I recently published an article in the Huffington Post about Sheryl Sandberg’s book ‘Lean In’. One area of the book I found fascinating was the concept of how many hours mothers will spend ‘focused on their children’. The fact that nowadays in the States, an employed mother spends roughly the same amount of time on primary care activities (defined as routine caregiving and activities that foster a child’s well-being, such as reading and fully focused play) as a stay-at-home mother did back then, needs exploring! 

I go through the research which looks at exclusive maternal care versus child care, and the impact that has on a child's development. Fascinating stuff! 

Here are a couple of paragraphs from the Huffington Post article...

"Much of Lean In made my mind run wild, filling myself up with inspirational content. If you haven’t read it yet, I’d highly recommend the book, for both men and women alike. It’s an...

I'm so fascinated by the holistic world of herbal medicine and alternative therapy. When I got the chance to interview Marina Kesso, Herbalist and Naturopath, I was so excited! She's an incredible lady and helps so many Pregnant women, and new mamas cope with their ailments, and improves the quality of their lifestyle, all through the wonders of Herbal Medicine and Naturopathy. 

HP: Marina, thanks so much for your time today. Can I ask how you got into the Herbal Medicine world?

MK: Thanks so much Helen, I'm thrilled to chat to you. I was living on a small farm in Leitrim, growing lots of different herbs and plants for years. Living on the farm, we tried to live sustainably and ate only what was in season. Even though my background is Fine Arts, herbs and plants were a big passion. Living in the countryside, lots of locals knew I grew them on the farm, so they kept coming to me to get different plants for them. It came to a point where I wanted to know more about...

Why is it that you can never seem to put your newborn down? They were happily asleep in your arms and literally as soon as you put them in their crib - boom! Tears galore! The concept of the 4th Trimester (a term used to describe the first 3 months of a baby's life) isn't new, but many new mamas don't spend time thinking too much about those first few weeks and months, as their main focus is on 'THE BIRTH'!

Let's take a step back and think of the environment from which they came. Inside mama, there wasn't a care in the world. It was warm and dark, and all their needs were met. Baby was wrapped up super tightly in the amniotic sac, there were dull noises around constantly, they were carried and rocked all the time, food was supplied on demand, their bums were clean, it was a wet environment, and they had constant contact with mama. And this environment doesn't change - it's constant!

Now, forward on a couple of weeks and holy moly it has all changed. Society norms are to not...

Hmmmm, there is nothing quite like discussing your birthing experiences to get the emotions running. What should be an empowering and joyful journey for all women, is increasingly becoming a very challenging experience, certainly in Ireland. This is in part due to a serious lack of resources in the hospital environment...putting it bluntly...there ain't enough midwives for the birthing population and the hospitals are having to cope with so many more births than they were designed for. Plus, structurally in Ireland, we do not have the set up to offer choice to women to birth more in the community.

I sat down with Psychologist and mother of 3, Allison Keating from Bwell Clinic, to have a chat about it all!

I truly hope you enjoy the discussion and find some useful nuggets of info in there for you.

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