In this episode of My First Year as a Mother, host Casey Georgi speaks with Tara Beasley-Stansberry, a small business owner in Vallejo, California, about becoming a mom through fostering and adoption with her wife, Rhonda. After unsuccessful IVF and insemination attempts, they pursued foster-to-adopt and received an emergency placement of three sisters — Mikah, DaRonae and Dezire — just before Christmas during COVID. Tara describes navigating the foster system, the girls’ trauma and neglect, and advocating for their education, health, and stability, all while running for city council and running a restaurant. Over the years in their care, Tara and Rhonda built trust, community, and structure, supported the girls with therapy and encouraged connections to biological family. Last year, they made the adoption official.

🌐 Learn more:
 https://sophiamedia.co/MyFirstYear

❤️ Subscribe for honest conversations about motherhood, identity, and life's biggest transitions.

Sophia sits down with Ann Cecil-Sterman, musician, master acupuncturist and teacher, artist, author and mother of two. (Find out more at AnnCecilSterman.com.)

Ann shares how meeting her husband, Andrew, unexpectedly awakened her desire to become a mother, and reflects on pregnancy, her extraordinary 49-hour labor with her first child, Ravi, and the strength she discovered through giving birth.  

She also opens up about breaking generational cycles, the importance of connection in early motherhood, and what she calls “the loving gaze”—the profound bond created by simply holding your child and looking into their eyes.  

A conversation about birth, resilience, unconditional love, and the strength we discover through motherhood.

Ann’s husband, Andrew Sterman, was also the very first guest on our companion series, My First Year as a Father. Hear Andrew’s perspective on fatherhood and their family’s story:

🍎 Listen on Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-first-year-as-a-father/id6798906988

🎵 Listen on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/0342KedHU37th2BZlvN6yA?si=5a8fb97f64c6449f

🌐 Learn more:
 https://sophiamedia.co/MyFirstYear

❤️ Subscribe for honest conversations about motherhood, identity, and life's biggest transitions.

Hosts Sophia and Casey interview Katie Shepherd, a Brooklyn-based writer and podcast producer originally from North Carolina, about her first year of motherhood with her son, Dean. Katie describes always assuming she’d have kids, getting pregnant quickly at 36, pushing back on the “geriatric pregnancy” label, and needing a doctor with a more humane communication style. 

She shares how her overachiever expectations clashed with the relentless “fail, pivot” reality of parenting, alongside a difficult pregnancy and a preeclampsia diagnosis that led to a three-day induction, a failed epidural, and ultimately a C-section a month early. Katie reflects on bringing Dean home without nearby family support, navigating task-sharing and guilt when she returned to work while her husband provided more childcare, and experiencing postpartum depression marked by intrusive fears and insomnia helped by therapy and medication. She reflects on unexpected joys, evolving partnership, and motherhood as an expansion of self.

🌐 Learn more:
 https://sophiamedia.co/MyFirstYear

❤️ Subscribe for honest conversations about motherhood, identity, and life's biggest transitions.

Jess Mooney, a Wakefield, Rhode Island speech-language pathologist and mother to three-year-old Lola, talks about anxiety, early motherhood and unconditional love. Jess recalls being highly sensitive, moving schools often, and developing intense anxiety in high school and college, which shaped her need for a partner who felt safe. She and her husband connected during COVID, and she was drawn to his healing energy. Shortly after getting married, Jess became pregnant at 37. 

She describes a peaceful pregnancy, and a breech baby that led to a painful attempted manual turn and a scheduled C-section. Jess shares complex emotions meeting Lola, postpartum anxieties about feeding, germs, and judgment and help from lactation support. She discusses returning to work after 17 weeks, body-image struggles, and her focus on raising Lola with boundaries, confidence, and unconditional love.  

🌐 Learn more:
 https://sophiamedia.co/MyFirstYear

❤️ Subscribe for honest conversations about motherhood, identity, and life's biggest transitions.

MFYM cohost and new mom Casey Georgi on IVF, Birth, and Identity in the First Year of Motherhood.

In this episode, we learn more about Casey’s story. Casey describes pursuing IVF to avoid passing on her husband’s rare genetic brittle bone disease, osteogenesis imperfecta. She shares reluctance about invasive IVF procedures, her unexpectedly calm pregnancy, and a difficult birth after developing cholestasis that led to a three-day induction, and ultimately, a C-section. Casey discusses her physical recovery, breastfeeding journey, and the emotional toll of an exhausting feeding schedule, including the isolation she experienced. She also explores deeper tensions: career-identity struggles, her complicated relationship with her own mother, and shifts in intimacy with her husband, all while becoming more mindful and grateful as Violet grows.

🌐 Learn more:
 https://sophiamedia.co/MyFirstYear

❤️ Subscribe for honest conversations about motherhood, identity, and life's biggest transitions.

What really happens when a woman becomes a mother?

Beyond sleepless nights and diapers, motherhood transforms every part of life—our identity, relationships, careers, priorities, and understanding of love.

In My First Year as a Mother, women share honest stories about what no one prepared them for:

😬 The anxiety of bringing home a newborn.

💙 The isolation of postpartum.

✨ The unexpected moments of joy.

🌱 The journey of rediscovering yourself.

Through each deeply personal conversation, we hope to help mothers and mothers-to-be feel less alone and more connected, less judged and better understood, less fearful and more loved.💕

🎙️ Premieres August 3, 2026.

🌐 Learn more:
 https://sophiamedia.co/MyFirstYear

❤️ Subscribe for honest conversations about motherhood, identity, and life's biggest transitions.