If you've suffered a 3rd or 4th degree tear during birth you might have joined the 'Birth Tear Support Group' on Facebook. This truly supportive group was created by Rosie after the birth of her first child resulted in a 3rd degree tear and she felt there wasn't enough information or support out there. So like many of the mums I have interviewed on this podcast, she set out to change that and created the FB group. It's how I originally came across Rosie and have followed her since. Rosie had an elective section with her 2nd baby and we speak about the postnatal recovery of both births. Rosie is a Registered Nutritional Therapy Practitioner and we talk about her passion for working with women during pregnancy and the postnatal period. Rosie has kindly shared some blog posts she has written below on postnatal healing and more information can be found on her website.

https://www.rosierayner.com/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/birthtearsupport/

instagram: @rosie_naturopath

To contact Natalie, you can email on info@honestyoga.co.uk or instagram @honestyogaLDN

In this episode I spoke to Sophie Baron, mum of 2 who started her own business after the birth of her first child. I wanted to discuss the topic of being an entrepreneur whilst being in the postnatal period. We talked about the reality of being a start-up founder whilst also being pregnant and the many struggles of being a working mum. For many of us who run a company or work for ourselves, it's not possible to take the 'normal' 9 months maternity leave and this episode sheds light on what it can look like. Sophie reflects on the highs and lows and has some great advice on being a business owner and a mum. Sophie was the founder of 'MamaMade' which many of you may have been familiar with and fed to your children. She is now working out what she wants to do next, I can only imagine it will be great, so watch this space.

Show notes:

Postnatal depletion book by Dr Oscar Serrallach

https://www.droscarserrallach.com/

Sophie can be contacted via her instagram account - @sophiembaron

Natalie can be contacted via email 'info@honestyoga.co.uk' or instagram @honestyogaLDN

I was so honoured that Rachel wanted to share her story with me on the Honest Postnatal podcast. Her desire was to highlight her birth injury in the hope that it helps other women going through a similar situation and to take away the shame and loneliness.

Rachel suffered a 4th degree tear during her first labour that resulted in a Rectovaginal fistula and colostomy bag. Rachel has gone on to have 2 further children via planned C-section and is the proud mum of 3 girls.

We discuss Rachel's birth story and how this resulted in the 4th degree tear and button hole tear that would culminate in a RectoVaginal fistula and a colostomy bag. We discuss the physical and mental aspects of everything Rachel has had to deal with and how important it is to advocate for yourself.

Show notes:

Birth trauma association: https://www.birthtraumaassociation.org.uk/#

LATNEM: https://latnem.org/ :

Trigger warning: Mention of Forceps, severe birth tears and PTSD.

If you would like to contact Rachel you can reach out to here via instagram: @_rachelchristina .

If you would like to contact Natalie you can email on info@honestyoga.co.uk or instagram @honestyogaldn

Please consider taking a moment to subscribe and review the podcast to help more women find it and feel less alone during the postpartum period.