Postpartum Production

“It's like all of the pressures of everything happening build up inside you, and if you don't write it down or put it somewhere— I just couldn't even handle it. I had no other coping mechanisms left. I came to poetry when I was younger as a coping mechanism, and I think I still do sometimes.

Some poets like to pretend that it's a totally intellectual practice and that there's no therapeutic benefit for them. But for me, it did start out as a therapeutic practice, and I think I still turn to it in that way. In some ways, the pandemic helped me access that primal relationship I have with poetry where I went back to the original reason I go to poems.

It's because I needed a place where I could tell the truth. I needed a place where I could process the most impossible things.”~ Eugenia Leigh

In this episode, Kaitlin speaks with Eugenia Leigh. Eugenia is a Korean-American poet and the author of two poetry collections, Bianca from Four-Way Books released this year in March, and Blood, Sparrows, and Sparrows from Four-Way Books in 2014.

Eugenia’s poetry received Poetry Magazine's Bess Hokin Prize and has appeared in numerous publications including The Atlantic, The Nation, Poetry, Ploughshares, and the Best of the Net anthology.

Eugenia and Kaitlin talked about:

• Eugenia’s latest book, Bianca, and the whirlwind of launching and promoting it while balancing her roles as a mother and a wife.
• How she carves out spaces to write and nourish herself alongside all the other roles she juggles.
• Eugenia’s poetry writing process
• How she came to find writing as a child
• …plus some beautiful excerpts read by Eugenia herself.

More about Eugenia Leigh:

Website: https://www.eugenialeigh.com/

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/eugenialeigh

Linktr.ee: https://linktr.ee/eugenialeigh

Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and give us a rating. This will help us reach more listeners like you who are navigating the joys and pitfalls of artistic and parenting identities.

For regular updates:

Visit our website: postpartumproduction.com

Follow us on Instagram: @postpartumproductionpodcast

Subscribe to our podcast newsletter on Substack: https://postpartumproduction.substack.com

“I remember saying to my husband, I wish there was some sort of machine where I could attach a keyboard to my limbs and learn to type differently through my body so that the writing was a physical dance; instead of just my fingers dancing, it was my whole body dancing. I want to feel, not just sensations in my body, but feel my body in motion as I am writing. 

And so a lot of what I do is recording myself as I walk – writing with my voice – and feeling what it feels like to have it come from my pelvis and up my voice, not necessarily through my hand initially.” ~ Molly Caro May

We’re excited to share this conversation with Molly Caro May. Molly is an author, a teacher, and a holder of space. For over 13 years, she's facilitated personal story workshops for more than hundreds of people across the globe. She is trained in somatic experience and focuses on where language, voice, and the animal body meet.

Kaitlin first came to Molly's work ‘Body Full of Stars’ when she was postpartum with her second child. She then decided to read the book aloud to her then-six-year-old eldest daughter for bedtime, which, while unconventional, turned out to be a beautiful experience as you will discover in this episode.

Molly and Kaitlin talk about:

• Finding equilibrium in times of transition.
• The somatic work in Molly’s creative spaces and what piqued her interest in fostering “...open, unscheduled, unplanned spaces for the creative birthing of anything that our world needs.”
• The journey of writing Body Full of Stars, including the experiences that influenced the book’s content, and how Molly’s relationship with the stories within it has evolved with her postpartum experience over the past decade.
• The ways in which her writing process has evolved over time, especially how the care work she does for her own body and for her loved ones have influenced this shift.
• How being mindful of our body movement can positively impact our writing process.

More about Molly Caro May:

Website: mollycaromay.com

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

Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and give us a rating. This will help us reach more listeners like you who are navigating the joys and pitfalls of artistic and parenting identities.

For regular updates:

Visit our website: postpartumproduction.com

Follow us on Instagram: @postpartumproductionpodcast

Subscribe to our podcast newsletter on Substack: https://postpartumproduction.substack.com

**This episode is brought to you in partnership with the With Her and Mind Awareness Campaign of Mindful Philanthropy. Learn how you can act ‘with her in mind’ by visiting www.withherinmind.org.**

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"Throughout life, we need people who are responsive to us, who listen, who think we matter enough to be listened to and who support us. And we also need alloparents. So all these components are not just for mom to do, or mom and dad. It's a community support system.

The community helps with the child raising, whether it's at birth (midwives and doulas), you have people who are there to welcome the baby, who are going to hold the baby, who are going to play with the baby and the children throughout their lives. So it's not just a family affair, it's a community affair." ~ Dr Darcia Narvaez

In this episode, Kaitlin is joined by Dr Darcia Narvaez, professor emerita of psychology and also the host of the EvolvedNest.org and president of kindredworld.org. She's a co-author of the forthcoming book, The Evolved Nest: Nature's Way of Raising Children and Creating Connected Communities, and the film Breaking the Cycle.

Dr Darcia and Kaitlin talk about:

• The wonderful spectrum of research and writing Darcia has done throughout her career, why she does it, and how she came to work on the Evolved Nest and all of the other community-building projects associated with it.
• The evolved nest's nine (9) practises and how they relate to neuroscience, developmental clinical science, anthropology, and evolution.
• How to reconnect with and reclaim the practices and structures that our society has lost in order to return to - or at least get closer to - that evolved nest state.
• Darcia's forthcoming book, The Evolved Nest: Nature's Way of Raising Children and Creating Connected Communities, and why she and her co-author structured it in such a way as to speak to our animal nature.
• How epigenetics and the influence of our collective cultural traumas overlap, as well as how Dr Darcia's research seeks to address these issues.

More about Dr Darcia:

Website: darcianarvaez.com

The Evolved Nest website: evolvednest.org 

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

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EvolvedNest/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYFv1BZL-mjBJKz5L485EQg

Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and give us a rating. This will help us reach more listeners like you who are navigating the joys and pitfalls of artistic and parenting identities.

For regular updates:

Visit our website: postpartumproduction.com

Follow us on Instagram: @postpartumproductionpodcast

Subscribe to our podcast newsletter on Substack: https://postpartumproduction.substack.com

This episode is sponsored by Needed, a leading women's health supplement brand. (You can save 20% off your first order of any vitamins or supplements at thisisneeded.com with code POSTPARTUMPRODUCTION.)

AND

Better Help, the world's largest therapy service 100% online. (Go to https://betterhelp.com/postpartumproduction for 10% off your first month of therapy with BetterHelp and get matched with a therapist who will listen and help #sponsored)

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“I think the biggest part of doing this work is realizing the blueprint in many ways is already there. We just need to organize people to know what to do. I think a lot of the Chamber of Mothers' mission is you don't have to go it alone. We could all join together and we don't have to know every single thing. We don't have to be perfect at it, but we could know enough to be dangerous.” ~ Raena Boston

In this episode, Kaitlin speaks with Raena Boston. An HR professional for a professional services firm by day, Raena has been described in her after-five role as a table-shaking, sailor-talkin’ truth-teller at her expanding corner of the internet called The Working Momtras. The Working Momtras is a community where she discusses all things motherhood, marriage, careers, and parenting.

It was through that online community that Kaitlin found Raena’s inspiring activist content. In this conversation, they dig in about how we can be the parents to our children we wish we could be, while also maintaining creative careers and pushing forward with important activist agendas.

Raena and Kaitlin talk about:

• How Raena came to consider herself a content creator and writer as a mother, and what these roles mean to her.
• Versions of success vis-à-vis motherhood and how her definition of success has changed.
• The Inspiration behind her writing work with The Working Momtras and her advocacy work with the Chamber of Mothers.
• What each one of us can do to support and advance advocacy work for better maternal care, paid leave, affordable childcare, and family support policies

More about Raena Boston

Website: www.theworkingmomtras.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/theworkingmomtras

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raena-boston-001/

Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and give us a rating. This will help us reach more listeners like you who are navigating the joys and pitfalls of artistic and parenting identities.

For regular updates:

Visit our website: postpartumproduction.com

Follow us on Instagram: @postpartumproductionpodcast

Subscribe to our podcast newsletter on Substack: https://postpartumproduction.substack.com

This episode is sponsored by Needed, a leading women's health supplement brand. (You can save 20% off your first order of any vitamins or supplements at thisisneeded.com with code POSTPARTUMPRODUCTION.)

AND

Better Help, the world's largest therapy service 100% online. (Go to https://betterhelp.com/postpartumproduction for 10% off your first month of therapy with BetterHelp and get matched with a therapist who will listen and help #sponsored)

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We’re excited to share with you a conversation with Dr Elliot Berlin. Elliot is an award-winning, prenatal chiropractor, childbirth educator, labor support bodyworker, and co-founder of Berlin Wellness Group in Los Angeles, California.

His separate schooling in massage therapy bodywork and chiropractic formed the backbone of his innovative pre and postnatal wellness care techniques. Dr Berlin's Informed Pregnancy project aims to utilize multiple forms of media, including podcasts, YouTube series, documentaries, and online workshops to compile and deliver unbiased information about pregnancy and childbirth.

Dr Berlin lives in Los Angeles with his wife, perinatal psychologist Dr Alyssa Berlin, and their four fantastic kids. Kaitlin and Dr Berlin first connected about six years ago after the birth of her first child when she was helping produce a childbirth documentary called These are my Hours.

Dr Berlin and Kaitlin talk about:

• What sparked Dr Berlin’s interest in healthcare, and how he came to work so deeply in the birth world
• How his own birth as a breech baby, and his children’s births played a role in this journey
• Dr Berlin’s work with creative postpartum mothers and his observations on how these mothers’ relationship to their creative pursuits tends to shift after they become parents.
• How he balances the juggle between immersing himself in serving his clients and being present with his family.
• The Informed Pregnancy plus streaming service, Dr Berlin’s new project aimed at making birthing information media easily accessible and affordable.

More about Dr Elliot Berlin:

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/doctorberlin 

Everything: https://linktr.ee/doctorberlin 

Related Resources:

• Berlin Wellness Group: https://www.doctorberlin.com/
• Informed Pregnancy project: https://www.informedpregnancy.com/
• Childbirth documentary, These are my Hours: https://rootedbirth.org/about-thesearemyhours
• Informed Pregnancy Podcast: https://www.informedpregnancy.com/listen
• Vaginal breech delivery documentary, Heads Up, The Disappearing Art of Vagival Breech Delivery: https://www.informedpregnancy.com/heads-up
• Dr Alyssa Berlin’s Afterbirth Plan: https://www.doctorberlin.com/the-afterbirth-plan
• The Informed Pregnancy+ streaming service: https://www.informedpregnancy.tv/

Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and give us a rating. This will help us reach more listeners like you who are navigating the joys and pitfalls of artistic and parenting identities.

For regular updates:

Visit our website: postpartumproduction.com

Follow us on Instagram:@postpartumproductionpodcast

Subscribe to our podcast newsletter on Substack: https://postpartumproduction.substack.com

“Having something that you keep for yourself can actually be the most revolutionary and important thing that you could do in your postpartum journey.” ~ Kimberly Seals Allers

We are thrilled to share with you this conversation with Kimberly Seals Allers, an award-winning journalist, five-time author, and founder of Irth. A leading voice on the racial and sociocultural complexities of birth, breastfeeding, and motherhood, Kimberly created the Irth app for brown and black parents to address bias and racism in maternity and infant care.

Additionally, Kimberly is the host and creator of Birthright, a podcast that promotes positive black birth stories as a tool for birth justice and reverses the narrative of negative statistics that is often reported in mainstream media about black maternal health.

During their conversation, Kimberly and Kaitlin discussed the events that sparked Kimberly's passion for maternal and infant health advocacy.

Kimberly and Kaitlin talked about:

• The Irth App, how Kimberly came to create it and what it's doing.
• How they deal with resistance from health providers and what adjustments they make to their approach in the face of these challenges.
• The events that sparked Kimberly's passion for maternal and infant health advocacy.
• Her thoughts and experiences regarding the question “What would a valued motherhood experience look like today?”
• What it looks like to really show up in activism for all of these issues that devalue motherhood, including the absence of basic systems such as affordable childcare, paid leave, co-located childcare, etc.
• Kimberly’s take on productivity and how we can reframe it in the work that we do in balancing parenting/caregiving and creative practice, which is equally as undervalued as motherhood.

More about Kimberly Seals Allers

Website: https://kimberlysealsallers.com/ 

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

Irth App: https://irthapp.com/

Birthright Podcast: http://www.birthrightpodcast.com/

Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and give us a rating. This will help us reach more listeners like you who are navigating the joys and pitfalls of artistic and parenting identities.

For regular updates:

Visit our website: postpartumproduction.com

Follow us on Instagram: @postpartumproductionpodcast

Subscribe to our podcast newsletter on Substack: https://postpartumproduction.substack.com

“It's okay to struggle in a society that doesn't support you. It's okay to be like, this doesn't work and I have to get some stuff done. The question is then, how do you approach those changes that you have to make with your family in mind [...] while considering everyone? So it's also looking at your child and saying, Yep, this may not be ideal, it may not be what I want it to be, but how do I do it knowing what's most important to my child?”~ Tracy Cassels, PhD

In this episode, Kaitlin has a conversation with Tracy Cassels, PhD. Tracy is the director of Evolutionary Parenting, an online resource and community she founded in 2011 after the birth of her daughter, Maddie.

Tracy is married to Brian, a mother to two young kids, and a stepmother to one older child. She lives in a small town in Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada. Kaitlin came to know her work when seeking more evidence-based resources in early parenting and has always appreciated the community she builds by way of her thoughtful approach.

Tracy and Kaitlin talk about:

• Tracy’s pregnancy/birth journey and how it compelled her to build this entire universe and approach of evolutionary parenting.
• The impact that our societal, cultural, and structural constraints –lack of federally mandated family leave and the inability to pass a federal caregiver act in the United States– have on our well-being and approach to motherhood and caregiving, as well as society as a whole.
• What it looks like to concurrently build support for you and your baby in a system that isn't designed to do so, especially when you can't afford it.
• Practical tips on carving out time for our creative pursuits alongside the constraints that becoming a mother and /or carer throws at us.

More about Tracy Cassels PhD:

Website: https://evolutionaryparenting.com/about/ 

Podcast: https://soundcloud.com/user-563905685

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

Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and give us a rating. This will help us reach more listeners like you who are navigating the joys and pitfalls of artistic and parenting identities.

For regular updates:

Visit our website: postpartumproduction.com

Follow us on Instagram:@postpartumproductionpodcast

Subscribe to our podcast newsletter on Substack: https://postpartumproduction.substack.com

“I think of the boundary as in the pause. So your boundary is in the space between when someone asks you for something or offers something and you take your pause and then you can say yes, you can say no, or you can negotiate. So the boundary isn't the no, the boundary actually is the space. And then you decide how you're going to move. It's not a brick wall.” ~ Dr Pooja Lakshmin

We’re really excited to talk to Dr Pooja Lakshmin, a psychiatrist specialising in women's mental health, clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at the George Washington University School of Medicine, founder of Gemma, the digital community focused on women's mental health & equity, and a contributor to the New York Times.

Pooja works with women struggling with burnout, despair, depression and anxiety in her clinical practice and has a wider focus on the intersection of mental health and gender.

In this episode, Kaitlin and Pooja dug more deeply into how and why she helps women and marginalized groups heal from the tyranny of faux self-care while exposing the systems that have gotten us here.

Pooja and Kaitlin talk about:

• How Pooja came to the conclusion that the personal relates to all the systems in which we live, and thus revolutionizing the work we do in terms of self-care.
• Using ‘boundaries’ or ‘taking a pause’ as a tool for real self-care; a healthy ecosystem where a mother or carer considers their needs as part of the equation when asking for or accepting help.
• Several ways in which faux self-care can be conceptualized as a coping mechanism, the capitalistic view of productivity or efficiency being one example.
• How Pooja’s work as a psychiatrist and her expertise in the “deeply personal space of the individual” is creating ripples of societal/systems change

More about Dr Pooja Lakshmin

Website: https://www.poojalakshmin.com

Gemma: https://www.gemmawomen.com/ 

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

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pooja-lakshmin-md-a0343a129/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/poojalakshmin

Get your own copy of Real Self-Care: A Transformative Program for Redefining Wellness (Crystals, Cleanses, and Bubble Baths Not Included): https://bookshop.org/a/86159/9780593489727

Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and give us a rating. This will help us reach more listeners like you who are navigating the joys and pitfalls of artistic and parenting identities.

For regular updates:

Visit our website: postpartumproduction.com

Follow us on Instagram: @postpartumproductionpodcast

Subscribe to our podcast newsletter on Substack: https://postpartumproduction.substack.com

“The thing that has not changed for me is the need to protect the time that I need to achieve my creative goals. But the biggest barrier is [that] there's always more to do in that busy household. So you have to make a concerted effort to set aside that time.” ~ KJ Dell’Antonia

In this episode, Kaitlin is joined by KJ Dell’Antonia, the New York Times best-selling author of The Chicken Sisters, In Her Boots, How to Be a Happier Parent, and the forthcoming Playing the Witch Card in a compelling conversation about the intersection of caregiving, creative practice, and capitalism production, and the impressive journey KJ has taken in navigating those roles.

A former editor of the New York Times' Motherload blog, and cohost of The #AmWriting podcast, KJ lives in Lyme, New Hampshire, with her husband and four children, and she has to go outside every day or else she and her dogs will go slightly insane.

KJ and Kaitlin talked about:

• How KJ navigates the practicalities of juggling caregiving and creative practice and how she writes about parenting without disrespecting her children's private lives.
• The challenges of parenting while pursuing creative goals and how to find a balance between the two.
•  KJ's methodical approach to creativity and the importance of setting achievable goals.
• How to identify your own unique creative process and stay productive and happy with the work you do.
• The importance of finding dedicated thinking and working time for creative goals, despite the busyness of household life, and the need to protect that time.
• Finding balance in motherhood and creativity without compromising authenticity and finding real happiness.

More about KJ Dell’Antonia:

Website: https://kjdellantonia.com/

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

The #AmWriting podcast: https://amwriting.substack.com/

Pre-order your copy of Playing the Witch Card: https://bookshop.org/a/86159/9780593713792

Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and give us a rating. This will help us reach more listeners like you who are navigating the joys and pitfalls of artistic and parenting identities.

For regular updates:

Visit our website: postpartumproduction.com

Follow us on Instagram: @postpartumproductionpodcast

Subscribe to our podcast newsletter on Substack: https://postpartumproduction.substack.com

This episode features Kaitlin speaking with author and essayist Jazmina Barrera. Born in Mexico City in 1988, Jazmina is the author of four books in Spanish, Cuerpo Extraño, Cuaderno de Faros, Linea Nigra and the children’s books, Los Nombres de los Animales and Punto de Cruz, a recipient of the Latin American Voices prize and a finalist in several awards.

She’s the editor and co-founder of Ediciones Antílope and lives in Mexico City, which is where she was during this conversation.

Jazmina and Kailtin talk about:

• Jazmina’s journey in writing her latest book, Linea Nigra, especially given the way in which it is so deeply interwoven with her personal experiences of pregnancy and birth.
• The sense and effect of immediacy that comes across in the book, how she wrestled with it during the editorial process, and how it was received by publishers and readers in relation to what is generally considered ‘legitimate’ literature.
• How her mother's art practice and grandmother's birth work informed the world in which she was living prior to having a child and how that transition has also supported her life as an artist.
• The concept of time in our society today, how motherhood disrupts it, and how Jazmina conceptualizes it in her works.
• Linking materiality with lived experiences.

More about Jazmina Barrera:

Instagram: (@jaztronomia) https://www.instagram.com/jaztronomia/ 

Twitter: (@jaztronomia) https://twitter.com/Jaztronomia 

Website: http://jazminabarrera.com/ 

Get your own copy of Linea Nigra: An Essay on Pregnancy and Earthquakes (English translation by Christina Macsweeney) - https://bookshop.org/a/86159/9781949641301

For regular updates:

Visit our website: postpartumproduction.com

Follow us on Instagram: @postpartumproductionpodcast

Subscribe to our podcast newsletter on Substack: https://postpartumproduction.substack.com