Whitney Molitor is a mother to two girls, a wife, and a Marriage and Family Therapist specializing in eating disorders, body image, and disordered eating. Above and beyond her titles, Whitney is a Minnesotan at heart and a woman passionate about connecting with other women and storytelling.

Julia and Whitney’s conversation was truly just that - a real conversation where they shared their experiences with conception, pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. Whitney was humble, genuine, and vulnerable as she offered her story to A Podcast for Moms. This episode will speak to any woman looking to reflect on and honor their experience becoming a mom.

We Discuss: 

• The conception, pregnancy, birth, and postpartum experiences with both of Whitney’s daughters
• Whitney’s intention/plan for her first birth and her experience with hypnobirthing
• Postpartum depression and anxiety – Whitney referred to the first 4 months postpartum - with her first daughter - as the hardest time of her life
• Julia shares about the suffering she experienced after there was a “rapture” from her birth plan during her first pregnancy
• Whitney shares her breastfeeding journey with her first daughter and how chiropractic work and craniosacral therapy aided them on their journey
• How shame around her birth and breastfeeding experiences kept Whitney from receiving support
• Whitney references the emotional and physically healing practices she has pursued to care for herself postpartum
• Whitney shares about her postpartum experience with her second daughter and what she did differently to better support her and her family: being okay with hiring outside support and letting go of the notion that we “have to do it all” 
• Whitney and Julia share their experiences with relinquishing control in parenting, the power of surrendering, the emotional load of motherhood, and the journey of parenting as opposed to arriving to a “destination”

Powerful Words from Whitney: 

• Speaking to a Change in Her Birth Plan: “That also was another pivotal point of feeling really crushed because I had such a strong attachment to, ‘I need to do it this way’…”
• On healing trauma: “I don’t necessarily think that it was the actual birth that was traumatic to me… I think the word trauma is - [sometimes we so often] view it as oh I have to be a war veteran or I have to go through this terrible abuse to say that I’ve gone through trauma -but, I personally I think trauma is anytime we disconnect from - our nervous system just gets flooded and we go into fight, flight, or freeze and it’s really hard for us to integrate back into our body and I think that birth experience was the catalyst to me experiencing postpartum depression and anxiety because of how much shame and disappointment I felt towards myself and the experience…”
• Describing her postpartum experience:  “The beautiful thing - I needed to crack to that degree to find my place in motherhood and to find my feet and to find stability but it took a lot of time and a lot of support…”
• On the power of sharing our stories: “It’s essential as women, not even just mothers, but as women for us to find a space where we can share our stories and our truths without the other person or group of people needing to fix it, change it, or interject with their agenda…”

Resources:

Instagram: 

• @WhitMolitor

Mentions:

• Hypnobirthing
• Birth Story Listening

Gina Janc is a grounded force - her steadfast energy immediately reminds you to be a little gentler with yourself.  

When Julia asked Gina to describe herself, Gina began with what was most true to her - she is a mother, daughter, granddaughter, great granddaughter, a deeply spiritual woman, and she is a lover of deep, vulnerable relationships. She is also a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist.

Gina is the founder of Bring Back the Village. She offers Talk Therapy, Parenting Circles, Parent Ceremonies, and a Prenatal Bonding E-Course.

The only thing constant in motherhood is change. Our conversation will encourage you to make peace with what is in your life - today - and it will inspire you to create space for the little things that invite self-regulation. 

We Discuss:

• Gina’s transition to motherhood and how honoring her maternal lineage acted as a source of healing during that transition
• Gina’s experience as a LMFT and how being a LMFT has informed her motherhood experience
• A story from Gina’s daughter’s birth -- she describes her transition to motherhood as “disorienting” and “compartmentalized” 
• The practices Gina uses to feel integrated and regulated 
• Gina shares about her experience as step-mom 
• Gina speaks to the importance of self-care and “making peace with what is”
• Gina’s maternal lineage and how she is working to shift what she received from previous generations
• Julia and Gina discuss Pandemic Parenting and Gina provides helpful suggestions and reflection questions for navigating parenthood and supporting our children during the pandemic
• Cultivating community and accessing the “village” within yourself
• Gina’s closing advice to the listeners: tenderness, self love, and finding little ways to be gentle with ourselves

Powerful Words from Gina:

• On Motherhood: “Motherhood is humbling.. My transition into motherhood was very humbling, brought me to my knees, still brings me to my knees. And, yes, I had the education, and the experience and I was still really rocked by the experience and I don’t think I realize how, the identity shifts I would go through as a mother, and the soul level transformation…”
• On the Birth of Her Daughter: “...in that moment, it felt like, maybe a piece of me or a part of me, I lost or I was losing myself or this transformation was happening that I knew I could never go back to who I was before, that something new was emerging in me and what is this and what’s happening and it was very disorienting…” 
• On Self-Care: “... in any way that I can welcome in some self-compassion, so that I can take care of myself without thinking, ‘oh it used to be different or oh you should be working out more or you should be this or you should be that’, and I’m just kind of now more at peace with what is - you know, ‘what do I need today and how can I give that to myself?’”
• On Honoring Her Maternal Lineage: “When I became a mother, I felt a sense of gratitude for my own mother and all the other women who mothered me in my life, because it was this understanding of like, oh wow, there’s no special magic to being a mother… one day you’re a person and the next day you give birth… and now you’re a mother and here you are with all of your stuff and your wounds and your insecurity and your fears...and even the things that were passed down to you from previous generations and I think motherhood awakens you to that...And what am I going to do with that? How can I shift that for my daughter and for future generations?... It’s accepting all of it, the light and the shadow of it...” 
• On Community: “There is something really special about women being supported by other women, especially in...

In her own words, “Jacki Carr is a goal coach, motivational speaker and mama. As a leader in transformation, she works with people to amplify their voices and expand their vision and goals to better the future of the World. She is a Senior Lightyear Leadership Coach and has worked with companies like lululemon, MINDBODY, Patagonia, and The North Face and truly values companies who care for their people and the Earth.”

Julia has been drawn to Jacki for years - she is enamored by her witty intellect, love of books, her magnetic energy, and her mindful perspective. Therefore, she was so grateful that Jacki agreed to join the podcast to provide deep insights and deep laughs. 

We Discuss:

• Life pivots and what it feels like to no longer recognize nor relate to past versions of yourself
• Instagram: the performative nature of Instagram; the mental, emotional, and psychological impacts of social media and IG; boundaries - both with what you post and how often you’re on the platform; the complex nature of using social media/IG as a tool for creating community, social activism, and learning 
• Motherhood: Jacki shares heartfelt stories from her pregnancies and how it helped her to start loving her body; her postpartum experiences; what it has been like to mother two daughters; and how motherhood has shaped her and her approach to visions and goals
• Visions and Goals: Jacki provides tangible advice for setting visions and goals during life pivots and times of uncertainty (like motherhood) - she shares the beauty of choice, staying curious in uncertainty, embracing failures, and leaving room for the unknown

Questions Jacki Left Us to Ponder: 

• Where is community created if not on social media? Where do we find community off of social media?
• “How are you cultivating community within what you are consuming? And if you’re not, can you?”

Powerful Words from Jacki: 

• On Motherhood: “I really found that motherhood slapped me in the face, in the most graceful, loving way. Like a love slap. And was like, ‘hey wake up, it’s gonna be different now, you gotta make some different choices, you gotta feel your way around, you fell in love with this body, cool now it’s time to listen to that love…”
• On Parenting: “...parenting is such a reflection, moment to moment, second to second, of how you’re showing up, where your nervous system is at, and how you recover… especially when tired or a little sad about the world or climate change or whatever it may be...and hold two emotions at one time, there’s so much love and responsibility for your child while also navigating your own inner dialogue and emotions…
• On Motherhood/Parenting: “Again you have to be in this space of listening… sometimes we get this idea and notion that motherhood is so much about leadership and guiding your child and shaping your child. I think that’s only a small part of it - for me, it’s so much about listening to who they are and navigating from that place and it’s daunting, Julia, because it can change your vision, it can change your goals in a snap.”
• On Visions and Goals: “I used to cling so tightly to my goals, which can be pretty performative, you want to check a goal off because people might have read it or saw you post about it. And yet the human experience has grace, delete and edit and those buttons are because of uncertainty and mistakes and take twos and children that show you a different way of being. So I always have more than one vision, you can write your goals in pencil, and I befriend uncertainty as most likely the only constant that is available.”
• On Goals and Community: “Goals don’t happen without community.”

Resources: 

Website:

Julia invited Jessie Gardner to be a guest on the podcast because she absolutely loves the way Jessie writes about life and motherhood. Jessie - a mom to three young girls - lives intentionally through ritual and she is passionate about the mindful cultivation of food and soil.

During our conversation, Jessie shares the journey that led her to the powerful practices of intention and ritual. She also explains how living with intention guided her to develop a life centered around nature, growing her own food, and nurturing healthy soil.

We Discuss: 

• How Jessie’s experience in a toxic, corporate environment led her to creating small, daily rituals rooted in intention and adventure
• Jessie’s daily rituals inspired her to leave her corporate job and start a mindful business - Hey Soul
• Jessie explains how and why her family made the intentional choice to move from California to Austin, TX - a decision that required them to move away from their families and life-long friends
• We discuss Jessie’s journey to land stewardship and the link between soil health, gut health, and climate change
• Jessie shares the inspiration behind the permaculture garden she is building in her own backyard and why she prioritizes ample outdoor time for her daughters
• Jessie explains how toxic chemicals used in lawn care  - like glyphosate - impact our overall health and she provides resources to combat toxic chemicals in your own neighborhood and community (see below)
• Jessie’s suggests tapping into local FaceBook Gardening Groups and the organization, Farmer’s Footprint, for gardening resources (see below)
• Jessie’s advice for starting a garden: begin with what’s easy and be honest about what you can maintain
• Julia and Jessie talk about parenting during the pandemic - Jessie shares her experience balancing work life with homeschooling
• Jessie vision for her future: connecting multi-generations around the soil

Resources: 

Instagram:

• HeySoul__

Resources for Land Stewardship: 

• Farmers Footprint
• RegenerationInternational.org
• Non-Toxic Neighborhoods  - to ban use of glyphosate in your local HOA, city or state

Articles and Books: 

• The Ancestral Wisdom of our Lands by Jessie Gardner
• Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
• Your Story is Your Power by Elle Luna

On this solo episode, Julia, the host of A Podcast for Moms, reflects on the birth chart reading she had with last week’s guest, Ashley Tracey. 

She specifically speaks to what she learned about the central theme of her life and some of her core truths; her tendency to over-intellectualize things; her shadow side; and her purpose. She also shares what she learned about her daughter’s birth chart and how the reading helped to affirm a lot of her parenting choices.

And, Julia advocates for conscious, intentional parenting and her belief that every child needs something a little different from their parents.

Links to Things Referenced:

• APFM EP 11 with Ashley Tracey: Using Astrology to Consciously Parent and to Better Understand Yourself
• Ashley Tracey
• Elena Brower

Ashley Tracey - Libra Sun, Sagittarius Moon, Aquarius Rising - is an astrologer and self-proclaimed “science nerd”. Ashley has a background in nutritional biochemistry - she specifically studied the impacts of nutrients on a cellular level. She has been practicing and teaching astrology for the last 10 years.

Ashley became a first time mom last year during an astrological transit in her chart - don’t worry, she explains what that means during our conversation. And, as a new mom, Ashley began to focus on the ways in which astrology can help us to better understand our children and to consciously parent. 

During our conversation, Ashley explains what your birth chart is and the meaning behind some of the basic terminology found in astrology; she shares about her journey to motherhood and her first year as a new mom; she describes how she has used astrology to navigate parenting and postpartum; and, Ashley explains how a birth chart helps you to better understand yourself and how it can help you to nurture your child in their own unique development.

We discuss:

• What led Ashley to astrology 
• Her experience becoming a first time mom during the pandemic - she shares about her pregnancy during quarantine, her breastfeeding challenges, and what was happening astrologically for her when she conceived and when she had her daughter
• Ashley shares what she gleaned from her own chart to support herself in her first year postpartum and how she processed the shadows that came up for her after her daughter’s birth
• Ashley explains the differences between reading an adult’s birth chart and a child’s birth chart and how understanding our children’s birth chart can help us to best nurture them
• Ashley shares her personal experiences leveraging astrology to help her make decisions as a parent
• We also talk through what your birth chart is and the meaning behind some of the basic terminology found in astrology

Powerful Words from Ashley:

• “...astrology really is a language, it’s like learning a language. So, even if it doesn’t make sense to you now, you can learn it - just like you do learn a language. And, the language of astrology is planets and zodiac signs in certain houses in our birth chart.”
• “[your birth chart] is your soul signature…”
• “...childbirth, for me, also in that womb space brings up a lot of issues or traumas or past hurts that are contained within that space. So during the postpartum period and through the year was a lot of healing work on that mother-part, for myself, so it was taking care of a beautiful little girl but also taking care of myself…” 
• Speaking to generational trauma: “I’m exactly where I’m meant to be right now. And this is the work I’m meant to be doing right now. Because it’s so easy to distract with so many other things... but in reality it’s like you need to do this... it was this feeling of, I want this to stop here...so I do the work now.”
• Speaking to the shadow: “..that shadow is to show us where things may need to be transformed and reworked and healed so you come out the other side, lighter…”

Resources:

Website:

https://ashleytracey.com/

Instagram:

•  @ashleytracey_soul_centered

Ashley’s Offerings:

• 1 on 1 Readings
• Cosmic Soul Membership

Olivia Hughes is a first-time mom navigating the beautiful dance of the first year of motherhood. Olivia holds a Master’s in Spiritual Psychology and she is a leader in the yoga, healing, and consciousness communities. She supports other women (and men) as a mentor, yoga teacher, and Reiki Master.

During our conversation, Olivia shares about her current work - the work she is doing at home. She said, “our healing is our job and our healing is our work.” We explore how she is honoring the shadow side of motherhood and how Olivia sees birth and life as a ritual and a ceremony.

We discuss:

• Honoring our shadows in a safe and healthy way 
• How our families’ of origin shaped our ideals for our own families and how we are tending to past wounds from childhood
• Coping with being triggered in motherhood
• Supporting the men/divine masculine as we stay connected to our feminist roots
• The powerful work we do at home at home with ourselves and with our families 
• How Olivia created a pregnancy and home birth experience that was on her own terms
• Ritual and Ceremony and finding ritual and ceremony in the mundane 

Powerful Words from Olivia:

• “Our children are here to be our deepest teachers and greatest healer.”
• On Partnership: “How can I help you understand me? How can I listen with my heart?”
• On Mothering: “Do I want to be perfect or do I want to be real?”
• “The work of the home is powerful.”
• On Birth: “I knew it was going to be just me walking through that gate…”
• “Everything is a ritual. Everything is a ceremony.”

Resources: 

Website:

• https://www.theomexperience.com/

Instagrams:

• @YogaLiv
• @TheOMExperience

In Person Donation Yoga in San Diego:

• Sunday at 11AM in Balboa Park at the corner of 6th and Laurel

Virtual Women’s Circle:

• Wednesdays @ 12PM PST, starting in November
• Visit https://www.theomexperience.com/ to sign up for Olivia’s newsletter and/or follow her on instagram to receive updates and to register

On this solo episode, Julia, the host of A Podcast for Moms, gives a short podcast update and she reflects on what it’s been like to get to know herself in motherhood and how motherhood has shaped her current experience with her friendships and her community. Julia’s reflections were prompted by the conversation she had with EP 08’s guest, Chyla Walsh. 

As she shares, Julia includes personal stories about overcoming alcoholism and addiction, some childhood experiences that have informed how she shows up as a mom, and the beauty she has found in surrendering to what is and being okay with “the unknowingness of not knowing who [she is].”

Links to Things Referenced:

• APFM EP 08: Transforming Birth and Postpartum: From Humility & Pain to Healing & Empowerment with Chyla Walsh
• APFM EP 05: The Expansive Nature of Motherhood with Dr. Nikki Sammet
• The What Nik Knows Podcast
• Jacki Carr