 'Sopranos' alum also opens up about her unique delivery room experiences that were more like a "party," surrounded by best friends and complete with music. We then unpack the ultimate birthing playlist, designed to help alleviate the difficulties of labor.

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Olympic sprinter Allyson Felix was prepared to have a low-intervention childbirth when, at 32 weeks, she was diagnosed with severe preeclampsia. The 7-time gold medalist was rushed to the hospital, where she experienced what she calls “the scariest two days of my life” culminating in an emergency c-section. Felix takes host Zoë Ruderman through her journey, including why she hid her pregnancy from her sponsor and continued to compete while pregnant, how her brother wondered if he was coming to see his niece be born or his sister pass away, what it was like to be separated from daughter Camryn immediately after surgery and their harrowing two-month NICU stay which also meant they’d spend Christmas in the hospital. The athlete also talks about her new partnership with Anthem to help spread the message of how our environment and circumstances impact our health.

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“Top Chef” host, writer and activist Padma Lakshmi spent most of her adult life trying not to get pregnant. But then she was diagnosed with severe endometriosis that, according to her doctor, would make it nearly impossible for her to have a baby naturally. Years later, and much to Padma’s surprise, she became pregnant with her daughter Krishna. But Padma’s pregnancy was far from easy. She had placenta previa, a serious condition that led to her being on bedrest for the entire third trimester, and she was forced to deal with international attention about who the father was. On this episode of Me Becoming Mom, Padma opens up to host Zoë Ruderman about it all — and of course we talk pregnancy cravings!

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In 2018, Sen. Tammy Duckworth became the first senator to give birth while in office. She has become one of the most prominent voices for moms on Capitol Hill, shining a spotlight on issues like paid leave after pregnancy loss and childbirth issues facing mothers who are veterans. After losing both her legs in the Iraq War, Sen. Duckworth’s plan to start a family was delayed by her extensive recovery. In this episode of Me Becoming Mom, the mother of two shares with host Zoë Ruderman her experience of becoming a mom late in life, IVF that required four years of four shots a day, working through her own pregnancy loss, and why she believes it’s “inhumane” to not give women time off after a miscarriage.

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Like many women, fitness expert and Instagram star Emily Skye had a detailed birth plan going into her second delivery. But not all births go according to plan. On this episode of Me Becoming Mom, Skye describes (in amazing detail) to host Zoë Ruderman what it was like to unexpectedly give birth to her son Izaac at home, with no doctor, on a playmat, with her older daughter Mia climbing on her. The influencer also shares how her relationship with her body changed after childbirth and explains that she’s thankful for her “saggy tummy.” Then, we speak to midwives Sarah McClure and Charli Zarosinski about planned home births and how that experience differs from a hospital delivery.

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Within 72 hours, fitness expert and TV star Jillian Michaels became a mom twice over. While her then-partner was delivering their son Phoenix, she received the call that it was finally time to pick up her daughter Lukensia from an orphanage in Haiti. In this episode, Michaels tells host Zoë Ruderman about her years-long wait to adopt and how the gift of U.S. citizenship factored into her decision to adopt internationally. She also describes the pain of visiting then having to say goodbye to her daughter in Haiti multiple times before getting to take her home, why her daughter smacked her in the face when she finally came to pick her up, and why she didn’t come out publicly until after her adoption process was complete. Then, we speak to Rhonda Roorda, an expert on trans-racial adoption and ‘This Is Us’ consultant.

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Talk show host and journalist Tamron Hall gave birth at 48 years old, after years of struggling. She sits down with host Zoë Ruderman to share her long, expensive, and sometimes painful IVF journey, one that was filled with many injections by many loved ones in many strange places (airplanes! Ubers! hotels!). Tamron tells us why she named her son Moses (and not Bob), why she cried at first when she found out she was having a boy, and why she kept her pregnancy private for 32 weeks. Then we hear from real moms on what NOT to say to a friend going through fertility struggles.

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