In todays episode I am joined by my freind Serena who shares how the last 15 months has been with her son Max. Serena shares how pink she has found postpartum and while not pretending its all been easy breasy she feels more herself that she did before Max. She shares with us 5 amazing reasons why she thinks her experience has been as such and there is so much to learn and take from all 5 of these which she shares on the podcast for us today. Serenas is a story of resilience, acceptance, surrender and perspective and she sums up it all up as a joy that just keeps getting better and better. As she says it is really important to share postive narratives about having children too and is why this podcast is here to celebrate every shade of pink that parenthood brings. 

Serena has her own podcast, Birth tales, which shares amazing stories of birth and pregnancy and I highly recommend a listen. She is a hypnobirthing teacher who offers online courses and a pregnancy reflexologist in London. To find out more about all her wonderful offerings please visit https://serenalouth.com/ 

In today's episode I am chatting with Katie about the last 19 months with baby Elliot. We focus on sleep deprivation today and navigating the realities and normality of a baby who continues to wake at night well into the 2nd year of life and beyond. We chat about the socially isolating aspects of this, the feeling of dashed hopes that tonight might be better, the clock watching at night, comparisons and the incredible resilience of anyone in this position. we chat about how quick people are to offer unsolicited advice postpartum when all you really need is someone to listen, acknowledge and cuddle you, and how rarely that happens. How the whole world of parenting in this digital age has become about fixing things and viewing babies as a problem with a hack to solve it. We stalk about balancing FOMO and staying connected as mums with also trying to stay off our phones infront of our babies. Katie struggled with postpartum depression but it is largely looking back on her postpartum experience that Katie has been able to acknowledge this, as at the time she wasn't aware that what she was experiencing felt anymore hard than the next person. We talk about how little time and space there is to give to your partner in postpartum and the subsequent pressure that then puts on special date nights and postpartum intimacy and sex. Katie found that just acknowledging the lack of everything and all the changes with her partner was incredibly liberating in and of itself. We talk about the hugely different sexual experience between a couple postpartum due to all the hormonal, physical, and emotional changes that can affect intimacy for the birthing woman compared to the somewhat less changed hormonal & physical landscape of the partner. Katie shares so much so openly and I am so grateful to her for chatting about some of these harder topics so I really hope you get a lot from this conversation and resonate with what has been one of my favourite chats since we launched the podcast.

To find out more about Katie please join her mailing list at https://view.flodesk.com/pages/6258214a5a98458d0c472d17?fbclid=PAAaYyx_fOSsQD44x9NoePh8cNz4P7FDt97lpQzg-P3RZo9H4TA0MvOMXpGiw 

In todays episode I am speaking to Mat, who is our first father on the podcast to Bowie, 3 and River 1. As mat reminds us, it is both flamingos that loose their pink during the early days of postpartum and is why i wanted this space to be about, and for, both mums and dads.  Following a homebirth with their first child they had a very slow and cosy early postpartum experience which Mat largely puts down to it being lockdown so they really nested and hunkered down and it helped to really enforce that all important rest. In the early days Mat talks about the difficulties of being a father when most babies are in the 4th trimester and only really want their mum. Going back to work for Mat was tough and he took holiday days to go back on a 4 day week and we talk about the inevitable and necessary element of work but how it is an ongoing conflict of being there earning money Vs being around to help with the family. While Mat admires and is inspired by those couples who truly co-parent, while this is not a reality for him at the moment he is constantly trying to do his part to feel like he is as close to that as possible and what that looks like for everyone is different but we talk about doing the night shifts as dads. We talk about making new friends or dad freinds and how that can be quite tricky if the father is the one to go back to work  Mat talks about how for postpartum 2.0 the main challenge was how to navigate both having special time with the newborn when there is an older sibling who needs lots of attention but also how to have special time with an older sibling when there is a newborn requiring all of their attention too.  It was reading Matresence by Lucy Jones - that Mat gained a deeper understanding of a mothers expereince and it has also given him and his wife Ellie an amazing channel of communication and a common language for their shared experience and he recommeneds this read to all fathers out there.

In this weeks episode I spoke to Holly, mother to Jasper, 5 and Slyvie, 1. Holly had two somewhat similar but very different births of her children and went on to have two very different postpartum experiences too. We talk about why Holly thinks she found the transition from 1-2 childern a lot easier than having just one, why Holly consciously choose to wait and have a 4 year age gap and the pros and cons that come with that. We discuss contemplating having an only child, different childcare decisions and how you navigate and balance career aspiriations and building a self employed business if you do decide you want to have another child. Holly's pink was less affected second time around and she puts this down to her confidence and trust that everthing is a phase, knowing what to expect and having lower expectations of herself and of her pink.  Holly is a reflexologist in SW London and treats lots of pregnant and postnatal mums and we talk about why it is the perfect postpartum treat for you all! To find out more about Holly's work please visit https://www.hollywebber.co.uk/home or follow her on instagram @_hollywebber

This week on the podcast I am talking to Laura Gwilliam, mother to Rui who is nearly 3 years old now and soon to be brother to another baby on the way! Laura describes motherhood as the greatest spiritual journey she has ever be on. She shares how her their family have shifted the lifestyle to the needs of their growing family, birthing Rui in the depths of the Scottish highlands to quieten the noise, connect to nature, slowdown and be free but now as Rui nears 3 wanting to meet his need for more of a social life their next move is towards more of a community. Laura had a beautiful slow homebirth and first few weeks of postpartum life being cared for by her husband, her parents and 2 female friends in the spring sunshine. We discuss the bits Laura found the hardest in becoming a new mum and that included loosing the freedom and spaciousness of her previous life, going against the grain with different parenting decisions, and the trenches of sleep deprivation and how that has a knock on effect to every aspect of mothering. We touch on rage and anger at the patriarchy and how under seen and undervalued motherhood it is. but how integral it is to a healthy society. Laura works 1:1 with mothers who want to carve out small pockets of time to connect to themselves through different meditative practices and she feels that this work, mothering her children and mothering other mothers, is her dharma, her life purpose, and in walking this path it brings her back to herself, the most aligned and authentic self and her very most pink. 

In todays episode I am speaking with Annie Clempner Clarke about the last 14 months with her son Marlowe. Despite being pretty clued up on the challenges of motherhood, Annie's postpartum experience still took her so far away from what she had anticipated and feeling like herself .Following a medically managed pregnancy and birth, Annie went on to face huge feeding challenges with Marlowe but with incredible determination and grit she navigated a late diagnosis of a tongue tie and treating raynauds in her nipples so that she could breastfeed, something she has continued to do until very recently, which would have felt truly impossible to believe in those early months. Annie recognises that it was re configuring her attachments to certain parts of how she thought motherhood would look, and in accepting these changes and removing expectations of what it should look like, is what has helped bring her closer to being the pinkest version of herself. We also discuss balancing motherhood with sustaining a business and why we should all be adding mothering to our CVs. This is a slightly longer episode today but Annie shares so much wisdom and insight that is really is worth listening to the end. 

To find out more about Annie, her pregnancy yoga, online yoga studio and so much more visit https://annieclarke.com/ or https://www.instagram.com/annieclarke_/ on instagram.

In today's episode I am talking to Sus Davy about her postpartum experience with her son Rennan who is now 18 months. Sus had a planned C-Section and shortly after the birth, Ren terrifyingly stopped breathing and was admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit where he spent 2 weeks being cared for and was diagnosed with a rare condition called panhypopituitarism. Sus had a really tough start to her breastfeeding journey, pumping for Ren while he was in NICU, syringe feeding and eventually getting him to latch with nipple shields. Despite months of struggle and two tongue tie seperations, they are still amazingly breastfeeding today. After a really traumatic start to motherhood, once they had got Rens condition under control with medication they returned home and were looked after by Sus mum who is very helpfully a doula! After a few weeks it became clear that Sus was not ok and she was diagnosed with PTSD from the birth and post natal depression which she later took antidpressants for which made a really big difference for her. Alongside her own mental health Sus expereinced non stop crying from Ren for 6 months, deep sleep deprivation, wild hormones and a complete sensory overload and reflecting back on those early months she feels sad that this left little space to celebrate him and his arrival. It was her growing confidence as a mother that started to see the return of her pink alongside getting outside for runs and learning to put Rens condition to the side and just focus on him as person. She urges caution in consuming too much advice and information in those early months and trusting in the fact that everything really is a phase!

To find out more about Sus, her brilliant cafe Cascara in Bath and her motherhood journey follow @roughmeasures and @cascarabath

In this weeks episode Sophia Forrester is my guest. Sophia is a fellow medical herbalist and has a 8 month old daughter called Eden. Sophia planned for a homebirth but after a long and hard labour, lacking sleep and fuel and with meconium in her waters she delivered Eden by C-section.

Sophia shares how painful her body was in the aftermath of this surgery and how the early days of postpartum at home were really difficult with such imobility. Sophias breastfeeding journey was not a breeze but she shares some of the ways they managed to find a solution and go on to still be breastfeeding today. She also shares a golden top tip to look after your pelvic floor during pregnancy and in life in general.

We talk about the importance of nourishment and good food and how hard it is to feed yourself as the primary caregiver. Sophia recommends doing a mealtrain with freinds in the early days to keep you well fed and also using supplements and she shares her recent struggles with slowing down and shifting away from her self worth and identity being based on productivity and success.

To find out more about Sophia and her work as a herbalist and mum please visit https://www.sophiatheherbalist.com

In today's episode I am speaking to Mary Flynn about her postpartum experience with her daughter Sofie, who is nearly 13. Mary had a wonderful pregnancy and gave birth in Austria where she was living at the time. Despite Mary's birth being far from what she had originally hoped and resulting in an unplanned c-section, it was actually the way she was treated in the early period after her birth that was incredibly challenging. Her daughter was taken away from after the birth and placed in a nursery despite no medical necessity, which was common practice at the time post cesarean to let the mother rest. It has taken Mary a long time to accept and come to terms with this early separation and it set her up for a really tricky start to postpartum. Mary was completely unprepared for the reality and intensity of the physical and emotional recovery from birth and she struggled with the isolating environment she found herself in postpartum. Mary felt that she was very slow to get her pink back but that it was feeling physically strong and returning to her yoga practice that really started to see flushes of pink return. She also found building a community and meeting other mums with shared experiences that really supported her pink and that was her big piece of advice for those preparing for postpartum; seek out community. Mary's own birth and postpartum experience, however tricky, has shaped her as an amazing midwife today, giving her a passionate drive to change new mothers experience for the better and if you are in Bristol or the local area I really urge you to check her out - https://www.yogimidwife.com/ 

In this, the very first episode of the Pink Flamingo Podcast, I am joined by the gorgeous Sarah Malcolm who tells the story of her postpartum experience with her first son, Oscar, who was 15 months at the time of recording. Sarah didn't get the birth experience she wanted but did still describe her emergency C-section as a beautiful way for Oscar to arrive in this world. It was the post birth days, spent on a wild postpartum ward with unkind midwives, that set a foundation for a really tough start to motherhood for Sarah who also found her C-section recovery incredibly hard. We spoke about the relentlessness of postpartum, sleep deprivation and breast feeding as well as the importance of close family and friends being near by ,meditation and rest. Sarah shares her mental health struggles, and seeking a therapist to deal with her birth trauma but she says there is still work to be done. It was through starting to teach yoga again and spending time in nature with her family that Sarah started to flush pinker and she speaks of the importance of self love and kindness as a parent.