In this episode, I chatted to Alka to talk about her journey into parenthood. Originally from India, Alka grew up in New Zealand before moving to Australia in her mid twenties. Alka shared her story of early motherhood — from a breech pregnancy and c-section birth, to triple feeding and breastfeeding, co-sleeping, and the very sad loss of her mum when her daughter was 10 months old. We also talk about what it was like parenting without nearby family support, with both their families living overs...
Jul 20, 2025•58 min
Hello, we have some updates in today’s episode! Raising two children stretches you in every way, and in Chels’ experience is not ‘getting easier’ as they get older. We also touch on our hormones and cycles post kids, with a shout out to a free, online Hormone masterclass happening tomorrow night (details below!). Finally, we share what’s helping us find some pockets of peace in this season. Things we mention: Caitlin, the @unmaskednaturopath is running a free and online Hormone Reset Masterclass...
Jun 22, 2025•19 min
In this episode, we are joined by Lily from Leid by Design @leidbydesign (previously known as Launch Mama). Lily is a mother to two, and a certified Career and Corporate Psychology Practitioner. Lily joins us on the podcast to answer the question of how we can better align our careers with our motherhood identities and demands. The intersection between career and motherhood is such a complex, multifaceted one and looks different for us all. We talk: imposter syndrome, and common challenges par...
Jun 15, 2025•32 min
How long do you have? In all seriousness, we love dads, and millennial dads are absolutely raising the bar on what it looks like to be a father. This chat is about society, and why dads seem to get praised for their parenting while mums are just… plain old parenting (and complaining about it on their hot mum walks, IYKYK). Our listeners had a lot to say on this one when we opened the polls up – 96% of you thought that dads do get more praise for parenting. Is it because of deeply entrenched trad...
Jun 09, 2025•19 min
Wow, this episode is so powerful and so precious. Hayley joins us on the podcast to share her story with Harry, her beautiful son who is now 4 years old and absolutely thriving. Hayley and her partner, Jordan, welcomed their boy into the world at just 24 weeks old, weighing a tiny 700 grams. Harry spent the first 16 weeks of his life in the NICU after being born so prematurely, miraculously coming home on his due date. Hayley talks us through her entire story, from her joy at falling pregnant, t...
Jun 01, 2025•1 hr 2 min
Ideally, we’d be raising our children in community – with others from different generations, backgrounds and skill-sets. Somebody to entertain the older kids, somebody to focus on feeding, to plan the day, to tend to the mothers in early postpartum, to hold sleeping babies, to help with laundry. In reality, most of us are doing all of this tending by ourselves, and mostly in isolation. In this episode, Alice ( @themodern.doula ) joins the podcast to chat about all things modern day village. Alic...
May 25, 2025•28 min
Today’s episode is a playback episode from the early days of the podcast – when it was run solely by Chelsea. In this important conversation, Chels was joined by Cleo (she/her), who is now a mother to two beautiful boys. Cleo spoke with Chels back in 2023, just after her first son had turned one. Before becoming parents, Cleo and her husband lived busy lives socialising, DJing, and wining and dining their way around Geelong. Having always struggled with her mental health, she thought postnatal d...
May 12, 2025•1 hr 15 min
In today’s episode we are joined by the incredible Zoe , who shares her experience with egg freezing here in Naarm/Melbourne. Zoe shares her experience from the perspective of a single woman in her 30s living with PCOS. She talks us through the decision to undertake egg retrieval, the process itself, practicalities of the procedure and how she was feeling along the way. Zoe also discusses her experience with ovarian hyperstimulation, a complication that can occur following egg retrieval. Zoe is ...
May 04, 2025•45 min
We are so excited to bring you this episode with Mikaela Ladocki . We had a beautiful chat with Mikaela all about her motherhood story. She speaks on her births and postpartum experiences with her two children, postpartum during covid, navigating breastfeeding challenges and choosing to formula feed, navigating the return to work after parental leave, showing up authentically on social media, and how she prioritises herself in motherhood even when it’s hard. It’s a beautiful chatty episode – Mik...
Apr 27, 2025•54 min
In today’s snappy ep we are discussing the “7 types of rest” through the lens of motherhood. Have you heard of them? This is such an important conversation for mothers and new parents, when our most obvious form of rest (AKA sleep) goes out the window. We chat through the 7 types and how they can show up in motherhood. The 7 types of rest were identified by Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith, a US physician. She describes ways to incorporate rest and restoration in these 7 different aspects of our lives: ...
Apr 21, 2025•18 min
Today's ep is with Jane of @doingmotherhood . Jane is a mother of two and a mental health occupational therapist specialising in matrescence and the perinatal period, currently working at @themindfulbirthmovement . Jane joins us to discuss: Matrescence from an occupational therapist’s POV and why it can be such a challenging time for our sense of self, confidence and functioning What a mental health perinatal occupational therapist does and how they can help mothers navigate changes in their fun...
Apr 14, 2025•42 min
Welcome to the first episode of our new segment – How Do I – a series where we unpack questions that have been on our minds – sometimes with wonderful experts, sometimes between us, your co-hosts, and often with experiences shared by you, our beautiful listeners. This series has been designed to answer your targeted questions, and leave you with practical takeaways. In our first How Do I , we are joined by a return guest, Caitlin, for a timely ep on co-regulation as we head into the Victorian sc...
Apr 06, 2025•38 min
In this week's ep, we have Part 2 of our conversation with Amy Pearson of @sunmotheramy. This chat focuses on neurodiversity - on Amy's experience raising a child who is neurodivergent and how that journey impacted her understanding and learning of her own ADHD. We chose to split this interview into two parts because Amy speaks openly and honestly on the experience of having a highly sensitive baby, and we hope this ep reaches anyone who is navigating a similar experience. From another mama with...
Mar 30, 2025•30 min•Season 4Ep. 4
In today's ep we bring you a conversation with Amy Pearson, aka the brains, beauty and impact behind Sun Mother ( @sunmotheramy ). Amy is a mother to two, and a Brand and Marketing Strategist + Coach. She joins us on the podcast to chat all things motherhood, identity and career. She reflects on her matrescence journeys, building a business while raising a family, and some musings on motherhood now her kids are a little bit more grown. Join our community on instagram @growingupraisinguspodcast...
Mar 23, 2025•42 min•Season 4Ep. 3
How did you know you were done having kids, if you ever had that feeling at all? It’s something that is shaped by so many factors—practical, emotional, and unexpected. Fertility and financial pressures, not seeing eye to eye with your partner, feeling completely ‘done’ or maybe not at all. We wanted to explore what really influences this decision, and we asked our listeners. The response was huge. As we’ve been putting this episode together, so many people have reached out—whether they’re still ...
Mar 10, 2025•50 min
Hello hello! We are finally back for the year and so excited to be in your ears. We are back with a chatty welcome back - Chels walks us through the experience of her second daughter self-weaning (a very different experience from her first) and Em recaps how much the movie, Nightbitch, resonated with her. You can expect 3 episodes a month from us this season, with a highly requested In Your Words episode coming to you next week. Join our community on instagram @growingupraisinguspodcast ...
Mar 03, 2025•28 min
Thank you so much for joining us for our first year of Growing Up Raising Us . We wouldn’t have been able to do it without your messages of support, listens, shares, words of wisdom, and contribution to our growing community. We are so grateful to you all. This year we had: ✨Thirty-six incredible guests ✨Twenty-nine podcast eps ✨So many beautiful DMS and messages of impact ✨One billion voice-note exchanges between your co-hosts Your top episodes for this year were: Sarah’s story of losing her so...
Dec 09, 2024•15 min
We recently asked you how prepared you felt for your first postpartum experience and over 40% of you said you didn’t feel prepared at all. So we wanted to bring out an episode to help change that. In this episode, we are joined by Olivia, a postpartum doula, registered nurse and founder of Back to Nourishing Mamas. Olivia joins us to chat about why it’s so important to feel supported and held in postpartum, as well as how to prepare for a warm and nourishing postpartum for all mothers - includin...
Nov 18, 2024•41 min
We’ve had lots of beautiful new listeners join us recently so a warm hello to you 👋 we’re Chelsea + Emma! We host this podcast - our incredible passion project - alongside our paid work and motherhood. Chels has 2 daughters, is a teacher and has recently moved to a sweet little town in central Vic. Em is mother to 1 boy and works in research and data analysis. We’re in our 30s and launched this pod to share stories of birth, mothering and parenthood so we can learn and grow from the collective ...
Nov 11, 2024•43 min
Welcome to our next incredible ‘In Your Words’ episode, which is on the topic of positive hospital birth experiences. In Australia, over 97% of births take place in a hospital, which for some of us can be an unfamiliar or even scary place. We really wanted to put this episode together to hear our listeners’ perspectives on what a positive birth means to them, and hear the meaning and beauty behind their experience birthing in a hospital supported by incredible midwives and care staff. Our hope i...
Nov 04, 2024•54 min
Today we have a jam-packed episode for you with the incredible Amy, an internationally certified Infant and Child Sleep Consultant, the Founder of Little Dreamers and co-founder of Beyond Sleep School, as well as a Mum of 3! Amy joins us to chat all things family sleep and ditching social expectations around sleep, as well as her advice on a few of your own listener sleep issues. If sleep is impacting your family in this season of life, Amy is the perfect person to listen to. She is so positive,...
Oct 28, 2024•1 hr 8 min
today we have a lovely episode for you with the wonderful Eleni, mother to three girls including 3.5 year old twins, Cleo and Lola, and 10 month old Hazel. Eleni joins us to share her motherhood journey, including her challenging pregnancy and planned caesarean section birth with her fraternal twin girls, as well as how she navigated the newborn days with two babies. She shares her feeding journey with the twins, covering tandem breastfeeding, triple feeding and the decision to move to formula f...
Oct 14, 2024•58 min
Hello beautiful listeners, today we are chatting all things body image. We grew up in the noughties which was, quite frankly, a shit storm of body shaming, narrow media representation, and unchecked messaging that weight and image somehow related to our value. We reflect on the early experiences that influenced our body image and how we think about our bodies, the impossible social expectations and narratives we’re all existing within, and how our body image ebbed and flowed in pregnancy and pos...
Oct 07, 2024•57 min
In this episode, we're joined by Joelleen Winduss Paye (she/her), an IBCLC holistic lactation consultant, midwife, naturopath, educator and mother. Joelleen joined us on the podcast to share her journey into motherhood, and how her professional work as a midwife of 13+ years and holistic lactation consult has informed her own decisions around pregnancy, birth and postpartum care. Joelleen shares with us her two births - the birth and loss of her daughter at 16 weeks, followed by the birth of her...
Sep 30, 2024•45 min
In today’s episode, we are joined by the incredible Victoria Prince of Prince Dressed - a fashion stylist here in Melbourne / Naarm. Victoria actually interviewed us for a change! She took us through her styling questionnaire and we learnt SO much about our own personal style and our style inspiration. Victoria went through current style trends with us, shared so many tips on making your wardrobe work better for you, and really inspired us to have a bit more fun with our dressing. This is such a...
Sep 23, 2024•56 min
In today’s beautiful episode we are joined by Lilly Lowrey (she/her) @softcentre , a full spectrum birth and postpartum doula who lives on Bunurong Country in the South-Eastern region of Melbourne with her wife Bec (she/her), and their daughter, Minna. Lilly joins us to share her experience into motherhood and reflects on the first months of her daughter’s life earthside. She shares her journey conceiving, birthing and raising beautiful Minna, as well as her two miscarriages or early births that...
Sep 09, 2024•58 min
Hello beautiful listeners, today we have an episode very close to Emma’s heart - a father’s day interview with Em’s own dad, Michael. ✨️✨️ This felt a bit selfish to record and put out there, to have this incredible memory and recording forever of speaking with my dad of his experience becoming a father and raising me, alongside my mum. Much of what I try to emulate in my parenting is from how he raised me - his calmness; his unwavering, unconditional love; his love of learning and self growth; ...
Sep 02, 2024•40 min
Hello beautiful listeners, today Chels and Em are chatting about all things weaning from breastfeeding. At the start of this episode, we are joined by the incredible Joelleen Winduss Paye - an IBCLC holistic lactation consultant (+ midwife, naturopath and educator) who shares her expert insights on the hormonal shifts and emotions that may accompany weaning. Chels and Em go on to discuss their own experiences weaning their toddlers, including their decisions to wean, what the experience was like...
Aug 26, 2024•44 min
Welcome to our next incredible ‘In Your Words’ episode, which is on the topic of co-parenting. In Your Words is a newer segment in which we hear directly from multiple parents about their experiences. Prompted by a beautiful listener, we dedicated this episode to all things co-parenting and were blown away by the wisdom and generosity of the guests who shared their experiences with us, and who you’ll hear from today. We asked our four guests to share their own experience with co-parenting, think...
Aug 19, 2024•39 min
Hello beautiful listeners, today we have a really important episode for you all about perinatal mental health in new parents and families. We are joined by the incredible Frances Bilbao, a clinical psychologist, founder of Mums Matters Psychology , and mother of three. Frances joins us to discuss: The statistics around new parents’ mental health in Australia What experiences or changes may be expected or common in the perinatal period The signs and symptoms of perinatal anxiety and depression In...
Jul 15, 2024•1 hr 5 min
