My guest on this episode is Cat Sims, blogger, content creator, podcaster and huge mental health advocate.

I chat to Cat about the importance of talking about mental health. She tells me about her own mental health journey, starting back in her teenage years when nobody really spoke about this stuff. Right through to having post natal depression when she had her daughters.

We talk about the stigma around anti-depressant medication and why she’s a big fan of taking her pills and being open about it online, and we stray into talking about how people react to each other in the online world vs the real world.

You can follow Cat on TikTok and Instagram, read her blog Not So Smug Now and subscribe to her twice-weekly newsletter.

If you enjoyed this episode then please leave a rating or review - and you can subscribe to ensure you don’t miss future episodes.  Thank you!

Not Another Mummy Podcast is brought to you by me, journalist and author Alison Perry. I'm a mum of three and I love interviewing people about parenthood on the podcast. You can check out my other episodes and you can come chat to me on Instagram: @iamalisonperry or on Twitter: @iamalisonperry. You can buy my book OMG It's Twins now.

Music: Epidemic Sound

Artwork: Eleanor Bowmer

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/notanothermummy.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode had always dreamed of being a mum but at age 37 and very much single with no partner on the horizon, she decided to take matters into her own hands.

Liv Thorne started researching sperm banks and fertility clinics, setting out on a journey that has resulted in her being a solo mum to three year old Herb, today.

Her book, Liv’s Alone is a warm and hopeful memoir that dismantles the fairy tale of falling in love, getting married and having a baby, that we’re all fed from a young age. It shows an alternative route to motherhood… via buying sperm from Denmark!

Liv chats to me about the tragic circumstances that led to her being ‘alone’ for so many years and talks about the decisions she made along the way.

Buy Liv’s Alone here and follow Liv on Instagram.

If you enjoyed this episode then please leave a rating or review - and you can subscribe to ensure you don’t miss future episodes.  Thank you!

Not Another Mummy Podcast is brought to you by me, journalist and author Alison Perry. I'm a mum of three and I love interviewing people about parenthood on the podcast. You can check out my other episodes and you can come chat to me on Instagram: @iamalisonperry or on Twitter: @iamalisonperry. You can buy my book OMG It's Twins now.

Producer: Imogen Hart

Music: Epidemic Sound

Artwork: Eleanor Bowmer

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/notanothermummy.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This brand new series of Not Another Mummy Podcast kicks off with a brilliant chat, brought to you by Barbie who are kindly sponsoring this episode. 

My guest is Claire Russell, early years specialist and author of the book The Play Hooray Handbook. Claire is an expert in all things play and can be found sharing easy and low-cost ways to play with your kids – indoors and outside – on social media as @play.hooray

On this episode, Claire talks to me about the importance of play – how it’s not just something the children do to pass the time, but it’s vital in their development. We discuss the research commissioned by Mattel, the makers of the doll brand Barbie and led by Cardiff University, Exploring the Benefits of Doll Play through Neuroscience which is the first scientific study using neuroscience to explore what impact doll play has on children. 

The study monitored the brain activity of children ages 4-8 as they played with a range of Barbie dolls and playsets and incredibly, it found that doll play activates parts of the brain that allow children to develop empathy and social processing skills. Read more about the study here. And you can watch the TV ad we talk about on the episode here.

Follow Claire on Instagram and check out her book The Play Hooray Handbook.

If you enjoyed this episode then please leave a rating or review - and you can subscribe to ensure you don’t miss future episodes.  Thank you!

Not Another Mummy Podcast is brought to you by me, journalist and author Alison Perry. I'm a mum of three and I love interviewing people about parenthood on the podcast. You can check out my other episodes and you can come chat to me on Instagram: @iamalisonperry or on Twitter: @iamalisonperry. You can buy my book OMG It's Twins now.

Music: Epidemic Sound

Artwork: Eleanor Bowmer

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/notanothermummy.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Postnatal health issues are still being ignored, overlooked, and dismissed by new mums and health professionals who are sadly pushed for time and resources. My guest on this episode - Emma Brockwell aka Physio Mum UK - is on a mission to empower women and birthing people to seek the help they need and care for themselves postnatally.

Emma is a Specialist Pelvic Health Physiotherapist and the author of the excellent book Why Did No One Tell Me? How to Protect, Heal and Nurture Your Body Through Motherhood which is a guide for women to take control of and protect their changing bodies through pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood. It might (or might not) surprise you to hear that this is the first handbook from a leading women’s health expert on prenatal and postnatal conditions. 

In my chat with Emma, we cover everything from why pelvic health is so important, practical things that you can be doing if you’re pregnant to help with postnatal recovery and how to look after yourself in that fourth trimester and beyond.

It’s a must-listen episode for anyone who is pregnant, trying to become pregnant, or who has recently had a baby.

Buy Emma’s book here and follow her on Instagram here.

This is the last episode of this series but I'll be back before you know it with series eight (can you believe it's been eight series already!)

If you enjoyed this episode then please leave a rating or review - and you can subscribe to ensure you don’t miss future episodes. Thank you!

Not Another Mummy Podcast is brought to you by me, journalist and author Alison Perry. I'm a mum of three and I love interviewing people about parenthood on the podcast. You can check out my other episodes and you can come chat to me on Instagram: @iamalisonperry or on Twitter: @iamalisonperry. You can buy my book OMG It's Twins now.

Producer: Imogen Hart

Music: Epidemic Sound

Artwork: Eleanor Bowmer

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/notanothermummy.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode I chat to Molly Forbes, the author of Body Happy Kids and a mum of two. Molly was a guest on the podcast a few years ago, when she was a host on the Channel 4 show Naked Beach, which shone a light on the body insecurities that many of us have and helped people to overcome them.

Since then, Molly has set up social enterprise Body Happy Org, has been campaigning to ban diet club adverts around and near schools and using her voice to help others raise our kids in a body happy way.

We talk about what’s causing children as young as three to feel bad about their bodies, the lack of positive representation of different body shapes in books and the media and how to talk to our kids about their appearance and body issues.

We also touch upon helping our kids foster a healthy happy relationship with meal times and food, using Ellen Sattyr’s Division of Responsibility and how all of this *waves arms around* is HARD when we were brought up so differently.

You can buy Molly’s book Body Happy Kids here, follow her on Instagram and check out Body Happy Org and their work.

If you enjoyed this episode then please leave a rating or review - and you can subscribe to ensure you don’t miss future episodes.  Thank you!

Not Another Mummy Podcast is brought to you by me, journalist and author Alison Perry. I'm a mum of three and I love interviewing people about parenthood on the podcast. You can check out my other episodes and you can come chat to me on Instagram: @iamalisonperry or on Twitter: @iamalisonperry. You can buy my book OMG It's Twins now.

Producer: Imogen Hart

Music: Epidemic Sound

Artwork: Eleanor Bowmer

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/notanothermummy.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Are you dreading your children hitting the teenage years and hormones turning them into sulky, shouty, door slamming young adults? I know I am! But my guest on this episode, journalist and podcaster Lorraine Candy, says we shouldn’t worry, she is here to hold our hand through the process.

Lorraine is the mum to three teens and a nine year old and she is the author of Mum What’s Wrong With You – 101 Things Only Mothers Of Teenage Girls Know which offers easy to follow, down to earth advice, lighting the way for other mums.

She shares all sorts of wisdom on this episode, from someone who has been there and got the t-shirt, like navigating the big teenage milestones and the biological reason your teenager has an incredibly messy bedroom….

Buy Lorraine’s book here, listen to her podcast Postcards From Midlife and follow her on Instagram.

If you enjoyed this episode then please leave a rating or review - and you can subscribe to ensure you don’t miss future episodes.  Thank you!

Not Another Mummy Podcast is brought to you by me, journalist and author Alison Perry. I'm a mum of three and I love interviewing people about parenthood on the podcast. You can check out my other episodes and you can come chat to me on Instagram: @iamalisonperry or on Twitter: @iamalisonperry. You can buy my book OMG It's Twins now.

Producer: Imogen Hart

Music: Epidemic Sound

Artwork: Eleanor Bowmer

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/notanothermummy.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode took an earth-shattering life event and turned it into a novel - Josie Lloyd is a best-selling author and mum of three. She has written 15 bestselling novels including the number one hit Come Together, which she co-authored with her husband, Emlyn Rees.

In 2017, Josie was diagnosed with breast cancer and, urged by a friend to keep fit, she went down to the seafront in Brighton where she lives and joined a running group. These were all women, who, like her, were going through cancer treatment and they soon became firm friends. She didn't realise at first that it was actually a training group for the Brighton Marathon 10K and she ended up running the race just before her third session of chemo. The whole experience was so utterly uplifting and inspiring that she decided she had to write about it in her latest novel The Cancer Ladies’ Running Club.

Josie chats to me about what that experience was like and how she couldn't find any fiction books about surviving and thriving after cancer, so she wrote one.

Buy Josie’s book here and follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

If you enjoyed this episode then please leave a rating or review - and you can subscribe to ensure you don’t miss future episodes.  Thank you!

Not Another Mummy Podcast is brought to you by me, journalist and author Alison Perry. I'm a mum of three and I love interviewing people about parenthood on the podcast. You can check out my other episodes and you can come chat to me on Instagram: @iamalisonperry or on Twitter: @iamalisonperry. You can buy my book OMG It's Twins now.

Producer: Imogen Hart

Music: Epidemic Sound

Artwork: Eleanor Bowmer

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/notanothermummy.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It was an utter joy to welcome Dr Ranj onto the podcast as a guest – as well as working for the NHS through the pandemic as a paediatric doctor, Ranj published a book - How To Grow Up And Feel Amazing: The No Worries Guide For Boys. It’s a must-read book for all tween boys, covering physical and emotional changes they’ll go through as puberty hits.

I talked to Ranj about what his own teenage years were like, and why he was so keen to write a book to help boys get through what can be a tricky time. We chat about the importance of encouraging boys to express their feelings, have a cry and talk to people around them if they’re struggling.

It’s a fantastic book and it was great to hear Ranj’s thoughts on how to raise happy, healthy boys.

Check out the book here and follow Ranj on Twitter and Instagram.

If you enjoyed this episode then please leave a rating or review - and you can subscribe to ensure you don’t miss future episodes. Thank you!

Not Another Mummy Podcast is brought to you by me, journalist and author Alison Perry. I'm a mum of three and I love interviewing people about parenthood on the podcast. You can check out my other episodes and you can come chat to me on Instagram: @iamalisonperry or on Twitter: @iamalisonperry. You can buy my book OMG It's Twins now.

Producer: Imogen Hart

Music: Epidemic Sound

Artwork: Eleanor Bowmer

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/notanothermummy.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is essential listening if you’re in your 20s, 30s or 40s. Which sounds like I’m really bigging myself up, but it’s my guest, not me, who is delivering all of the wisdom.

Maisie Hill is a women’s health practitioner, author and podcaster who is doing everything she can to spread the word about perimenopause and getting us in tune with our menstrual cycles. Her latest book Perimenopause Power is a guide to that transition into menopause, packed with information and helpful advice. Reading it opened my eyes and spurred me on to speak to a menopause specialist about my own symptoms.

On this episode, Maisie tells me why perimenopause needs to be more widely discussed – and from a younger age – and what women in their 20s can be doing to help their health when perimenopause hits. She’s a great guest with lots of useful explanations and helpful tips. Once you’ve listened, share this episode with a friend to get the conversation going with as many people as possible!

Visit Maisie's website, buy her book Perimenopause Power and follow her on Instagram.

If you enjoyed this episode then please leave a rating or review - and you can subscribe to ensure you don’t miss future episodes. Thank you!

Not Another Mummy Podcast is brought to you by me, journalist and author Alison Perry. I'm a mum of three and I love interviewing people about parenthood on the podcast. You can check out my other episodes and you can come chat to me on Instagram: @iamalisonperry or on Twitter: @iamalisonperry. You can buy my book OMG It's Twins now.

Producer: Imogen Hart

Music: Epidemic Sound

Artwork: Eleanor Bowmer

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/notanothermummy.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Do you talk to your children about race – and racism – and if so, how often? My guest on this episode Uju Asika encourages all parents to start this conversation as early as possible and not to feel awkward about it.

Uju is a mum of two and the author of Bringing Up Race: How to Raise a Kind Child in a Prejudiced World. We talk about how the conversation will be different, depending on your children’s skin colour, and why it’s important not to take the ‘colour blind’ approach to parenting.

Uju shares her fears over her black sons – once considered cute by passers-by and now in their teenage years, being viewed and treated differently. We also discuss language and people’s desire to find a term that neatly categorises everyone that isn’t white.

Buy Uju’s book here and follow her on Instagram and Twitter.

If you enjoyed this episode then please leave a rating or review - and you can subscribe to ensure you don’t miss future episodes.  Thank you!

Not Another Mummy Podcast is brought to you by me, journalist and author Alison Perry. I'm a mum of three and I love interviewing people about parenthood on the podcast. You can check out my other episodes and you can come chat to me on Instagram: @iamalisonperry or on Twitter: @iamalisonperry. You can buy my book OMG It's Twins now.

Producer: Imogen Hart

Music: Epidemic Sound

Artwork: Eleanor Bowmer

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/notanothermummy.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.