Faces of Postpartum

For this week's episode, I talk with the Berlin-based wild witch of the colorful arts, NFT holy cvnt, solo mom, feminist-mystic and body-positive human, the one and only Yagama.

Yagama gives us a taste of the wild feminine as we talk about motherhood, womanhood, trauma and pain, ultimately coming to the conclusion that a village of feminine caretakers is all we need.

Enjoy.

In this episode, Jenna shares a story of hardships, resiliency, and generosity. After the birth of her first son in 2011, Jenna suffered from acute postpartum depression and landed in the Perinatal Psychiatry Inpatient Unit at the University of North Carolina - the same unit our founder, Ariane Audet, attended, six years after Jenna. She talks about this experience as the scariest of her existence, but also one that changed the trajectory of her professional and personal life. She also discusses electing to have a c-section for her own mental and physical health (and loving it), mothering after having lost her parents, and how often grief coexists with love. Finally, she shares her wisdom on how to better support postpartum people, her thoughts on screening for depression and anxiety, and how to help empower new parents in these challenging times. 

In this episode, I have the honor to talk with the hilarious Sarah Fraser. Sarah is a long-time radio personality, comedian and host of the ever funny podcast The Sarah Fraser Show.

After suffering from a molar pregnancy and gestational trophoblastic disease, she gave birth to a healthy son, the almighty KJ. While on the show, she openly discussed getting pregnant after 35 and being a "geriatric" mother. She talks about building a long and trusting relationship with your OB, being a high-risk pregnant person, and making feeding choices that make sense for you and your baby.

We discuss her postpartum journey and the normalcy of intrusive thoughts, mindful eating and loving our postpartum bodies, as well as the best documentaries out there: it wouldn't be much of an episode with Sarah Fraser if there weren't any pop-culture reference and celebrity gossips!

Selah Rhodes is the force behind Darity, an ethical apparel store for postpartum and pregnant humans, and mother of one spunky daughter. 

In this episode, she opens up about her difficult pregnancy, birth and postpartum period. She talks about how nothing could have prepared her for the challenges of welcoming a new human into her world, the mental load of being the breadwinner and primary care provider, anxiety, and how support from her family was incremental in making it through the first year of her child's life.

As a businesswoman, she questions our appetite for fast fashion, especially when it comes to pregnancy and postpartum clothes, and reflects on a more ethical way to not only shop but also conduct business.

This is a must-listen episode for every working parent out there trying to juggle it all.

Maria Nagawa is a joint Ph.D. student in the Public Policy and Political Science department at Duke University. She is also the mother of two angel babies who passed during two subsequent pregnancies after she went into preterm premature ruptures of the membranes due to cervical insufficiency. These two experiences led her to reevaluate how we can better support bereaved parents before, during, and after the loss of their child. Talking about these events, she advocates trauma-informed care from providers who practice evidence-based medicine and promote freedom of choices, independently of their medical preferences.

As a proud Ugandan woman, Maria discusses the cultural expectations when it comes to fertility and womanhood. She generously speaks up about the taboos behind miscarriages, stillbirth, and marriage challenges for women who suffer multiple pregnancy losses. 

Chelsea Skaggs is a life coach who specializes in early motherhood. She is also the force behind the accounts "The WFT Trimester" about the postpartum life and "Rewilding Family", dedicated to her family's full-time journey on the road. 

In this second appearance on the show, she talks about dropping all the "shoulds" and destructive "bounce back" narratives of ours lives. We discuss intimacy, marriage, and unschooling. Chelsea goes in-depth in what it means to her to unlearn and "uncondition" ourselves from societal expectations and to embrace "regression" instead of progress.

She gives tips about better communicating with your partner and being curious about oneself, especially after the arrival of children.

Amy Koppelman is a writer and director, known for A Mouthful of Air (2003), I Smile Back (2015) and Hesitation Wounds (2016). 

In this generous and raw episode, she shares her thoughts on postpartum depression, anxiety, and the use of art as a healing and advocacy tool. She discusses her own postpartum periods with her two children, now in their twenties, and shares her vulnerable (and spot-on) wisdom about how women can better support and empower other women. 

In this episode, Ariane and Mara Watts, therapist and outreach director for Postpartum Support Virginia, sat down with both Shelane’s mother and sister. Together they talked about Shelane’s bright life and how it abruptly came to an end. They discuss grief as a family, surviving the unimaginable, and finding meaning.

For this last (!!) episode of the season, I sit with Tiffany and Candy, the two sisters behind Like a Sister, a postpartum care and doula service based in the DMV area.

As parents, trained postpartum doula, certified lactation counselors and new parent educators, they share their knowledge and wisdom on how to prepare for this transition.

We also discuss politics, trauma-informed, support, and individualized care in the US, as well as social media, privilege, whiteness, and how to change the world — by caring for one postpartum human at a time.

In 2018, Erin became a mother and started filming her new documentary, Year One. The film is an intimate look at the first year of motherhood through Erin's eyes. It addresses the identity shifts, the challenges of experiencing postpartum depression, and the everyday extraordinary moments of being a new mom.

In this episode, Erin and I share our thoughts on honest representations of the postpartum period, what it means to be a creator and a mother, owning the SAHM (stay-at-home mom) title, and how to dream big and celebrate our journey, whatever it might be.

Casey’s Website: https://www.caseyrunckbirthdoula.com/
And Instagram: @tipsfromadoula