Pregnancy, labor, and delivery are hard enough. But having a baby in NICU is terrifying and can be traumatic. Kristin Reinhart is a social worker and perinatal mental health specialist with 15 years of experience. More importantly, she’s a mom who survived 2 NICU experiences. She’s here to share her experience, how to know when you need help, and how to help a NICU mom. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/3a8NlFs Book a Free 15 min Consult with a mom therapist: happyasamother.co/wellness Follow Happy as ...
Oct 06, 2021•57 min•Ep. 89
Pregnancy is a time with lots of new restrictions, and it can feel like we’re losing our freedom. A lot of those new rules stick around during nursing too. With so many “Don’ts,” how do we know what’s okay? Can everything really be that bad for the baby? OB-GYN Dr. Jennifer Lincoln is going to help us unpack the effects of alcohol, CBD, and cannabis during pregnancy and nursing. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/2ZEmGyp Book a Free 15 min Consult with a mom therapist: happyasamother.co/wellness Follow ...
Sep 29, 2021•46 min•Ep. 88
Do you work as a mother or spend time on a hobby? Motherhood is hard enough without losing those other pieces of ourselves that are so important. But society has a clear idea of what a mom should be, and it’s not always juggling corporate calls and leaving daycare pick up to your partner. Dr. Courtney Tracy the Truth Doctor is going to help us unpack unspoken messages to moms and why we should ignore them. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/3AwLHJq Book a Free 15 min Consult with a mom therapist: happya...
Sep 22, 2021•56 min•Ep. 87
New babies are snuggly and adorable, but they’re also a lot of work. Everyone tells us we need to babyproof our house, but no one tells us we need to babyproof our relationship. Or where do we even start to do that? Happy as a Mother Wellness Therapist Kameela Osman is a social worker and psychotherapist with over ten years of experience, and she’s here to help us babyproof our relationship. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/3nw4qB7 Book a Free 15 min Consult with a mom therapist: happyasamother.co/wel...
Sep 15, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 86
Are you well rested today? I’m not! Moms don’t get a lot of sleep, and new moms get almost none. This can be hard on our brain. Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is here to explain how we can best care for our brains during seasons of life when getting a full night’s sleep is all but impossible. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/2X4SGKW Book a Free 15 min Consult with a mom therapist: happyasamother.co/wellness Follow Happy as a Mother on Instagram: instagram.com/happyasamother Sign up for our weekly VIP Newslette...
Sep 08, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 85
Growing a whole human and keeping it alive can feel daunting! What are you not allowed to eat while you’re pregnant? More importantly, what can you actually eat? How do you know? And the decisions don’t get easier once the baby comes. Am I damaging my child for life if I sleep train because sleep deprivation is getting to us all? What if there was an easy way to make these decisions? And what if every new study didn’t contradict the one before? Emily Oster is a professor at Brown University and ...
Sep 01, 2021•57 min•Ep. 84
Have you ever been on your way out the door, and then one of your kids flopped on the ground like a fish, because they wanted a different color backpack? Or put a well-fed and properly hydrated preschooler to bed only to have them come out of their room 5 minutes later and ask for a drink? These moments can be frustrating, but a lot of times, it’s the moving from one thing to another that actually drives the child’s behaviour. Dr. Ann-Louise Lockhart is a pediatric psychologist specializing in h...
Aug 25, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 83
If you’re an expecting mother, are you set on breastfeeding? If you already have a child, did your feeding journey go as expected? As moms, we often feel a lot of pressure to get everything right, and feeding is often our first introduction to this. Pressure comes from both ourselves and others to make our feeding experience go according to plan. Johanna Phillips, a registered social worker and one of our Wellness Center Therapists, is here to talk with us about breastfeeding and mental health. ...
Aug 18, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 82
Do you find yourself constantly thinking about the glass of wine you’re going to have at the end of the day? Do you feel a pull to have a drink throughout the day when things get hard? Are the majority of your social events with other moms centered around drinking? Mommy wine culture has been made into a lighthearted merchandisable topic that can have serious consequences for those who find themselves trapped in it. While it may be fun and lighthearted for some, for others it can quickly grow in...
Aug 11, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 81
Do you have a child starting kindergarten this year? That’s always a huge transition, but this year is even more of a transition than usual. Many of our kids haven’t been out of the house in a year and a half, and we haven’t been away from them in that amount of time either. Preparing for this transition and making sure your child is ready has always been a source of parent stress, and this year kinder prep is more important than ever. Learning Specialist and Behavior Analyst Cori Stern is here ...
Aug 04, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 80
Have you ever been in a medical situation where you felt completely powerless? Have you ever had decisions made about yours or your child's care and felt like your voice was not heard?? There are so many situations that can cause medical post traumatic stress syndrome, and these are just a couple. Since so many mothers experience medical PTSD, I thought it would be a good idea to unpack what medical post traumatic stress syndrome really is and what we can do about it. Clinical psychologist Dr. Q...
Jul 28, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 79
Do you find that you get irritable the week before your cycle? Do you find that your mood or anxiety fluctuate depending on where you are in your cycle? You are not the only one, it is not a secret that our hormones play an important role in our overall mental health. Dr. Nichelle Haynes, a Perinatal Psychiatrist who focuses on mental health during infertility, pregnancy, postpartum, and parenting will help us understand when those mood swings might be premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Show Notes...
Jul 21, 2021•56 min•Ep. 78
How old were you the first time you heard the word consent used in connection with your body? For a lot of us, it was the tail end of some really bad high school video. But teaching kids consent—both that they own their body and are in charge of who touches and respecting others boundaries—can start a lot earlier than that. Psychotherapist Jessica VanderWier will help us understand what consent looks like for kids and how to teach it early on. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/3kmbIGd Book a Free 15 mi...
Jul 14, 2021•57 min•Ep. 77
I remember when I was getting ready to have my first baby and researching all the options out there—it can be so overwhelming! When it’s your first child, it’s hard to know what your birth plan should include, and as useful as the internet is, not all information is created equally. Mommy Labor Nurse and Registered Nurse Liesel Teen is here to help us understand what actually needs to go into a birth plan, how to advocate for yourself, and what to do when labor doesn’t go as planned or your expe...
Jul 07, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 76
It’s six weeks postpartum. Your OB/GYN visit went well. Exciting things are happening. If you had a c-section, you can likely drive again, and you’re probably cleared for sex too. But are you really ready? You may still be bleeding six weeks after a baby. Even if your body has completely healed, are you really ready? Are you prepared mentally after the trauma of giving birth and the mental toll of being responsible for a new human? Board-certified women’s health physical therapist Dr. Sarah Rear...
Jun 30, 2021•59 min•Ep. 75
If your best friend called you upset because her baby has a horrible diaper rash that she blamed herself for, would you hop on the bandwagon and agree that it was her fault? Or would you offer suggestions to get rid of the rash and remind her that it happens? If she lost her cool on her toddler, would you scold her? Or would you respond with care? Now imagine your own child has a bumpy red bottom or you are the one who lost their cool, would you respond the same way? Probably not. Most of us can...
Jun 23, 2021•55 min•Ep. 74
Do you ever feel yourself snapping at your kids or partner when you’re not even angry, you’re just overwhelmed. That’s called overstimulation and it happens when your brain has 50 tabs open and trying to move back and forth is both frustrating and overwhelming. I find myself wanting to wear ear plugs around the house just so that I can hear myself think. Noise is one of the many sensory factors that contribute to the sensory overload that many parents experience. Larissa Geleris, an occupational...
Jun 16, 2021•58 min•Ep. 73
Did you know that most moms will report experiencing some amount of memory loss during the postpartum period? If you can’t remember what you ate for breakfast, it’s okay! No other mom can either. As a mom of three boys I can totally relate to the forgetfulness and brain fog that sets in during those early postpartum days. Mom brain can be annoying—who wants to forget why they walked into a room—but it doesn’t have to be bad. Dr. Jodi Pawluski is here today to help us understand the physical and ...
Jun 09, 2021•56 min•Ep. 72
Did you know that the majority of mothers experience scary and intrusive thoughts in the postpartum period, but feel so much shame they hardly talk about it? Even worse, these intrusive thoughts can become debilitating and take control of a mother's life leading to postpartum Obsessive compulsive disorder(OCD).” For a lot of people, a thought like that might trigger extreme shame and guilt, causing PPOCD to be one of the most commonly misdiagnosed perinatal mood and anxiety disorders. Because OC...
Jun 02, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 71
Understanding how your brain works is incredibly empowering. Maybe your go-to emotion is rage when your brain is at capacity or perhaps your brain gets stuck in anxious overdrive. Or perhaps your child's brain gets flooded with big emotions that appear as frequent tantrums, which leaves you feeling like they are intentionally disobeying. If we understand how the brain influences our emotions, we can discover our best coping skills. Neuroanatomist Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor joins us to talk about the ...
May 26, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 70
Motherhood can be an all encompassing journey. It’s hard to know when we’re not doing enough, and when we’re doing too much. The stakes have never been higher—you are protecting and raising a human being. The weight of the responsibility is real. But should motherhood have to cost your identity? Do you truly need to devote every cell of your being to your children? Our guest Dr. Sophie Brock is a sociologist specializing in motherhood studies—her work is so interesting I’ve become a student of h...
May 19, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 69
Regulating our own emotions can be difficult enough. Adding a wonderful little bundle of joy who also wakes up at 3 a.m. and may scream loud enough to alert the whole neighborhood can really complicate matters. And there seems to be anxiety around how our triggered moments might affect our children and what they think of us. Clinical psychologist Dr. Tanya Cotler specializes in infant mental health and attachment is here to help us understand parent/child attachment. And the good news is we’re m...
May 12, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 68
Parenting during a pandemic has been so hard! And now a swiftly developed vaccine has been rolled out, and members of my community have expressed a lot of anxiety about how safe these new vaccines might be during pregnancy and nursing. Dr. Marta Perez is an OB-GYN and she’s agreed to explain to us the risks of the vaccine versus not being vaccinated for pregnant or nursing people. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/3ejUjdH Book a Free 15 min Consult with a mom therapist: happyasamother.co/wellness Follo...
May 05, 2021•57 min•Ep. 67
Has your relationship with your mother changed since becoming a mother? Author, international speaker, and transformation coach Bethany Webster has been here with us before to talk about the mother wound, and it really resonated with my community. So many people had questions about Bethany’s work, so she’s back today to answer audience-submitted questions. And as a special surprise, we’ll end with how to get a free offering if you feel you need additional resources. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/3d...
Apr 28, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 66
We enter into motherhood with the promise of a village of support, and when we get here it can feel surprisingly lonely. The isolation felt in motherhood is a topic that has come up a lot in sessions with my clients and with the pandemic forcing even more isolation, a season of life that could already be lonely to navigate has become even tougher for some of us. So, I asked Dr. Miriam Kirmayer here to help us navigate maintaining friendships and how to form new ones. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/3...
Apr 21, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 65
Codependent habits and behaviours can prevent us from having meaningful relationships with our children and partners. We all want our children to grow up to be independent, but should that really be the goal? And is there ever a point in childhood when codependency is an acceptable norm? Psychotherapist Sian Crossley is here today to help us understand the complexities of codependency and codependent relationships and why we should all be striving for interdependence. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/...
Apr 14, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 64
From the outside, everyone saw her as a successful woman and mother. Melissa met her partner when she was 19, had six children, and co-founded a well-known global toy company. But her happiness was far from the truth as she battled depression and kept it hidden for many years. Melissa was feeling smothered and resentment was building as she was sacrificing her own dreams to serve others. Join Melissa and I as we talk about her personal journey with depression, how she was able to become the woma...
Apr 07, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 63
Nothing tests us more than being a parent. One of those stages is dealing with potty training, bedwetting, and accidents. As parents, we become overwhelmed from information overload and are anxious as we navigate this time with our child. Today, we will look at all things potty training, bedwetting, and accidents from a medical perspective. Join Steve and I as we discuss the time to start potty training, why you need to pay attention to your child’s poop, the impact constipation can have, and wh...
Mar 31, 2021•49 min•Ep. 62
Screens have become such an integrated part of our lives and are so accessible. We can feel torn between using screens as a tool and feeling like we shouldn't use them because we've been told they're bad for our kids. Then to top it off, we have the pressure and worries of the pandemic as we navigate working from home and distance learning. Instead of approaching screen time as all-or-nothing, it’s best to look at the value and purpose of screen time in different situations. Ultimately, screen t...
Mar 24, 2021•58 min•Ep. 61
It’s time for a replay episode on a topic that raises so many questions for parents. Have you and your partner struggled to find your groove postpartum? Do you find it hard to prioritize each other and sex while juggling all. of. the. roles and responsibilities of being parents? Join the club! So many women I speak with wonder why they have no sex drive or why they struggle with arousal. Sex is a hot topic! Tune in today as Dr. Tracy Dalgleish and I explore the reasons why and help you to better...
Mar 17, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 60
