Trauma isn’t always about what happened - sometimes it’s about what didn’t.

Lisa already felt anxious and lonely navigating pregnancy, birth, and postpartum in a new country without the safety net of family or maternity care in her mother tongue. But this sense of isolation was only compounded by the absence of safety, connection, and support when Lisa’s newborn was rushed away to the special care nursery without explanation, leaving her alone for hours.

With her concerns about her baby’s reflux dismissed for weeks, access to a mother’s group denied because she was a second-time mum, and her mental health symptoms overlooked because she didn’t ‘look’ depressed - no matter where she turned, Lisa never felt seen, heard, or held.

In fact, depression, PTSD, insomnia, and rage consumed her life for several years until she found the right psychologist who finally made her feel seen, heard, and held.

Lisa’s story emphatically stresses the importance of connection and being held during the perinatal period. Now, through her work, she helps create the very community she needed, and offers a message of hope for others walking the same path.

In this episode, we explore:

• the added layers of isolation as an immigrant

• the vital role of compassion and humanity in maternity care

• the path to recovery with IFS, EMDR, neurofeedback, meditation, and Maternal Journal

• the reminder that the bond with our baby is capable of repair

• the need to advocate - always - for ourselves and for our children

Tune in to Lisa’s breath-taking story of trauma, healing, and reclaiming her power.

When Amber-Lee found herself unexpectedly pregnant, she knew life was about to change - but nothing could have prepared her for the profound impact that a complicated pregnancy, birth, and postpartum period would have on her mental health.

In this powerful episode, I’m joined by Amber-Lee from @thepowerofbirth and host of Can We Talk About This? who candidly shares her personal experience of perinatal mental ill health with unflinching honesty. From two unexpected pregnancies to the debilitating effects of hyperemesis gravidarum (HG), birth trauma, PTSD, rage, depression, and anxiety - no part of her experience is off limits.

Through both humour and grace, Amber-Lee touches on:

• The shock and emotional weight of unexpected pregnancies

• The physical and psychological toll of hyperemesis gravidarum (HG)

• Navigating birth trauma and injury as a new mother

• How postpartum PTSD and rage can manifest - and why we need to talk about them

• The importance of normalising maternal ambivalence

• The struggle of being ‘the strong one’ while silently suffering

• What healing looks like and why talking about perinatal mental health matters

Wherever you are on your journey, Amber-Lee’s story reminds us that it’s not your fault, your experience matters, recovery is possible, and you’re allowed to laugh to cope.

These conversations matter. So let’s keep talking about it.

Please note, this episode discusses the lived experience of an unexpected and unwanted pregnancy. Go gently.

After a blissful experience with her first son, it never occurred to Jess that a subsequent pregnancy and postpartum could be any different - until she found out she was pregnant with twins.

From real and perceived health complications, Jess’s mental health rapidly declined with every intrusive thought and compulsion that took over her life. The increased caretaking demands of parenting multiples and a toddler only compounded the feeling that she wasn’t enough for her children. Despite being cared for by the local acute mental health team, Jess started to experience hallucinations and psychosis.

This is one mother’s heart-wrenching story that epitomises the painful realities of experiencing a perinatal mental illness: of your children being both your motivation to get better and your trigger; of wanting to keep your children safe but feeling unsafe in your own body and mind; and of wanting the best for your children but feeling like they’re better off without you.

This is Jess’s story. And it isn’t a story to miss.

Like many mothers, Sarah from The Pesky Placenta Society struggled to decipher whether her pregnancy symptoms were ‘normal’ or something more sinister. But with a pre-existing chronic illness, Sarah also had to confront her complicated relationship with health anxiety. Unfortunately, the concerns she raised were proven to be more than ‘just anxiety’ when at 35 weeks pregnant, Sarah nearly died from pre-eclampsia - or what she refers to as “her pesky placenta”.

This is a story about the challenges of navigating both mental ill health and physical ill health in pregnancy; about fighting to be believed and to believe yourself; about the trauma that comes with nearly dying during what is supposed to be the happiest time of your life; about the struggles of bonding with your baby when your brain tells you that mothering is a barrier to your healing; and about the power of pre-emptive planning to protect your mental health. Most importantly, it is a story about hope that with the right support, things will get better.

This is Sarah’s story.

As a self-confessed ‘flaming extrovert’, Lauren struggled with the isolating and all-consuming eat-play-sleep-bathe-repeat cycle of early motherhood. By six months postpartum, the newborn ‘love bubbles’ that she felt so intensely after both of her births became overshadowed by the onset of postpartum depression.

From IVF, miscarriage, severe pregnancy health complications, to two traumatic births, this depression was only the latest in a long line of anxiety and trauma that Lauren experienced on the journey to motherhood.

In this powerful episode, Lauren opens up about her mental health during her pregnancy and postpartum with both of her daughters, and shares with us what helped her through this time - from the PANDA National Helpline (1300 726 306), medication, talk therapy, EMDR, and a psychiatric hospital admission, to her supportive and loving partner, Alex.

While walking the sunny halls of the psychiatric hospital, Lauren created her blog ‘Mental as a Mother’ and is now a volunteer for PANDA. You can follow Lauren on Instagram as @mental.asamother where she hilariously shares all things motherhood, mental health, fertility, and feminism - while wearing her signature bold lip, of course.