Hi mama. In this episode of Life After Birth, I’m joined by Veronica Eyo, a maternal mental health therapist who helps mothers as they navigate their motherhood journey, as well as managing symptoms of perinatal mental health. In this conversation, we discuss Veronica’s experience of becoming a mother, and how her reality differed from her pre-motherhood expectation of what it would be like, particularly in the wake of experiencing a difficult birth, which resulted in her entering motherhood carrying feelings of failure.

We explore the problematic belief that women are intrinsically natural mothers, and the importance of instead seeing it as a skill to be learned and honed as you go, developing through observation, practice, and trial and error.

We also discussed:

• The importance of learning to embrace rest in motherhood and the challenges so many of us face in this, especially those with a background of marginalisation where rest simply isn’t in the makeup of our ancestors and was not always available for them.

• The importance of embracing the current season of motherhood you are in, and the challenge of having to stay flexible with your values when it comes to motherhood.

• Honouring past versions of yourself as well as truly valuing the new behaviours, activities and beliefs that come with the act of mothering, in this new season of your life.

• The challenges of parenting in a way that honours the spirit of your children and how effortful this can be, especially for those who haven’t had experience of this themselves, as there is no blueprint to follow.

I absolutely loved speaking to Veronica and I hope you enjoy listening to our conversation too.

Find out more about Veronica in these places:

https://www.drveronicalcsw.com/

Veronica on Instagram

Veronica on TikTok