Post-partum

The mornings are crisp, the leaves on our maple are turning yellow and the pumpkin vines are dying off - it must be Autumn! In many non-western cultures, Autumn is considered a time of letting go of what we don’t need and turning inward so we can work on hibernation and consolidation over winter. At a time when westerners intuitively turn to nourishing soups and stews over crunchy salads, we are wise to recognise the ancient knowledge systems that encourage this transition. The ancient Indian Ay…

In the B.C. (before children) era of my life I was fascinated by seeing women all around the world wearing their babies. Vietnamese mums worked rice paddies with babies on their backs, Peruvian women walked steep streets wearing their children in traditional “manta” blankets, and in the national parks of New Zealand families trekked carting their kids in impressive purpose-built carriers. Then I had my own baby, and I quickly realised that what looked so easy could be a double-edged sword.

Baby…

There’s nothing quite like a horror bushfire season and a pandemic to make me thankful for mammalian breasts (my own, to be precise). Yes the first six or eight weeks of breastfeeding my little leech were relentless, those later patches of cluster feeding were a smash, and then the teeth started coming... but right now being my child’s portable milk bar has never felt so reassuring.

Earlier in the year as fires raged across as Australia, a piece from The Conversation about what to pack in b…

While birthing in the midst of a global pandemic does pose great challenges to mums and their healthcare providers, the COVID-19 era presents newborn mothers with incredible opportunities for a truly restful, rejuvenating and loved-up postpartum period. This may sound counterintuitive in a chaotic world, but it is possible that your experience of early motherhood, be this your first or third baby, could be the most beautiful time of your life, with better breastfeeding and bonding outcomes than …