Doula Talk Blog & Podcast
Welcome. This is a space for thoughtful guidance, honest conversations, and practical insight for the postpartum period and first year.
Here you’ll find blog posts and podcast episodes that help you make sense of sleep, feeding, recovery, and the emotional load of early parenthood. My goal is not to give you more rules to follow, but to help you understand what’s happening beneath the surface so you can respond with clarity and confidence.
Whether you’re navigating sleep disruptions, feeding challenges, or simply trying to feel more steady in your role as a parent, these resources offer evidence-informed perspective, real-world context, and support you can return to whenever you need it.
You don’t have to figure it all out alone.
Search the Blog:
Have a question or topic you’d like me to cover on my blog or podcast?
The Missing Village: Why Parenthood Feels Harder Than It Should
When I ask new parents how they’re doing, I often hear the same answer:
“We’re surviving.”
Sometimes it’s said with a laugh. Sometimes it’s followed by tears. But almost every family I work with has some version of the same feeling: “Why does this feel so much harder than I expected?”
If you’ve ever wondered that yourself, I want you to know something important:
You’re not doing anything wrong. You’re trying to parent without the village humans were meant to have.
The Overloaded Brain: Why Parenthood Feels Like Decision Fatigue on Steroids (And What to Do About It)
You know the moment.
You’re standing in the kitchen holding a bottle, a pump part, your phone, and a cold cup of coffee. You walked in there for a reason, but now you can’t remember what it was. The baby finally fell asleep, you should probably eat something, someone texts asking how you’re doing, and suddenly your partner says:
“What do you want for dinner?”
And for reasons you cannot explain, you feel irrationally angry.
If this sounds familiar, first: hi, welcome to postpartum.
Second: no, you are not failing.
And third: your brain is probably overloaded.
One of the biggest misconceptions about new parenthood is that because we have more information than ever before, parenting should feel easier. But for many families, especially in the postpartum period, the exact opposite happens.
Instead of feeling supported, we feel buried under information, opinions, tracking apps, and endless decisions.
If you’re struggling with postpartum brain fog, postpartum overwhelm, or decision fatigue in parenthood, there is a reason for that, and it has a lot less to do with your capability than you think.
Beyond the 6-Week Checkup: Why Postpartum Healthcare Needs a Massive Rethink
If you’ve ever walked out of your six-week postpartum appointment thinking, Wait… that’s it?, you are absolutely not alone.
For many families in the perinatal period, postpartum care feels shockingly incomplete. You grow an entire human, give birth, survive sleep deprivation, hormone shifts, recovery, feeding challenges, and a complete identity transformation… and then the healthcare system basically says, “Okay, good luck out there!”
Maybe they check your bleeding. Maybe they ask if you’re crying too much. Maybe they clear you for exercise and sex.
Meanwhile, you’re sitting there with brain fog, exhaustion, anxiety, inflammation, nutrient depletion, pelvic floor symptoms, mood swings, and a nervous system hanging on by a thread wondering if this is all just “normal motherhood.”
Here’s the thing: common does not automatically mean healthy.
And postpartum women deserve better healthcare than a rushed mood-and-wound check.
Ten Tips for Partners to Keep Calm, Keep the Peace, & Keep Your Sanity
The first year after having a baby can feel like emotional whiplash.
One minute you’re staring lovingly at your sleeping newborn thinking, I would die for this tiny human.
The next minute you’re arguing over whose turn it is to wash pump parts while eating cold leftovers at 9:30pm.
And honestly? Both experiences are normal.
One of the biggest misconceptions about the postpartum period is that the hardest part is birth itself. But for many families, the real challenge begins after everyone goes home. Especially when one partner returns to work quickly while the other remains home recovering, feeding, managing naps, and trying to function on broken sleep.
This season can place enormous pressure on relationships, mental health, nervous systems, and family dynamics. Not because you’re doing anything wrong, but because modern parenting often asks families to do too much with too little support.
As a birth, postpartum, and sleep doula, I work with families in this exact stage every day. And the families who navigate this season best usually are not the “perfect” parents.
They’re the ones who learn how to slow down, communicate better, ask for help, and stop expecting themselves to function like they did before the baby arrived.
Here are ten practical tips for partners navigating the newborn and baby stage together.
The Taboo Conversation: Cannabis, Women’s Health, and Making Informed Choices (Guest: Dr. Amanda Reiman, Founder Personal Plants)
If you’ve used cannabis before pregnancy, you’re not alone. This is especially common in states where it's legally available.
For many people, cannabis is already part of their life before pregnancy, whether that’s for sleep, anxiety, chronic pain, or simply as a way to unwind at the end of the day.
And then pregnancy happens.
Or postpartum hits.
And suddenly, something that once felt normal or supportive becomes confusing, stigmatized, or even scary to talk about.
The messaging tends to shift quickly into black-and-white: Just stop. Don’t use anything. Don’t ask questions.
But real life is rarely that simple.
So instead of shutting the conversation down, what if we approached it differently?
What if we looked at cannabis use during the perinatal period through a harm reduction lens, one that prioritizes safety, informed decision-making, and honest conversations?
From Maiden to Mother: The Identity Shift No One Prepares You For (Guest Anna Lundqvist)
Discover the emotional and spiritual transformation from maiden to mother in this guide to preparing for postpartum, finding your village, and embracing your motherhood identity with confidence and compassion.
Why You Can’t Relax After Birth (and What Your Nervous System Has to Do With It)
If you’re pregnant or newly postpartum and already wondering, “Why can’t I just calm down?”, you’re not alone.
So many new moms tell me that even when the baby finally sleeps, their bodies stay tense, their hearts race, and their minds won’t stop spinning. You’re exhausted, but you can’t rest. You’re grateful, but you feel on edge. Sound familiar?
Postpartum Must-Haves: What to Buy for You (Not Just the Baby) After Birth
When we’re preparing for a new baby, it’s so easy to get caught up in the adorable chaos—folding tiny onesies, comparing stroller reviews, and wondering which swaddle will be your baby’s favorite. But here’s what often gets left out of the conversation: you are about to go through a major transformation.