Ready or Not

How do you return to work after a pregnancy loss when you support pregnancy, mothers, and babies for a living?

This is the situation that Lactation Consultant, Midwife, Naturopath & Educator Joelleen Winduss Paye found herself in when she lost her baby girl 16 weeks into pregnancy. She experienced labour, her milk came in, and she somehow got through what she didn't think she could.

Here, Joelleen intimately walks us through it all: how she navigated it, how she returned to work after a postpartum that came much earlier than expected, and how we can better support parents experiencing loss.

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THIS WEEK'S SPONSOR

This episode is sponsored by Our Pilates, an online platform with over 150 physio-led Pilates classes.

To redeem your complimentary month of Our Pilates, simply head to their website and enter the code READYORNOT when you create an account and select their monthly membership option.

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Thanks for listening to Ready or Not! If you liked the show, please tell your friends, subscribe or write a review.You can also find us on Instagram at readyornot.pod.

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Boon Wurong people of the Kulin Nation. The land on which I''m lucky enough to raise my son always was and always will be Aboriginal land.

I Pay The Rent and you can too here.

Visit JWP Care here.

This month, Ready or Not is proudly brought to you by Yoto. Use our discount Code: READYORNOT15 for 15% off your Yoto device [not to be used with any other offer, valid from 1st May - 5th June.]

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome back to Witching Hour: the show that looks at what's exciting, delighting, intriguing, and frustrating us as we navigate making work, work alongside parenting.

In today's episode, we cover:

• Are you my momager? The burnout that millennial managers - particularly women and mothers - are experiencing in managing their team's emotional wellbeing, not just their workload. Plus, where do we draw the line between the personal and the professional and what should we expect from our bosses? (Find the piece and subscribe to our Ready or Not Substack channel here).
• Girl math is way more fun than the mental gymnastics of mum math and why we're afraid to admit that we spend money on anything that helps us parent (read the piece here).
• Workplace discrimination is rife for pregnant women and working parents, and why we're done with over apologising for taking sick days to tend to our sick kids (read the study here).
• Plus our Instagram community answer two of your questions: how to prepare financially for babies when considering trying to conceive, and making mum friends in a new town (submit your questions to our DMs via Instagram).
• Plus, Loz shares a mother's group tip.
• Just a heads up, there's a few swear words and we briefly touch on a story including attempted suicide in this episode.

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THIS WEEK'S SPONSOR

This episode is sponsored by Our Pilates, an online platform with over 150 physio-led Pilates classes. Keep listening to learn how you can receive a free month of access to Our Pilates.

To redeem your complimentary month of Our Pilates, simply head to their website and enter the code READYORNOT when you create an account and select their monthly membership option.

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Thanks for listening to Ready or Not! If you liked the show, please tell your friends, subscribe or write a review.

You can also find us on Instagram at readyornot.pod.

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Boon Wurong people of the Kulin Nation. The land on which I''m lucky enough to raise my son always was and always will be Aboriginal land.I Pay The Rent and you can too here.

This month, Ready or Not is proudly brought to you by Yoto. Use our discount Code: READYORNOT15 for 15% off your Yoto device [not to be used with any other offer, valid from 1st May - 5th June.]

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An hour in conversation with Amy Pearson feels a lot like a session with a business coach, which comes as no surprise given she splits her professional time between brand design, education, and mentoring. She's incredibly knowledgeable when it comes to her work, but more than that, she's generous and honest when it comes to making work, work alongside parenting.

She's a mother of two, She's the founder of Sun Mother Studio and Birth My Business and she's deeply passionate about helping mothers make money while finding purpose in their work.

Here, she talks us through the pivots that have led to the thriving, meaningful career she has today, her experience with postnatal anxiety and depression, the struggle that is navigating pregnancy alongside motherhood and career, and the importance of finding something outside of being a mother, even if just for an hour or two.

And just a head's up, Amy briefly touches on her father's prostate cancer diagnosis in this episode too.

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THIS WEEK'S SPONSOR

This episode is sponsored by Our Pilates, an online platform with over 150 physio-led Pilates classes. Keep listening to learn how you can receive a free month of access to Our Pilates.

To redeem your complimentary month of Our Pilates, simply head to their website and enter the code READYORNOT when you create an account and select their monthly membership option.

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Thanks for listening to Ready or Not! If you liked the show, please tell your friends, subscribe or write a review.

You can also find us on Instagram at readyornot.pod.This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Boon Wurong people of the Kulin Nation. The land on which I''m lucky enough to raise my son always was and always will be Aboriginal land.I Pay The Rent and you can too here.

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AMY'S LINKS:

• Follow Amy's work here.
• Listen to her original podcast, Mother/Other, here.
• Listen to hew newly released podcast, Brand Conversations, here.

This month, Ready or Not is proudly brought to you by Yoto. Use our discount Code: READYORNOT15 for 15% off your Yoto device [not to be used with any other offer, valid from 1st May - 5th June.]

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

[Just a heads up, there's a few swear words in this ep] Welcome to the first episode of Witching Hour, coming to your ears every Friday.

Think of Witching Hour as Ready or Not's loose little sister: a place to share what's exciting, delighting, intriguing, and frustrating us in the world of parenting and career.

She might be Lucinda on Ready or Not, but she's probably more likely to be Lu or Luce here, because on this podcast, we have a new co-host: Lucy's cousin who feels more like her sister, Loz.

We're both obsessed with how mothers and all parents make work, work, and each week, we'll be dissecting all things career, motherhood, feminism, identity, and more.

In today's episode, we cover:

• Loz's experience being made redundant while on maternity leave,
• Charlotte York Goldenblatt finally becomes somewhat relatable, and creates some boundaries with her children in And Just Like That, and Lisa Todd Wexley deals with her career-pregnancy crisis while her husband Herbert seemingly sleeps soundly through the night,
• The role that grandparents play in caregiving, and Loz's unique position in the granddad being the regular caregiver in her family, (Read Lucy's Substack piece here),
• Our Instagram followers answer this week's Instagram community questions: how do you approach pay rises and promotions when you're secretly pregnant or thinking about trying to conceive?
• And lastly, we have a few tips for sharing the mental load, and it's not just about sharing it with your partners. If you're the sister or daughter who wears the mental load for their family, this one's for you.

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Thanks for listening to Ready or Not! If you liked the show, please tell your friends, subscribe or write a review.You can also find us on Instagram at readyornot.pod.

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Boon Wurong people of the Kulin Nation. The land on which I''m lucky enough to raise my son always was and always will be Aboriginal land.I Pay The Rent and you can too here.

This month, Ready or Not is proudly brought to you by Yoto. Use our discount Code: READYORNOT15 for 15% off your Yoto device [not to be used with any other offer, valid from 1st May - 5th June.]

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you're an avid consumer of lifestyle and travel media in Australia, there's a fair chance you've pored over the intelligent words of Caroline Clements.

As one of the first editorial leaders in the very early days of Broadsheet, Caroline helped shape the publication into the authority on Australian city culture that it is today.

Since then, she's worked in editorial and production roles with some of the country's biggest magazines and brands, before taking her passion for storytelling to a new subject: swimming and its place in Australian culture.

Together with her partner Dillon, the author has published the wildly popular Places We Swim and Places We Swim Sydney, and has just handed in the manuscript for Places We Swim California.

Here, we talk working and parenting from a motorhome on the wide open roads of California, how she makes freelance life with studying work, and the couple's approach to 50/50 parenting.

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This episode is sponsored by Our Pilates, an online platform with over 150 physio-led Pilates classes. Keep listening to learn how you can receive a free month of access to Our Pilates.

To redeem your complimentary month of Our Pilates, simply head to their website and enter the code READYORNOT when you create an account and select their monthly membership option.

Thanks for listening to Ready or Not! If you liked the show, please tell your friends, subscribe or write a review.You can also find us on Instagram at readyornot.pod.

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Boon Wurong people of the Kulin Nation. The land on which I''m lucky enough to raise my son always was and always will be Aboriginal land.I Pay The Rent and you can too here.

This month, Ready or Not is proudly brought to you by Yoto. Use our discount Code: READYORNOT15 for 15% off your Yoto device [not to be used with any other offer, valid from 1st May - 5th June.]

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jemmason Power is an Aboriginal & South Sea Islander mother who lives in Meanjin Brisbane with her husband and her son. She works full time as a consultant & facilitator in indigenous cultural responsiveness, she was a lead actor in Stan's recent original series Black Snow, she's a model, and in a former life, she was also a professional netball player. She was born into a Pentecostal church, she played elite netball until she was 18 weeks pregnant while hiding her bump under baggy jumpers, and if you haven't picked it up by now, she'd led a colourful, busy life.

Here, we talk about landing a lead role in Stan's Black Snow and the whirlwind that was balancing filming with motherhood and returning to her regular 9-5 job after this otherworldly experience.

Jemma also reflects on how she got into modelling, the pressures that come with the cultural load of parenting an Indigenous child, why we feel like we owe someone that offers us help, and how looking back, she was always trying to fit herself into a palatable version of an Indigenous girl.

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This episode is sponsored by Our Pilates, an online platform with over 150 physio-led Pilates classes. Keep listening to learn how you can receive a free month of access to Our Pilates.

To redeem your complimentary month of Our Pilates, simply head to their website and enter the code READYORNOT when you create an account and select their monthly membership option.

Thanks for listening to Ready or Not! If you liked the show, please tell your friends, subscribe or write a review.You can also find us on Instagram at readyornot.pod.

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Boon Wurong people of the Kulin Nation. The land on which I''m lucky enough to raise my son always was and always will be Aboriginal land.I Pay The Rent and you can too here.

This month, Ready or Not is proudly brought to you by Yoto. Use our discount Code: READYORNOT15 for 15% off your Yoto device [not to be used with any other offer, valid from 1st May - 5th June.]

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You might not find a more honest conversation on motherhood and career than the one you're about to hear.

Ava Chandler Matthews is a mother and the co-founder of Ultra Violette, a skincare brand stocked at some of the biggest retailers in the world.

She went back to Ultra Violette at three months postpartum, she travels a lot, and while she loves her son to no end, she's open about missing her old life and not considering herself a particularly maternal person.

Here, we talk about some of the struggles she had with breastfeeding, postpartum anxiety, feeling like the business she founded didn't need her, and getting used to this new weight of responsibility.

While it never got to the stage where she genuinely thought she might harm herself, one night, her thoughts did lead her to wishing she had sustained a small injury just so she could spend one night alone in hospital.

She's so generous with her honesty and she walks us through it all.

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Thanks for listening to Ready or Not! If you liked the show, please tell your friends, subscribe or write a review.You can also find us on Instagram at readyornot.pod.

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Boon Wurong people of the Kulin Nation. The land on which I''m lucky enough to raise my son always was and always will be Aboriginal land.I Pay The Rent and you can too here.

PANDA’s National Perinatal Mental Health Helpline is Australia’s only free national helpline for people affected by changes to their mental health and emotional wellbeing during the perinatal period. They support people throughout pregnancy up until their baby is 12 months old.

If you need some support, call the PANDA National Helpline (Monday to Saturday) 1300 726 306

This month, Ready or Not is proudly brought to you by Yoto. Use our discount Code: READYORNOT15 for 15% off your Yoto device [not to be used with any other offer, valid from 1st May - 5th June.]

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Naomi Chrisoulakis is a freelance writer, postpartum doula, and a mother of two.

In the early days of her career, she cut her teeth in the magazine industry, working for the likes of Marie Claire and Cosmopolitan before a move to Los Angeles would lead her down the freelance route.

Moving home a year earlier than her husband to take an editor role at Women’s Health, it was during a four-day trip back to LA that Naomi fell pregnant, and her two births and postpartum periods couldn’t have been more different.

Here, she takes us through it all: her traumatic first birth, training to become a postpartum doula, the relationship challenges that so often come with parenthood, and how she makes work, work today.

From interviewing celebrities to caring for new families, from Los Angeles to the Illawarra, from birth trauma to an empowering home birth... Here is Naomi’s story.

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Thanks for listening to Ready or Not! If you liked the show, please tell your friends, subscribe or write a review.You can also find us on Instagram at readyornot.pod.

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Boon Wurong people of the Kulin Nation. The land on which I''m lucky enough to raise my son always was and always will be Aboriginal land.I Pay The Rent and you can too here.

PANDA’s National Perinatal Mental Health Helpline is Australia’s only free national helpline for people affected by changes to their mental health and emotional wellbeing during the perinatal period. They support people throughout pregnancy up until their baby is 12 months old.

Find Naomi on Instagram here.

If you need some support, call the PANDA National Helpline (Monday to Saturday) 1300 726 306

This month, Ready or Not is proudly brought to you by Yoto. Use our discount Code: READYORNOT15 for 15% off your Yoto device [not to be used with any other offer, valid from 1st May - 5th June.]

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

That daycare Q&A episode I've been rudely promising for three weeks now is finally here, and I am finally back from my holiday.

Given this episode is a bit different in nature, I also share a reflection on the first trimester of pregnancy number two and a recap on travelling to Bali with a toddler.

I mention sex, the perhaps naive surprise of this pregnancy, my disenchantment with pregnancy this time around (that essay that I mention can be found here), and more - so keep that in mind if you have children around or if you're navigating the challenge that can be trying to conceive.

Here are your daycare questions answered by Kabba in this episode:

• What to look for in a “good” daycare & what to ask when taking a tour?
• How would you ease them into it, in a perfect world?
• How do I know how much child care subsidy I’ll get
• Family day care or childcare – what’s the difference?
• All the pros and cons of starting daycare before the age of one. Help change my mindset and guilt!
• What babies learn at daycare and the benefits – to ease the awful guilt of sending them?
• How long should I stay and play for at drop off?
• How many days are recommended?
• Illnesses – is it better to start them older or younger?
• I don’t think my child is going to sleep on those mats and cots – what do I do?
• Tips for a previously easy drop off that has become hard and tearful for 2.5-year-old boy?
• Thoughts on story park or photo sharing apps for daycare parents?
• Why is it so hard to get your baby in care mid-year? Mum going back to work in September! Help!
• What parental behaviour frustrates you as an educator?
• For all the mums/parents that feel sad watching their baby cry as they leave – what are the things you say to parents to comfort them?
• Can childcare centres cater for children with diverse needs and what determines if a mainstream daycare would work for a child with disability or not?

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Thanks for listening to Ready or Not! If you liked the show, please tell your friends, subscribe or write a review. You can also find us on Instagram at readyornot.pod.

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Boon Wurong people of the Kulin Nation. The land on which I''m lucky enough to raise my son always was and always will be Aboriginal land. I Pay The Rent and you can too here.

This month, Ready or Not is proudly brought to you by Yoto. Use our discount Code: READYORNOT15 for 15% off your Yoto device [not to be used with any other offer, valid from 1st May - 5th June.]

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Manon Pietra is a diversity, equity and inclusion partner at Canva.

She's also the "other mum" as she puts it. That is, the non-birthing person in a two-mum family.

What I love most about this conversation is the reflections around what we assume to be a gendered experience, because while Manon and her wife may be similar when it comes to biology, that doesn't mean that Manon would go on to understand what her wife would go through in pregnancy, birth, and beyond.

Here, we talk about what she's learned about being the non-birthing mum, what to start and stop asking same sex parents, the importance of robust paid parental leave, and why we still return to work as though nothing has changed.

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Thanks for listening to Ready or Not! If you liked the show, please tell your friends, subscribe or write a review.You can also find us on Instagram at readyornot.pod.

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Boon Wurong people of the Kulin Nation. The land on which I''m lucky enough to raise my son always was and always will be Aboriginal land.I Pay The Rent and you can too here.

This month, Ready or Not is proudly brought to you by Yoto. Use our discount Code: READYORNOT15 for 15% off your Yoto device [not to be used with any other offer, valid from 1st May - 5th June.]

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.