Infertility, pregnancy loss, infant and maternal mortality----none of these are topics that we enjoy talking about, but the number of women and families affected by these obstacles is astounding. For African-American women, there is a stigma attached to these issues, and the compounding problem of their voices not being heard.Today’s show addresses these topics and more in honor of October being Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month.

Erica McAfee is the founder of Sisters in Loss, LLC, a faith-based grief and pregnancy loss coaching company that helps black women turn their pain into purpose after loss.

Sisters in Loss provides consulting and coaching services to help women step beyond anxiety and fear into trust and peace after loss. The Sisters In Loss goal through courses, retreats, and conferences is to help women minimize regrets, maximize memories, and manage their path forward after loss. Their self-titled podcast spotlights faith-filled black women who share miscarriage, infant loss, and infertility stories and testimonies to heal, gain clarity and peace, find hope, and become victorious after loss. Launched in August 2017, the podcast has a community of 5000+ Sisters in Loss.

Erica is a Grief and Pregnancy Loss coach, pastor’s wife, and Mom to two angels in heaven and one rainbow baby, Maxwell, also known as Super Mighty Max. She is an alumnus of Virginia Commonwealth University where she earned a BS degree in Chemical Engineering.

Show Highlights:

Resources:

Find Erica and Sisters in Loss:

www.ericammcafee.com

www.ericammcafee.com/podcast

www.sistersinloss.com

www.instagram.com/ericammcafee

www.facebook.com/ericammcafee’

https://www.ericammcafee.com/summit Find out about Erica’s free healing and prayer summit, Oct. 15-19

Therapy for Black Girls, a podcast by Dr. Joy Harden Bradford

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We all know that the path to parenthood can look very different than we dreamily imagine. Sometimes it’s a tough and traumatic experience that leaves us stunned. It’s when our personal struggles motivate us to bring about change that we use our experiences to help others. That’s exactly what today’s guest has done. 

Fawn McCool, LCSW, is based in Portland, Oregon with Aiyana Counseling. She holds certification in Interpersonal Neurobiology through Portland State University and MamaCare certificate through Shoshana Center. She is the creator of Interpersonal Neurobiology of Perinatal Mood Disorders and Birth Trauma, an online training for professionals that explores the impact and practices of attachment and bonding, including development and interventions for families affected by perinatal mood and anxiety disorders and birth trauma.

She offers clinical therapeutic services through Aiyana Counseling and also sits on the board of NICU Familes Northwest, as well as volunteers with Baby Blues Connection. She is the mother of two girls, the oldest of which was born prematurely at 29 weeks. After 8 weeks in a southern California NICU, Fawn vowed that she would work tirelessly to change the mental health outcomes for NICU parents nationwide through advocacy and education. In today’s episode, Fawn discusses her experiences as a parent in the NICU and the work she’s doing to support families in their NICU experiences.

We are discussing the common stressors in having a child in the NICU and what it’s like to spend time there and then take that baby home. Fawn also shares about the strength and resilience she sees from parents with their NICU experiences and how we can better support children and parents through their time in NICU.

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Resources:

www.fawnmccool.com Find out about Fawn’s work and her online class

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We all know that the challenges of new motherhood can be many--and overwhelming. If you are an HSP (highly sensitive person), then those challenges may be magnified---and you probably aren’t focusing on any self-care. This topic resonates deeply with me and intrigues me in the way the trait interacts with motherhood and its challenges.

Julie Bjelland is an LMFT, an HSP psychotherapist, and the author of Brain Training for the Highly Sensitive Person: Techniques to Reduce Anxiety and Overwhelming Emotions. Julie’s mission is to help sensitive people reduce the challenges and increase the positives.Through her website specializing in highly sensitive people (the trait also known as Sensory Processing Sensitivity), she offers many valuable resources for both HSP’s and parents of sensitive children. Julie has a mission to spread awareness and education about the trait of high sensitivity and believes the world needs the gifts of sensitive people.

Show Highlights:

Resources:

 Brain Training for the Highly Sensitive Person: Techniques to Reduce Anxiety and Overwhelming Emotions.by Julie Bjelland

The Highly Sensitive Child by Dr. Elaine Aron

 Self-Compassion by Kristin Neff

www.juliebjelland.com

Find Julie on Facebook: The Highly Sensitive Person

Instagram: hsp psychotherapist

Twitter: @juliebjelland

LinkedIn: highly-sensitive-juliebjelland

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Do you think there is a specific need for therapists of color to help African-American women and other women of color who are PMADS (perinatal mood and anxiety disorders) sufferers? You may not think race, ethnicity and culture are factors to be considered in this treatment, but it can be--mostly due to stigmas, access, and the dynamics around seeking out services as a woman of color. Join us for today’s conversation around this important topic.

Shivonne Odom, LCPC, is the founder of Akoma Counseling Concepts, LLC, which is the only minority-owned private practice in Washington, DC that focuses on minority maternal mental health. Shivonne provides continuing educational training on cultural competence and minority maternal mental health. She loves to promote awareness on these important issues via community panel discussions, podcasts, and local media outlets. She is passionate and excited about all things mental health and advocacy for women’s health initiatives. In today’s episode, she talks about things on her mind and things everyone needs to hear about more culturally competent services, the need for more therapists of color to be trained in maternal mental health, and the stigma around postpartum depression for black moms. She even touches on how some organizations could do much more to support perinatal mental health. 

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Resources:

Shivonne’s website: www.akomacounselingconcepts.com Use promo code “momandmind” to receive 10% off Shivonne’s webinar on September 28!

Find Shivonne on Twitter: https://twitter.com/akomacounseling

  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/akoma_counseling

  Facebook: Akoma Counseling Concepts

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How would it feel for your own doctor to discount your postpartum anxiety? Today’s guest experienced this, along with pregnancy loss and depression. The important part of the story is how healing showed up for her and how she is using her experience to help others.

Ivy Sias earned her Master’s of Science and Mental Health Counseling from Walden University and became licensed in Louisiana in 2015. In 2017, she founded Ivy Counseling and Wellness Services, a private practice with a focus on assisting people with planting seeds of insight, growing in self-awareness, and making life changes that flourish from the inside out. After her experience with postpartum depression and anxiety and her struggle to find assistance and support in her community, the focus of her practice shifted to maternal mental health and the treatment of perinatal mood and anxiety disorders. A Compton, California native, Ivy has always believed that change happens when people are loud about injustice and when those who have experienced adversity boldly stand in their truth. She’s a wife to her loving husband, Joseph, and the mother of a son, Carter, 4, and daughter, Ryan, 1. Ivy is a National Certified Counselor (NCC) and a Licensed Professional Counselor and Supervisor (LPC-S) in Louisiana. She is passionate about helping underserved populations through therapy, advocacy, and promoting total wellness as a way to heal and grow.

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Resources:

Find Ivy on Facebook and Instagram: Ivy Counseling and Wellness

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How have your personal experiences launched you into a certain line of work or the pursuit of a passion? Today’s show is about someone who used the tough and challenging journey into motherhood to find ways to help others through their difficulties. If your road to motherhood has been anything but smooth sailing, then you don’t want to miss today’s show!

Mellisa Reeves is a doula, coach, and the co-founder of the Motherbirth podcast and community. She shares her personal story around postpartum anxiety and the difficulties that caused in connecting with her son, along with the subsequent loss, birth trauma, and milestones that came and went. She shares about what she had to overcome and how she felt disconnected after the birth of her son and how her experiences have shaped the work she does today. Mellisa works with women who have experienced pregnancy loss and want to trust their bodies again, helping them find their path to hope and healing through the innate intuition they each possess. Brought up with an innate love for simple, natural, rhythmic living, Mellisa’s perspective on motherhood and life comes from a slow reawakening to the depth of feminine wisdom through her experience of stillbirth, multiple miscarriages, and postpartum anxiety. Mellisa is based in Portland but travels semi-fulltime with her husband and two children. 

Show Highlights:

Resources:

The Conscious Parent by Shefali Tsabary

Find Mellisa online, along with her courses and group coaching: www.trustyourbodyagain.com

Find the Motherbirth podcast: www.motherbirth.co

Connect with Mellisa on Instagram

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What are the most important needs of women during pregnancy, postpartum, and the days of new motherhood? You might guess that nutrition, healthy habits, physical fitness, and emotional support are some of the most important needs---and they are! Wouldn’t it be ideal if there was a way to wrap up all of these AND a sense of connection and community with other moms? Join me for today’s show and find out how my guest has found the perfect intersection in meeting the needs of women embarking on their journeys to motherhood---and it just might be available in your hometown. 

Lisa Druxman is the Chief Founding Mom of FIT4MOM, the parent company to Fit4Baby, Stroller Strides, and Body Back. With nearly 2000 class locations nationwide, FIT4MOM is one of the fastest growing franchises in the country. Lisa is the author of The Empowered Mama and the host of The Empowered Mama podcast. She has been featured on The Today Show, Good Morning America, and more. Lisa is a speaker, writer, and thought leader with a passion for helping moms get out of overwhelm and into a healthy and happy life. We connected through the podcasting network, Parenting on Demand, where we both have our podcasts.

Show Highlights:

Resources:

www.fit4mom.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/lisadruxman

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/lisadruxman

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/lisadruxman

The Empowered Mama by Lisa Druxman

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Every woman’s pregnancy experience is different, and each pregnancy brings its unique challenges. Today you’ll hear one woman’s story of her pregnancy, loss, and the obstacles she faced due to pre-eclampsia, which can affect women during pregnancy and in the postpartum period. My guest is gracious enough to share the heartbreaking details of her story, with the hope that those in similar circumstances will know they are not alone.

Stacey Porter is president and founder of The Tangerine Owl Project, a nonprofit devoted to offering peer support to families, started in memory of her daughter after a NICU loss in 2012. Stacey has been dedicated to efforts centered around supporting families who have suffered infant loss and traumatic birth since 2013. Stacey is heavily invested in efforts to support maternal mental health as it intertwines so greatly with traumatic birth and bereavement experiences for these families. She works as a contractor with the 2020 Mom Project, leading a volunteer program, social media, and a handful of other projects. She sits on the board of directors for local nonprofit Beyond the Baby Blues, which offers clinical group support to women suffering from perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, and she serves on the bereavement committee for the Mothers’ Milk Bank of the Western Great Lakes. Stacey is a member of the National Perinatal Association and Preemie Parent Alliance, and has collaborated on projects for patient education including online curriculum for staff on psychosocial support for NICU parents. 

Show Highlights:

Resources:

www.tangerineowl.org

Find Stacey on Facebook: @Tangerine Owl Project or Stacey Dunlap Porter

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How do we, as mothers, keep ourselves centered while raising our little ones? It’s a tough question to answer, but it becomes even more difficult when perinatal mental health is in jeopardy. Many times, we think that dealing with the crisis is the most important focus, but it’s the time period that follows the crisis---and the healing--that deserves big attention. Don’t miss today’s conversation covering these important topics. 

Graeme Seabrook is a Motherhood Life Coach whose approach to coaching is that YOU must be a priority in your own life in order to thrive. Following a traumatizing birth experience that left her with PTSD, and surviving postpartum depression and anxiety, Graeme began a healing journey as a mother and a woman. That healing journey led her to train as a life coach and to create spaces where mothers can come to be witnessed, nurtured, inspired, and supported, so they can integrate motherhood with personhood and not the other way around. She does this work because she believes we are living in a global culture that treats mothers as if we are inhuman and expects us to be superhuman. Graeme’s work is dedicated to helping mothers reclaim their humanity. Today we discuss her work in helping mothers recover from recovery, the stabilization after a perinatal mental health issue, and the way to build resilience after the crisis passes. 

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Website: www.graemeseabrook.com Twitter: @graemeseabrook Instagram at @Graemeseabrook

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We are all familiar with morning sickness that is a common part of pregnancy, but have you heard of hyperemesis gravidarum (HG)? It is a very significant medical issue that is very different from “normal” morning sickness, yet it’s been minimized even in the medical community, and the expectant mothers who suffer from this condition have not been treated with the care and respect that they deserve. Knowledge is power, so I hope with today’s show comes the education to help people empower themselves in this extreme condition that affects 1-2 out of 100 pregnancies.

Kaleigh Mancha is a licensed mental health therapist, certified full spectrum doula, body positive yoga teacher, and mother. She runs her business, K.a.y. & M.e., offering various wellness services in the Las Vegas Valley. Advocating for underserved and underrepresented populations has been a lifelong passion of hers and is what brought her into the mental health field ten years ago. She has also been heavily involved in advocating for equitable access to education. Her practice specialties include trauma, anxiety, life transitions, and concerns related to reproductive justice, pregnancy, postpartum, and parenthood. As a body positive yoga teacher, she believes that all bodies, abilities, and experience levels are welcome on the mat, and her goal is to reach people who, like her, didn’t grow up in spaces where wellness was a familiar experience. Kaleigh lives by the motto that “Wellness is a necessity, not a luxury.” She believes all people deserve better access to resources and the knowledge to help them live their best lives. She’s here to share her personal story about HG and how this condition has affected her life in many ways.

Show Highlights:

Resources:

Find Kaleigh on Facebook: Kay and Me Doula and Wellness Services

Visit her website: www.kayandme.com

Find Kaleigh on Instagram: @kaym86

On Facebook, find HG Moms

For more info, visit www.hyperemesis.orgI 

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