Motherhood Exposed Podcast

Since having their children by surrogacy, Mike and his partner have been advocating for equality in surrogacy as well as modernising guidelines and laws. They have also tirelessly supported many others through their surrogacy journeys. In this episode, Zoe speaks to Mike about his own experience to becoming a parent with his partner Wes, the challenges they had, the many positives and why they are so passionate about changing many of the conversations around surrogacy. KEY TAKEAWAYS Children were always on the cards for Mike and Wes. Mike had previously been married to a woman and one of the reasons was because of how much he wanted children. He was desperate to have his own family. Wes had a daughter from a previous relationship which made the start of their relationship difficult, Mike had to grow a lot and recognise he was the adult in the situation. She is now 17 and an incredible person who Mike and Wes are very proud of: she also makes the best big sister! Once Mike and Wes had decided to have a child together, they spent almost 3 years researching the options and the best way to do so. They decided on UK surrogacy, which they had to do independently as no UK agencies were taking on new intended parents. When they found their surrogate, Mike and Wes thought they didn't want to stay in contact or be involved with the surrogate afterwards. But after going through the journey and feeling how much this surrogate was doing for them – they couldn't just ‘dispose' of the friendship. She made them parents, Mike felt ashamed that at the beginning he didn't truly appreciate what she was doing for them. It was important for Mike and Wes to be present and supportive at all the appointments with the surrogate. They had a few awkward situations where they were told only the Dad was allowed in or were triggered by healthcare professionals asking for the ‘real dad'. Their experience made them want to change laws and guidelines around surrogacy as well as make surrogacy more normalised. We need to educate people around surrogacy and usualise it. Policy was very outdated in the NHS, they wouldn't allow both Wes and Mike be present at the birth. By challenging this they ended up changing policy around surrogacy in the NHS. By telling their story, both intended parents in surrogacy can now be present at the birth. Mike and Wes have supported over 300 men through surrogacy and they have now launched their own non-profit organisation, my surrogacy journey. It focuses on support, counselling and providing a real managed solution to surrogacy for all. It's be a really exciting and hectic journey for both Wes and Mike. Mike jokes that it is a good job they really like each other as they live, work, lobby and parent together! BEST MOMENTS “I just longed to be a parent” “Children are really important in my world” “I have nothing but admiration and love for her and her husband” “We need to educate people better about surrogacy…we need to talk about surrogacy more and usualise it” “It was the best thing I have ever witnessed” VALUABLE RESOURCES www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk ABOUT THE GUEST Michael Johnson-Ellis @twodads.u.k @officialmysurrogacyjourney @themodernfamilyshow https://www.mysurrogacyjourney.com https://themodernfamilyshow.co.uk ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF. CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An honest and insightful episode where Zoe speaks to Sarah of the Instagram account @sarah_and_marnie. Sarah talks to Zoe about finding out her baby had downs syndrome during pregnancy and life now with her beautiful 3-year-old Marnie, who teaches her something new every day.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Sarah met her husband Colin at a NYE party. They started trying for a baby quite early on as they were both in their early forties. Sarah had children from previous relationships but Colin didn't have any children yet and Sarah surprised herself by being very open to the idea. Sarah fell pregnant after 12 months but sadly she miscarried at 11 weeks. She found this really difficult, loss wasn't something she had experienced before. A few months after she fell pregnant again. They had a reassurance scan at 9 weeks and began to get excited. They then had a 12 week scan where they first found out that there may be a chromosomal abnormality. After having blood tests to give the chances of the baby having Edwards, Downs or Patau Syndrome Sarah made the decision to have an amniocentesis test to find out for certain. Several days after they received the news that their baby had downs syndrome. It was a relief to Sarah as this was the news she was hoping for, both Edwards and Patau syndrome are described as ‘not compatible with life' and would have been a devastating diagnosis. Sarah received little support emotionally from professionals throughout the pregnancy. There wasn't any counselling or much literature around becoming parents to a baby with Downs Syndrome. She did receive extra scans as there is a higher chance of heart problems, but other than that she didn't receive any additional help in her pregnancy. Thankfully, when she told her friends and family about the baby having downs syndrome the response was positive and they received tons of support. Although Marnie is only 3 and a half she has already experienced a lot, including modelling! Marnie is a very happy, easy going and bright little girl. A lot of the struggles for new mums of babies with downs syndrome is fear of the unknown. Sarah helps run a FB group about the positives of life with a downs syndrome baby and child: https://www.facebook.com/groups/dsukpositiveaboutdownsyndromegreatexpectations   BEST MOMENTS   “It was a black cloud hanging over us waiting for that call” “For me, downs syndrome was something we could do together as a family” “When you experience loss and then you have your baby in your arms it's like no other feeling” “Don't be afraid”     VALUABLE RESOURCES www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk   ABOUT THE GUEST Sarah Louise @sarah_and_marnie https://www.facebook.com/groups/dsukpositiveaboutdownsyndromegreatexpectations   ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Zoe speaks with Nina Willer, a diabetes specialist midwife and a type 1 diabetic herself. Nina opens up about her own journey to conceive, including her struggles with infertility and delves deep into the implications of diabetes in pregnancy and motherhood.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Nina met her husband at work in a surf shop before she became a midwife and now it has gone full circle and they work together again! Nina developed her diabetes when she was 21, having looked at a lot of research she believes that the cause was an already existing pre-disposition to diabetes and then a parasite that made her ill after travelling in Ghana, was the trigger. When Nina and her husband decided they wanted to start trying for a baby, Nina had to make a pre-conception plan due to her type 1 diabetes. They then began starting to conceive but after not falling pregnant they went for fertility testing and started on 6 months of Clomid. Nina and her husband had their first cycle of IVF, they were very open about this and told everyone as they wanted to have people behind them to support them in their fertility journey. But sadly, by day 5 the fertilised eggs hadn't developed as they should but were still advised to have them implanted which did not result in a pregnancy. They learnt a lot from the first cycle and went ahead and had a second fresh cycle, on day 3 the fertilised eggs were still developing, they froze one egg and inserted two, but the two inserted did not result in a pregnancy again. On the third fresh IVF cycle, the eggs stopped developing on day three again. It was a really hard time for Nina and her husband, it was their third and final cycle. They decided to still have these eggs impanted but were told they would not result in a pregnancy. Nina and her husband knew they needed to take a break from IVF, so they went away and started to focus on other things. But, miraculously they became pregnant from their third an final cycle. They still expected this pregnancy to end in miscarriage but incredibly it didn't and this pregnancy is no Nina's five year old! The pregnancy wasn't straight forward due to Nina's type 1 diabetes but she was looked after incredible well and she had her healthy baby at 36 weeks via planned C-section. In 2019, Nina and her husband wanted to try again for another baby so decided to try a frozen cycle of IVF. It was an experience Nina found very difficult, she calls it the worst IVF experience she had and sadly it didn't work. Several months later, they had stopped trying to get pregnant so were very surprised to find that after trying for 10 years they were pregnant! They had their miracle baby , delivered by one of their closest friends, 9 months later!   BEST MOMENTS “For a while I was a little bit angry at the diabetes stuff” “We did six months of Clomid and that's a really hopeful time for a lot of people as you suddenly think, I'm making eggs and I'm making loads of them!” “We're so lucky, the NHS has treated us very, very well” “One of the many things I find fascinating about type 1 Diabetes is that the glucose levels can tell us a lot about what's going on” “It felt like I was having a miscarriage in a way, I had known that embryo for 5 years, that was my other child”    VALUABLE RESOURCES www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk   ABOUT THE GUEST Nina Willer @willerz_house   ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this honest and raw episode, Zoe speaks to Julie Audette, a business owner and mother. Julie opens up about her experience with Twin-Twin Transfusion syndrome which her beautiful boys Elias And Zach were born with. Listen in to hear a story of sadness, faith and incredible strength.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Julie got married to her husband in 2013 and Julie became pregnant in 2014. At her first scan she got a ‘double congratulations' from the Dr and found out she was pregnant with two boys. The beginning of the pregnancy was normal and Julie was carrying on with life normally. Julie was given extra monitoring because it was a twin pregnancy with a shared placenta but she didn't feel any different. At week 21 Julie found she started to feel differently, she was in a lot of pain and was suffering with severe swelling. Julie went to see her obstetrician, had a scan and was referred to a specialist that day. They discovered that her twin boys had twin-twin transfusion syndrome and they would need an operation. Julie had already decided that she was going to give birth in Canada where she is from, so she reached out to the specialists after the diagnosis to see who could do the procedure needed for her twin boys. She was advised to fly to Canada as soon as possible. On the flight, Julie started deteriorating and was rushed straight to hospital on arrival to be stabilised. After a procedure to reduce her amniotic fluid she was able to leave the hospital but unfortunately had to go back in after deteriorating again. It was only week 23 but the decision was made to have an emergency C-section to deliver the twins, for their safety as well as Julie's life. The boys were delivered by C-section but they went straight to NICU, 20 minutes later Julie was sadly informed that Elias had died and Zach was fighting hard for his life. Julie and her husband's faith helped them deal with this devastating life event. It helped give them the strength to support Zach, who had to have a 5 month stay in hospital due to being born so premature and a heart condition. At 5 months, they had to make the difficult system to remove him from respiratory support and he sadly died a short time after. Julie and her husband have been supported a lot by their friends and family, it's this as well as their faith, therapy and their attitude towards life that has helped them ‘come out the other side'.  Since this incredibly difficult and tragic time, they have had another child, their daughter, who they are so thankful for. BEST MOMENTS “It was just a beautiful announcement and we were double happy” “You see other people fighting…you have to accept and say this is your journey, this is life and this is what god intended for us” “We're a family full on sunshine”  “We would not be able to heal without our family and friends”   VALUABLE RESOURCES https://www.rmhc.org Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS) Parents - Peer support for families who have gone through, are going through or seeking more information about Twin to Twin Transfusion: https://www.facebook.com/Twin-to-Twin-Transfusion-Syndrome-TTTS-Parents-Arabia-1699149873687130   ABOUT THE GUEST Julie Audette @julie.audette julie@coethical.com @coethical @themovement.ae https://www.rmhc.org Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS) Parents - Peer support for families who have gone through, are going through or seeking more information about Twin to Twin Transfusion: https://www.facebook.com/Twin-to-Twin-Transfusion-Syndrome-TTTS-Parents-Arabia-1699149873687130   ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Zoe speaks to Tia about her journey with Lee to creating a family. They talk about the many failed IVF attempts, her experience of care, using an egg donor and the impact this has had on Tia's emotional and physical health.   KEY TAKEAWAYS   Tia met her husband Lee online on a dating app. They would spend hours on the phone talking at the beginning, they then had their nervous first date and the rest is history. After 18 months of trying to become pregnant, Tia and Lee went to the Dr and they found that Tia's bloods showed she had a very low chance of conceiving a child naturally. She later found out she had premature Ovarian Insufficiency. They had their first round of IVF in December 2019 but this was unsuccessful and Tia really struggled both mentally and physically dealing with the aftermath of this. They had more rounds of IVF and Tia began to suffer suicidal thoughts; but the hope she had for a positive outcome pushed her through. After 3 ½ years of trying Tia and Lee looked into egg donation and it was this process that has now allowed them to be pregnant with twins. Tia and Lee will raise their twins knowing how they were conceived. They hope that by doing this it will make it less traumatic for them. They are even going to make a book that tells them the journey their parents took to have them including information about their donor. After receiving less than the best care in the UK, Tia and Lee decided to look into egg donation and clinics abroad. They used the company Your IVF Abroad who matched them to the right country and then to the right clinic for them and their needs. A PTSD diagnosis is just one of the mental impacts that Tia is now suffering with. She is getting good help and support but still struggles, especially when people at appointments make comments without knowing her journey and what she has had to endure to get to this point. BEST MOMENTS “The thoughts of Lee's sperm with another ladies' eggs made me feel jealous” “Sometimes you've got to put yourself in a vulnerable situation to be able to learn and develop” “I just want the worries of a normal mum” “I always get the same questions over and over again… so I have to tell the story and am traumatising myself again and again”   VALUABLE RESOURCES https://www.yourivfabroad.co.uk www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk   ABOUT THE GUEST Tia Brown @the.browns.journey.to.four https://www.yourivfabroad.co.uk IVF Treatment abroad in Europe organised by successful patients in UK We offer practical and emotional support to facilitate your low cost fertility treatment abroad, in Europe at renowned IVF clinics with high success rates and no waiting lists. Contact us now, we are here for you, every step of the way. www.yourivfabroad.co.uk ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this honest and brave episode Zoe speaks with Hannah Sinnott. Hannah talks about her beautiful daughter Cora, who tragically died of birth complications at just 24 hours old. They discuss Hannah's journey to motherhood, her tragic birth story and the difficulty of being pregnant again after such a devastating loss.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Hannah married her husband Joe in 2015 after meeting at university. They went on honeymoon to Thailand and made the decision not to come back and travelled for 18 months. Hannah and Joe have always been family orientated and Hannah has always loved children and babies, she knew she wanted to be a mum from an early age. When they decided it was time to start their family, Hannah fell pregnant quite quickly. Hannah had a straightforward pregnancy, it was low risk and there were no issues. She did a hypnobirthing course and planned a homebirth. She was nervous about birth like most first-time mothers but mostly remembers being excited. Hannah began labouring at home when she was 10 days overdue, when the midwife came she was already 6 cms dilated. She went to labour in the birthing pool and was at the pushing stages for a couple of hours but not much was happening. They knew something wasn't right, eventually she was examined and it turns out she wasn't fully dilated which meant her cervix was very swollen. She they went to hospital via ambulance. Once in hospital the babies heart kept started to dipping, she was put on oxytocin to help with the labour and babies heart dipped dangerously again – this is when the emergency buzzer was pressed and Hannah went into emergency surgery. Hannah woke up after her general anaesthetic and remembers just being so aware of the quiet. Joe came and before he even spoke she knew it was bad news; Cora was very poorly. A short time later they were told that their daughter was going to die. There were tests and investigations done at the time but no answers were found to why Cora died at that moment, all they knew is that she had been starved of oxygen. It was an incredibly devastating and tragic time for Hannah and Joe but they are thankful that they got to spend some time with Cora before she died. They were also allowed to spend some time with Cora after she passed and take photos and create memories, at the time Hannah didn't realise how healing this would be. The support Hannah and Joe received from their families after the death of Cora was immeasurable. They helped them survive. After Cora's death, more investigations were done. They flagged a few issues, mainly with the placenta but also with care. The heart monitoring wasn't done correctly. Either of these things and Cora may have still been saved, but combined it was a tragedy. Hannah and Joe made the decision to move back to Hannah's hometown, it was hard for Hannah to leave the nursey especially but they felt this was the right decision for them and their family. Hannah and Joe are pregnant again, but understandably this is incredibly triggering and difficult for them. It's impossible for them to excited. One thing Hannah and Joe has found is people do not know how to support parents of baby loss, especially when time has passed and they are pregnant again. Hannah believes humans are ‘fixers' and loss is not something you can fix so people do not know what to do for the best.   BEST MOMENTS “Joe was adamant we were having a girl…he said he had a dream early on” “I sometimes question if that was my body in distress”  “It must sound really morbid to people who haven't experienced it, but it was just really special”  “I was in shock for a while, it just didn't feel real” “You always need your mum”  “Until he is here safely I won't believe he will be”    VALUABLE RESOURCES www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk   ABOUT THE GUEST Hannah Sinnott www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk   ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome back to the second series of Motherhood Exposed, where your host, mother, midwife, doula and personal trainer Zoe Cresswell explores the ups, downs and often complicated parts of motherhood. In this episode, Zoe returns to speak to Sophie Martin, known on Instagram and in the blogging world as the infertile midwife, to revisit her story of infertility, loss and the journey to her now 7-week old baby boy, Percy. To hear the previous episode with Sophie, go to episode 12.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Sophie did a frozen transfer of IVF and incredibly it worked first time. It was the beginning of December and although the UK was in the midst of the pandemic it was just “the loveliest transfer ever”! Sophie had been to the clinic so many times in the previous months, she knew the team really well and even got to choose to put Christmas songs on whilst it happened! The transfer worked and although Sophie was happy there was a mix of emotions after her previous late loss of twins, Cecil and Wilfred. She had some bleeding on Christmas Day which was frightening but at her first scan everything was luckily fine. Sophie told close family but didn't tell anyone else she was pregnant until she was 25 weeks. She didn't want to have to deal with people congratulating her when that wasn't really how she felt; she felt scared. Even though Sophie suffered with a lot of anxiety she wasn't helped by any perinatal teams after being referred three times. She didn't have any professional support at all being pregnant after loss, which must have been incredibly difficult. At 22 weeks, Sophie suffered a threatened pre-term labour and after dealing with this she couldn't go back to her normal job role. She had a month off but was then able to work from home due to Covid before delivering her baby boy Percy via a planned C-section. Although an experienced midwife, Sophie recognises now that there was so much she didn't know about motherhood, especially around breastfeeding. She feels like she truly understands how relentless and difficult it is for so many mothers. After having Percy, Sophie has been quite shocked by a lot of the emotions that she has had to contented with, including both loss and relief but also immense sadness. Having a baby after fertility problems or loss is incredibly complicated. If someone had told Sophie a year ago she would now be sat with a 7 week old baby, she would not have believed them. Her advice to those in that position is that you have to have hope and if you do manage to have the baby in your arms, don't imagine it will be the ‘fix all' to everything because it unfortunately doesn't work like that.   BEST MOMENTS “The transfer couldn't have gone any better…it just felt really special, I couldn't have asked for a better transfer” “He was very good at helping me rationalise it” “People know breastfeeding is hard…the hard bit is actually feeding, just the relentlessness of it” “You can't necessarily process it all whilst you're in it, it's only once you're out of it you have to start processing it”   VALUABLE RESOURCES www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk   ABOUT THE GUEST Sophie Martin Midwife and mother IG @the.infertile.midwife www.theinfertilemidwife.com www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk   ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Zoe speaks with mother of four daughters, Leona Bugden. Leona talks about her experience of being a teenage mum and now parenting her eldest daughter who is a teenager herself. Leona also has three younger children with her husband Ross. She talks about her experiences with the NICU as well as pregnancy and birth during covid.     KEY TAKEAWAYS     Leona found out she was pregnant with her first child at just 18. It was a huge shock, it took her a while to take a test as she kept having periods and was on the pill. At first Leona didn't even consider that she would be a mum but she then made the decision to carry on with the pregnancy, her mum was so supportive and helped her in every way from the very beginning. Some of Leona's teachers were supportive but the head of her school was absolutely awful to her, luckily her mum stood up for her and took no nonsense at all. Leona finished her a-levels and had her little girl Elyssa in the September that year. When Elyssa was 1 Leona went to university, her mum provided so much help in order for her to do this. But even so it was so difficult splitting herself in so many directions, she often felt like she wasn't managing any aspect. Parenting a teenager can be so difficult and worlds away from a baby or toddler. Leona wants to prepare Alyssa for the world but she also wants to protect her at the same time. It's a balance between giving her freedom, support and protection. Leona getting together with her now Husband Ross at 23 was quite a difficult time, for all involved. But he has been a great father figure to Elyssa and even asked her before proposing to Leona! Elyssa now has three younger sisters, but Ross treats all of them exactly the same, Elyssa was his first daughter. Leona had straightforward births with her first two daughters, Alyssa and Indigo. With her third daughter, Willow, she had a scare at 28 weeks with a bleed, she was ok but was then born prematurely at 34 weeks and had to have a stay in the NICU. With Leona's fourth daughter, Dustie, she lost her plug at 30 weeks, she went into hospital and once there she started to bleed. She was admitted and she had to do all of this alone because of Covid. Her waters broke but when she got examined she was actually less dilated than when she first came in and was taken to the labour ward. Sadly, the midwife now caring for her wasn't being very supportive, Leona was very alone and very scared. Eventually a Dr came and examined her again and Dustie was born 28 minutes later!         BEST MOMENTS   “She was how I became a mummy”   “I'm not going through with it, I'm having a baby”   “She was very much like a second mum…she has this incredible relationship with Elyssa that is different to any of the others because she helped raise her”   “I want to keep her young but I want to let her grow”   “You hand over your whole life in this little person and you are handing over every little bit of trust you have”     VALUABLE RESOURCES   www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk         ABOUT THE GUEST   Leona Bugden   @leona_bugden     ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode is part 2 of a double episode with Kreena Dhiman. If you haven't listened to part 1 yet, go back to the previous episode of the podcast.   An incredible story full of strength, inspiration and told by Kreena in such a positive and empowering way.     KEY TAKEAWAYS     When Kreena was in intensive care in Canada she received a message from a potential surrogate. This made Kreena feel so much positivity and gave her hope for the future. This surrogate had such an appreciation for the intended mother of the child, she was never someone who wanted to be showered with praise and gratitude. Kreena found this so refreshing. It's important to remember that for a woman to come to the decision to have another person carry their baby, they will have already had to overcome so many things and endured a lot of trauma. After embryo transfers, Kreena had one embryo that was very strong and this was transplanted into the surrogate, the rest of the embryos were supposed to be frozen after the transfer but devastatingly this was not carried out and Kreena lost all of her pre-cancer embryos. Amazingly, the transfer took and they were pregnant! They couldn't believe they were lucky enough for this to happen. Often in Kreena's culture and community surrogacy is hidden. Kreena and her husband never understood why people wouldn't want to share this incredible thing so have always been very open with their children, family and everyone else. After the birth of their first child, Kreena and her husband decided they wanted to grow their family further. They didn't have any embryos so they thought they would just need to find a surrogate of colour, so that they looked like her and her husband as she wanted her family to look ‘uniform'. She considered ‘known' egg donation so that she would know more about the donor as she felt more disconnected than with Amara. Kreena found an incredible donor whose Bio she connected with straight away. When they met, they were supposed to just chat for ten minutes but talked for hours and even met up again the next day. Sadly, their first surrogate could no longer carry their second child for them, this made Kreena question so many things, including a lot of her beliefs. Luckily Kreena found another surrogate who was perfect for her family, it all happened quite quickly but it was incredible and they soon found out they were having triplets!     BEST MOMENTS   “The minute I made it through that I knew I wasn't going to die”   “I wanna carry a baby for someone but I don't want another baby and I can't fulfil my dream of being a surrogate without someone like you who can't carry their child”   “Right now, we have to just pray that you're pregnant”   “Motherhood doesn't come from the pregnancy or genetics, motherhood comes from the love in my heart”     VALUABLE RESOURCES www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk       ABOUT THE GUEST Kreena Dhiman @kreenadhiman  https://coppafeel.org https://www.breastcanceruk.org.uk         ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode is part 1 of 2 with Kreena Dhiman. In this first part Kreena talks about her background story to becoming a mum, after being diagnosed with stage three breast cancer and then 3 years later suffering from heart failure.   An incredible story full of strength, inspiration and told by Kreena in such a positive and empowering way. Listen to part 2 for Kreena's surrogacy journey.     KEY TAKEAWAYS   Kreena met her husband when working part time before university but they didn't start dating until they both graduated and moved back home. There were some initial difficulties before they got married due to religious differences and their parents expectations but they made their way through this. Kreena honestly believes she wouldn't have been able to go through the journey they have without her husband by her side. Kreena was diagnosed with breast cancer just three years into their marriage at age 33, this diagnosis forced her to put herself first, something she was not used to doing. She still attributes some of her difficulties to her struggles as a British Asian and growing up seeing things no child should in an abusive household. The breast cancer diagnosis threw Kreena's life into turmoil, everything she felt she was and she had was no longer there, she ended up losing her hair, being put into early menopause and having a double mastectomy. She was also asked about how important motherhood was to her, her answer was massively, she had always wanted to be a mother, she couldn't see a future without children. After doing a lot of research and recognising that being pregnant wasn't important to her, having that child for the rest of her life was, Kreena started to look into surrogacy. She immersed herself into the UK Surrogacy community and built up as much knowledge as she could so that they would be ready whenever the time came. Kreena and her husband had decided they would find their surrogate on a private Facebook community dedicated to surrogates in the UK. They took a holiday to celebrate the decision and the end of Kreena's cancer treatment but upon landing in Vancouver she became very unwell. 24 hours later she was in a hospital coming in and out of consciousness; they couldn't find out what was wrong with her but her husband was warned that she probably wouldn't make the next 24 hours. The last team to assess her were the cardiology team who discovered she had heart failure, probably caused by one of the cancer drugs she had. Incredibly she pulled through, she was discharged later but was still too unwell to fly so had to stay in Vancouver for another 8 weeks until she was allowed to fly with medical assistance.     BEST MOMENTS   “There was a lot of expectation upon both of us”   “I think my breast cancer diagnosis helped me realise that I was the most important person in my life”   “For me I felt like I had lost all forms of my femininity”   “The last thing I wanted to do was bring a child into this world and then me not be here for that child”   “I was so relieved to just touch UK soil”     VALUABLE RESOURCES www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk       ABOUT THE GUEST Kreena Dhiman @kreenadhiman  https://coppafeel.org https://www.breastcanceruk.org.uk         ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today Zoe speaks with Maya from the Instagram account @caribbeansnowflake about the tragic loss of her son Leo at 12 days old and her journey to becoming a mum for a second time via IVF to her son Freddie. Maya has incredible strength and resilience to endure what she has had to go through as a mother, but she has always tried to live her life filled with gratitude and positivity and this shines through in the way she talks about her trauma.     KEY TAKEAWAYS   Maya met her husband on a ski trip and at first didn't even like each other! But they met again and discovered they had a lot in common and the rest is history. Both Maya's pregnancy and labour with Leo was quite straightforward and normal. Living in the Cayman Island her pregnancy and birth was Dr lead, but this is standard. It was only the Monday after the birth when Leo wasn't feeding well and the Dr thought he was looking a bit weak that they started running tests and put Leo on a feeding tube in the nicu.   The long days and nights waiting for a diagnosis were extremely hard and difficult for Maya and her husband. You aren't supposed to be apart from your baby. After many scans and test they still did not know what was wrong with Leo and he was going downhill fast, the Drs had to incubate him and were recommending that they took him to Miami – they were told at best he would be severely disabled. Once they arrived in Miami Leo had more tests and he was finally diagnosed with a severe case of NKH, which is a genetic disorder caused by a mutation. It is very rare but is terminal and severely affects quality of life. After having the diagnosis, they made the difficult decision to turn off Leo's life support, it was devastating. The aftermath of Leo's death was heartbreaking and traumatic but Maya and her husband really wanted to bring another baby home in the future. They underwent genetic testing on themselves and discovered they would have a 1 in 4 chance of having a baby with NKH. They chose to go down the IVF route so that all their embryos could be genetically tested. Knowing that it wasn't the end of the road helped them with their grief. They had one genetically clear embryo, they had this transplanted successfully and 9 months later they had their son Freddie.     BEST MOMENTS   “That was probably the shittest night of my life”   “There can't be anything wrong with him, look how perfect he is”   “Your brain can't process all that information at once”   “It was his gift to us that they all got to meet him”   "It helped with the grief knowing it wasn't the end of the road"    VALUABLE RESOURCES No Matter What: https://www.amazon.co.uk/No-Matter-What-DebiGliori/dp/1408850001/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=no+matter+what&qid=1623171787&sr=8-1 www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk       ABOUT THE GUEST Maya IG: @caribbeansnowflake IG: @makingittomotherhood         ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Zoe explores the devastation of infertility as she speaks with Rachel Lyons, who after a long journey of infertility, found hope and belonging in adoption.     KEY TAKEAWAYS   Rachel met her husband through mutual friends at a NYE fancy dress party, there was instant attraction from both sides and a couple of years later they were married! They began trying for a baby just before they got married, Rachel thought it would take some time as she has a long surgical history with Crohn's disease. After 9 months of trying the anxiety of it all was really affecting Rachel and so she went to the doctors. they were very understanding and ran tests on her, which all came back normal. They were referred to an IVF clinic and this is where Rachel's consultant said that there were unknowns associated with her past surgeries but they didn't know anything specifically, they were diagnosed with unexplained infertility. It was a really isolating, difficult and sad time for Rachel, she felt responsible somehow. The first round of IVF they underwent didn't work. After this Rachel started having pain in her back, she had to have surgery. Whilst undergoing surgery her surgeon took a look at her ovaries, when she came round, the surgeon gave her some hope by saying she needed to just keep trying to conceive. They underwent another round of IVF, but this didn't work either. Rachel was in the lowest point in her fertility journey and in her life, she felt that mentally and physically she couldn't do anymore IVF. After some really scary thoughts and a lot of soul searching she knew she needed to take a different path to parenthood, this led her to adoption. It took Rachel's husband some time to process everything that had happened so far but once he had decided adoption was the right road to take he was very quick at setting things in motion for them. It was the first time Rachel felt so excited and hopeful for the future, she knew only something amazing would come from the path they were going down. The process for adoption wasn't too difficult for Rachel and her husband, she thinks this is partly due to the fact they had some great social workers but also because they were emotionally ready to deal with all of the difficult aspects and part of the process. Everything happened quite quickly and they were matched with a little girl and were given half a day after meeting her social worker to get everything together, as they would be bringing her home the next day! They were handed their tiny 3-month-old baby the next day and the emotions they both felt were just indescribable. Everything made sense, the stars aligned and Rachel knew everything they had to go through to get to now was for this incredible thing to happen. Rachel is so passionate about the communities she is in and supports so many women in different ways, giving them the support she never had when she was in such a difficult and isolating place.     BEST MOMENTS   “A special little girl born from her heart”   “Deep down I just always knew there was going to be an aspect of difficulty, I just had that gut feeling”   “Why does my body just keep failing me, why can't I do what my body should be able to naturally do, I just felt this immense responsibility of it not working”   “I knew it didn't matter to me how I became a mum, I just knew I had to be a mum”   “I felt like the only thing that was going to come from this experience was something really amazing”   “You can't take anything personally, it's not about you it's about the child”   VALUABLE RESOURCES https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bump-Road-Story-Fertility-Trying-ebook/dp/B08NG3Y5BW/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2BSEGG3JUCXJ4&dchild=1&keywords=a+bump+in+the+road&qid=1622450226&sprefix=a+bump%2Caps%2C276&sr=8-1   www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk       ABOUT THE GUEST Rachel Lyons IG @ourlyonspride         ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  In this episode, Zoe speaks to Lady Sarra Hoy, mother of two and wife to the one and only, sir Chris hoy, Britain's most successful Olympian. Their first child, Callum, was delivered by emergency caesarean after Sarra developed severe pre-eclampsia and HELP syndrome.   Sarra is now an ambassador for the charity Bliss, listen in today as she talks through her journey of bringing Callum into the world.   KEY TAKEAWAYS   Sarra met her husband Chris, in the pub. They were introduced together by mutual friends, that was 16 years ago. Sharing our experiences can help others and Sarra feels it's important to talk about her experience of being pregnant with Callum because of the awareness it raises.  Sarra started to feel unwell at 26 weeks and slowly felt worse. In hindsight she can see all the little signs that something wasn't quite right but at the time she didn't know that these were things she should be flagging to professionals. It was only when she called 111 after being unable to remedy her severe heartburn that they sent an ambulance for her. She started to feel better once at hospital but it turned out that she had actually had a heart attack. She was later diagnosed with HELP syndrome which is a severe form of preeclampsia. It can be difficult to distinguish preeclampsia symptoms with normal pregnancy symptoms but it's about having the combination of them. The common symptoms of pre-eclampsia are: -Protein in the urine -High blood pressure for the mother -Weight gain/ Edema -Gastric Pain -Visual disturbances -Headaches   After being diagnosed with HELP syndrome, Sarra went in for a scan of the baby. It was discovered that Sarra's placenta was failing and Callum had to be delivered by emergency c-section. Sarra wasn't well enough to meet Callum until the next day. It's a huge adjustment becoming a parent under normal circumstances. Learning to be a neo-natal mum is incredibly difficult, especially when no one can tell you your baby is going to be ok. Because of the fear and fright that Sarra was feeling she could see herself detaching herself from baby Callum. Sarra recognises at the time she wouldn't have wanted to speak to someone about how she was feeling but knows now that it would have helped if she did.     BEST MOMENTS   “I do feel it's important to talk about it and raise awareness”   “In hindsight, nothing was feeling right, but I didn't know that”   “I can't have anybody else go through this, it's just too horrible”   “Nobody can tell you they are ok”   VALUABLE RESOURCES   www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk   https://www.bliss.org.uk https://www.channel4.com/programmes/kathy-burkes-all-woman     ABOUT THE GUEST   Sarra Hoy IG: @sarra.hoy Twitter @sarrahoy https://www.bliss.org.uk https://www.channel4.com/programmes/kathy-burkes-all-woman     ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  In this episode Zoe speaks to Jade from the Instagram account @notyour_averagefamily. Jade and her partner Adam are special guardians to their niece and nephew after the sudden and devastating death of their mother, Adam's sister, when the children were just 4 and 5 years old.   5 years on and with the addition of their biological daughter Harper, Jade talks through her beautiful, loving but definitely not average family.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Jade and her partner Adam have always known each other, they went to the same school and lived close to one another. In 2012 Jade messaged Adam on Facebook as both of them had become single and the rest is history. 3 years after getting together Adam's sister suddenly and tragically died, leaving three young children behind. The youngest two children's Dad was not involved in their lives at all, Adam's parents weren't practically able to look after them so Adam and Jade saw themselves as the best option. It was a complex process and after gaining support an information they discovered that they could do something called ‘Special Guardianship' of the children which is somewhere between fostering and adoption. They underwent a lot of intense interviews and meetings and luckily after lengthy processes and court systems they got this status. Both Jade and Adam were close with Adam's sister and their children. They had all spent a lot of time together which they are so thankful for, because of the wonderful memories they have but also because they became special guardians. Children who have been through trauma thrive in a routine. This was one of the things Jade and Adam focused on at the beginning. They were also learning how to be parents whilst caring for children who had lost their mother, no easy feat. Jade recognises how lucky her and Adam were to have a great support system around them. It wouldn't have been possible for them to take on the children and do as well as they have without that support. Understandably, when Jade and Adam had a child of their own, they were worried that there may be feelings of jealousy and other negative emotions and behaviours from their niece and nephew. Amazingly this wasn't the case at all and all the children adore one another. BEST MOMENTS   “It's important that is not something that splits you up but builds you as a couple”   “They were really, really close as siblings”   “They don't have those titles but they are those people”   “Grief doesn't just happen when that person dies”   “We just seem to love the chaos!”   VALUABLE RESOURCES   www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk   IG @notyour_averagefamily   www.cafcass.gov.uk   www.winstonswish.org   https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/services-children-families/life-story-work   Life Story Work | NSPCC Learning The evidence base. Life story work is not unique to the NSPCC. But there is little research evidence about the value of this form of support and, as a result, it is not always prioritised by children's services. learning.nspcc.org.uk     ABOUT THE GUEST Jade @notyour_averagefamily       ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Zoe speaks with women's health advocate, pelvic health physiotherapist and mother of two, Clare Bourne.   They talk about pelvic organ prolapse, exercise and Clare's own experience of motherhood. An episode full of invaluable information as well as overcoming the adversity that comes with being a mum, both mentally and physically.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Clare has known her husband since they were teens when they were very close friends. They lost touch for most of their 20s but fate meant they crossed paths again and have now been married for 5 years and have two children. In Clare's early 20s she hadn't had any normal periods, she was diagnosed with hypothalamic amenorrhea. It was a difficult few years for her because she couldn't find a treatment that worked for her as well as the worry of not being able to have children when she was ready. Incredibly, Clare fell pregnant straight away after trying with her Husband and had her daughter 9 months later. Even though Clare was a pelvic physiotherapist she didn't focus on her own pelvic health in her early 20s. Her training was mostly focused around birth and into menopause, we are not told as women that we need to start looking after our pelvic health when we are young, not just after birth or as we age. Clare has a prolapse which she discovered after birth, she believes it was due to a combination of complex reasons, including lack of knowledge before birth and a long pushing stage during labour. After a year of symptoms, she saw a PT that specialised in prolapse rehabilitation and became symptom free. With a prolapse, some women find that they become more symptomatic around ovulation and/or before their period. When suffering with a prolapse it's important to take your own individual needs and experience into account. What exercise might be awful for one person might be totally ok for another and vice versa. Having her own experience with pelvic prolapse had absolutely helped Clare in her work. She has authentic empathy and understanding for her clients. BEST MOMENTS   “The hormone doctors were like, I don't know what do with you!”   “Sometimes too much knowledge is not a good thing”   “I'm becoming more aware of my symptoms and I'm just not afraid of them anymore”   “Sadly, we can't support all the women in the way they need at the moment and that does break my heart a bit”   “Saying to women that there are no blanket rules what we need to teach you is to be in tune with your system”   VALUABLE RESOURCES   www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk         ABOUT THE GUEST Clare Bourne       ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The 3rd-9th of May is Perinatal mental health week in the UK. In this episode Zoe speaks with Eve Canavan who suffered post-partum psychosis after the birth of her son Joe 11 years ago. She now a coordinator for the perinatal mental health partnership. They talk about Eve's experience of postpartum psychosis, what support is out there, the and delve deep into the representation of post partum mental health and many people's   misguided ideas of what this can look like, including health professionals who should know better. KEY TAKEAWAYS Eve has a very rare condition where she has two wombs and two vaginas, so she has two birth canals. This meant she did have some difficulties conceiving so when she became pregnant with Joe she was overjoyed. Eve had consultant-led care throughout her pregnancy and he was delivered by a planned C-section. She received excellent care. As soon as an hour after the birth Eve started to have fleeting scary thoughts and spent the next three days with unexplained feeling of hotness. She left the hospital and found the car journey home very distressing even though what she was claiming to see and experience was not there. Over the next few weeks Eve began to feel worse, she had a sense of feeling trapped. She felt trapped in her house, in her brain and in the world. She told the health visitors and midwives that she was suffering but she didn't receive any help or solutions. Often post-partum psychosis is portrayed in the media by mothers having thoughts of wanting to harm their baby but actually this isn't always a symptom. Eve didn't have this symptom and believes this is why she was continually dismissed. It took her husband John to drive out of town to a psychiatric outpatient unit in Nottingham to be listened to and then Eve was able to stay in a mother and baby unit there. Eve suffered many varying symptoms of post-partum psychosis, she had racing thoughts, hallucinations, delusions, mania, low moods, confusion, visual disturbances and the inability to be able to carry out just ordinary tasks.   Eve has always been very open with her son Joe about her experience, she believes that we can't let mental illness hold a fear over us, we have to talk about it. Ultimately it's something we have experienced and lived through, it is part of us.   As well as a stay in the mother and baby unit. Eve had exposure therapy, CBT and EMDR therapy and medication. This combination saved her life.   1 in 5 women will experience some kind of perinatal mental illness. Perinatal psychosis is diagnosed in around 1 in 1000 births, it isn't as rare as people believe it to be. BEST MOMENTS   “I feel trapped”   “When we talk about mental illness it's about not being scared of it”   “It's ok to avoid triggers, you don't have to get over everything”   “There is still work to do”   “It's not as rare as people think”   VALUABLE RESOURCES   www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk IG: @eviecanavan @perinatalmhpartnership www.perinatalmhpartnership.com       ABOUT THE GUEST Eve Canavan   IG: @eviecanavan @perinatalmhpartnership www.perinatalmhpartnership.com         ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell                         See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  Today Zoe Speaks to Elle Wright, an author, --- and mother. They talk about Elle's complex, difficult and unforgiving journey of infertility and loss in her new book A Bump in the Road. They discuss many heavy and challenging topics but this is exactly why Elle writes about her personal journey, of overwhelming emotions and loss.  She feels she needs to help pave the way to have these conversations no matter how difficult they can be to have. If it makes even one person feel less alone then it is all worth it.   KEY TAKEAWAYS   Elle journaled in a record keeping way about her fertility journey, this was an invaluable aid in writing her book as if there was anything she was unsure on she could go back and refer to what she had written previously.  It is incredibly difficult for Elle to write about things that have happened to her in the moment, whilst they are happening, so when she is going through something particularly hard she does have to take a break from social media until she is ready to talk. One of the things many people who have undergone fertility treatment struggle with is the sense of a great loss of time. The length for everything to happen and take place can be extremely frustrating. Zoe is always in awe of women who manage to undergo IVF treatment and remain in full time employment. So many people do not realise how brutal the process is on you both physically and mentally. After suffering many health complications Elle really wanted to try and do a natural IVF cycle, she was so sick of all the drugs she had taken, she just wanted a rest from it all. Sadly it wasn't to be as she was cruelly told by a nurse. This was one of her hardest moments as it was when her last bit of hope got taken away from her, she almost gave up. Wonderfully, the next appointment she had she was told that her eggs could be used and after that round she became pregnant! Seeing the heartbeat of her daughter Olivia for the first time was just indescribable for Elle. It was pure, unadulterated joy. Elle's son Teddy tragically died at 3 days old, pregnancy after loss is so complicated no one can help the way your brain works after that kind of trauma so the anxiety she felt whilst pregnant with Elle was overwhelming at times, it couldn't be explained away. One of the things she did herself to try and help with the anxiety was focus on the aspects she could control, this took her mind off many of the things that couldn't be controlled or planned. Elle's daughter Olivia was due to be born by an elective c-cection but she decided to make her own dramatic entrance earlier! Elle was doing her evening routine at home and she felt a pop, she thought it was her waters but she looked down and all she could see was a pool of blood, she screamed but no sound came out. In her mind, she thought if her baby didn't die, she would, because it was the one thing that hadn't happened to her yet. Once in hospital she was put on a monitor and thankfully they could hear a heartbeat. Her consultant arrived and made the decision for Elle to have an emergency c-section. Olivia was born healthy and this is the start of their new chapter as a family.   BEST MOMENTS   “The detail just kind of blew my mind a bit!”   “It was all about using our home as a massive form of escapism”   “Someone waves a magic wand and you're free!” “I was so done with drugs” “I needed to fix those little things so that I feel it wouldn't happen” “If my baby doesn't die, I'm going to die”   “The consultant and midwife didn't say anything to one another, I guess they were communicating in knowing looks”   VALUABLE RESOURCES   www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk Sophie Smith @life.before.you  Zara Dawson @littlenorfolkcottage Rachel Lyons @ourlyonspride Vanessa Haye @venessahaye    Little Roo Neonatal Fund  https://www.ashfordstpeters.nhs.uk/littleroo   Teddys Wish  https://www.teddyswish.org   Tommy's  https://www.tommys.org       ABOUT THE GUEST   Elle Wright         ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today Zoe talks to Louise about her very special little girl Jessica, who was born with a heart condition. Devastatingly in 2018 Jessica died at aged 6 ½ and Louise shares how she is navigating both life and grief without her little girl.   KEY TAKEAWAYS   Louise met Michael in university, they have been together ever since. They got married in 2009 and Louise became pregnant in 2011. The pregnancy was very normal at the start but at the 20 week scan they found out that there was something wrong with the baby's heart, they were referred to get a more detailed scan. They had a risky procedure whilst baby was still in the womb, it was successful and their baby Jessica survived birth but she still had a very underdeveloped left side to her heart. Jessica had her first open-heart surgery at just 8 hours old, one of many surgeries to come. After four weeks they were able to take Jessica home. After her fourth surgery at 7 months, Jessica was given the prognosis that if she made it to 5 years old she would have a good likelihood of making it to adulthood but Louise and Michael were always aware that her case was complex. Louise and Michael had a second child, Sophie, 2 years later, there were no complications in this pregnancy but Louise still suffered with some anxiety and was diagnosed with Post Natal Depression after Sophie was born. Louise attributes this down to the fact she had so much support after the birth of Jessica and she struggled with the normality of life after having Sophie. But once she was open she had therapy and this as well as peer support really helped. Jessica was a joy carrier. She was always smiling and laughing, she took everything in her stride and was always just so happy. The bond and relationship Sophie and Jessica had as sisters was very special, they supported and loved each other so much. Jessica had her final surgery, recovery was good and they left hospital after 3 weeks and after 6 weeks she was back at school. They felt they were on the other side and could look to the future. Jessica went back to school and she was doing ok but one morning at school she wasn't very well and she was taken to hospital for a check and was sent home. She then picked up a cold and she couldn't seem to shake off. She had various appointments and seemed to be doing a bit better, everyone thought she just needed some time to fully recover. The family had a day out but Jessica had a coughing fit and had to go into hospital. She was diagnosed with a viral-induced wheeze and was given medication to go home with. Devastatingly Jessica collapsed at home in the night and died in hospital after multiple attempts at resuscitating her. The only way Louise and Michael can manage the grief is by taking each day as it comes. Louise also found that writing, allowing herself space to grieve and giving Jessica attention and time in this way also helped. Louise was pregnant when Jessica died, she had her third child, Thomas, three months later by home birth. She was so scared she wouldn't bond with Thomas but as soon as she saw him she adored him and felt so much relief that she loved him.     BEST MOMENTS   “You need to stop being a midwife and just be a mummy right now”   “When Jessica was born, when I heard that cry, it was hands down the most joyful moment of my entire life”   “The future of Jessica was so uncertain we always lived in the moment”   “Everything was overwhelming and too much, I didn't know how to deal with normality”   “I was really numb at that point, it just felt unreal”   VALUABLE RESOURCES   www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk       ABOUT THE GUEST   Louise @littleheartsbiglove - instagram www.littleheartsbiglove.co.uk   charities: Halo Childresn Foundation - www.halochildrensfoundation.org.uk Little Hearts Matter - www.lhm.org.uk Single Ventricle Heart Condition Charity - Little Hearts Matter Welcome to Little Hearts Matter. We are a national UK charity offering help to anyone affected by the diagnosis of single ventricle heart condition. www.lhm.org.uk     ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Zoe speaks with Claire from the Instagram account @the_nurture_nest. Claire is a hypnobirthing teacher, blog writer and also hosts the very successful 'The Hypnobirthing Podcast'! They talk about all things hypnobirthing, Claire's own birth and how this led to her training to teach hypnobirthing herself to then help other women in the ways it helped her.   KEY TAKEAWAYS   Claire met her husband when she was just 16 and they have been together ever since. They have been through most of lives milestones together and have truly grown up with one another. When Claire was pregnant with her first she was understandably nervous. She looked into hypnobirthing after speaking with her mother in law who is a trained midwife. Claire did a hypnobirthing course and then ultimately decided to have a home birth. Claire laboured at home for most of her birth but she had been in labour for such a long time she was exhausted and so decided to go into hospital for a bit of extra help. She was so pleased she got to do most of the birth at home but because of her hypnobirthing course she felt prepared and positive about the final outcome too. Claire's second birth was quite different, her waters broke at home but she didn't develop contractions afterwards so went into the hospital to be checked. Everything was ok and she went back home and had surges develop late that evening. She had her second daughter quickly at home. Hypnobirthing draws on knowledge, especially around the physiology of birth, this in turn makes birth feel less frightening. Hypnobirthing also focuses on the mind and what an important role it plays in birth, if your mind is scared then this will affect your ability to give birth. Hypnobirthing isn't necessarily a pain reliever, but what it does is give you mechanisms to manage any pain and discomfort you may experience in birth. A big role of a birth partner is to advocate for you, so they need to know you wishes and wants in birth as well as learning with you. Due dates are not as scientific as we are often led to believe. Only 5% of babies are born on their due date and a staggering 80% of babies are born after 40 weeks. The main issue with this is that the mother can become stressed and anxious once hitting her due date, therefore affecting her oxytocin levels which is key for birthing. A due month or due window would be so much more helpful.       BEST MOMENTS   “I felt quite prepared for every kind of situation”   “Although it wasn't the outcome you wanted you are really positive about it”   “It felt so surreal that we were just at home left to our own devices”   “Hypnobirthing is just birth before we came along and messed with it”   “It's about empowerment” VALUABLE RESOURCES   www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk       ABOUT THE GUEST   Claire - Hypnobirthing @the_nurture_nest Podcast: The Hypnobirthing Podcast     ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today Zoe speaks to Vicky Gooden, who talks about her fertility journey and the difficult diagnosis of a congenital heart condition in her little girl. Drawing on her own families experience and wanting to advocate for those who are different, Vicky has written a beautiful children's book called The Wonder Line. KEY TAKEAWAYS Vicky met her husband John through a mutual friend. The start of the relationship was online but when they finally met they really hit it off and were engaged just over two years later. After a few years of marriage, they started trying for a baby but after some time nothing was happening, they had some tests but nothing was found at first. After two years of trying they were referred to a gynaecologist and after explorative surgery it was discovered Vicky had endometriosis, which was removed. They expected to then fall pregnant but this was not the case, so they then went down the IVF route. Egg collection went well but when it came to transplanting the embryo they were unable to do so. After multiple attempts Vicky had to be sedated for a transfer to happen. She became pregnant but her HCG levels were low so she was told that they couldn't confirm a pregnancy just yet. She sadly then suffered a miscarriage, she was taken to a&e due to the amount of bleeding and pain she was in. It was subsequently detected that she had a cervical ectopic pregnancy which is extremely rare. Writing has always helped Vicky with her mental health, so she decided to start writing and blogging about her experience. Vicky had her final two embryos implanted and this resulted in a pregnancy, she had her daughter 9 months later. Vicky and John's daughter was a bit unwell so they took her to the GP, it was discovered she had a heart murmur. After seeing specialists, the next step was for their daughter to have heart surgery. It was a very difficult time for them all but the surgery was thankfully a success. It was after this that Vicky was inspired to write her book, The Wonder Line. BEST MOMENTS “Your relationship just becomes this process, like a scientific experiment really!” “It gave me something to pin everything on” “I felt like my body was being ripped in two” “It was an absolute rollercoaster” VALUABLE RESOURCES www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk @tinytickers @bunbunbooksuk www.mywonderline.com ABOUT THE GUEST Vicky Gooden @vickygooden @tinytickers @bunbunbooksuk www.mywonderline.com ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF. CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today Zoe speaks to Lisa, creator of Rainbow and Renovation Instagram. Lisa tells her brave story of infertility, IVF and loss. They discuss Lisa's pregnancy journey which sadly resulted in the loss of her son at 16 weeks and how it was later discovered that she has what is called an ‘incompetent cervix' and how this has been managed to hopefully stop anything similar ever happening again.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Lisa met her husband Ryan at the end of a holiday and there were married after three years. It was a very busy time for them as they also bought a house in that time as well as having to emotionally deal with Ryan's health problems, including a kidney transplant. It was after all this Lisa and Ryan realised life was a gift and they started to start trying for a baby. Ryan and Lisa ended up being fast tracked for IVF, this was because the medication Ryan had to take for his kidney transplant meant that they would not be able to conceive naturally. They had a first cycle but they didn't have a very good experience, they weren't given answers to the questions they had and the clinic were very bad at communicating. Egg collection was low for what the clinic expected and on day 6 after implantation Lisa started to bleed. Within a few days she sadly miscarried. They had a second cycle, fell pregnant and were discharged from the clinic at six weeks. Lisa really struggled with anxiety with this pregnancy, she paid for extra scans for reassurance. At 16 weeks Lisa started getting pain in her abdomen and back, she spoke to her GP and midwife and was told it was normal and referred her for physio. She was told multiple times after this that everything was ok but she then had bleeding and after another examination was devastatingly was told the neck of her womb was open and she was at risk of miscarrying. She underwent surgery to try and stop the miscarriage but they were unable to do a stitch to close her cervix, this meant she would probably miscarry. The way Lisa was treated by the Drs throughout this emotional time was truly awful, especially after the surgery was unable to be performed. Whilst it may have been true there wasn't much medically they could do to help, they could have made a huge difference to Lisa and her experience by giving her emotional support and treating her the way she deserved. After being diagnosed with an incompetent cervix Lisa was advised to have a stitch in pregnancy but after having chemical miscarriages and seeing other women's experiences she saw a different Dr and he examined her case and recommended she had a permanent stitch at the top of the cervix instead. In August last year she had this operation performed so has renewed hope of a successful pregnancy in the future.   BEST MOMENTS   “I just needed another focus”   “I was just completely desperate”   “What grief teaches you is that you don't actually go through grief in the same way and not at the same time”   “C-Section mums aren't given the credit they are due!”   VALUABLE RESOURCES   www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk     ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell                         See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today Zoe speaks to Hannah from the Instagram account @eggainst_the_odds. Hannah tells her incredible story against the odds, how she beat cancer twice and then had her baby girl last year. A true happy ending.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Hannah had been suffering with chronic knee pain and after seeing many Drs she got diagnosed with cancer, at the age of 26. One of the first questions Hannah asked her oncologist before undergoing chemo was about her fertility. She was told she could have egg collection before starting chemo but had a really shocking experience with the NHS so went private in order to preserve her fertility. Hannah had chemotherapy and also limb salvage surgery, it was successful but she had to have chest xrays continuously afterwards to ensure it hadn't spread. Devastatingly 18 months later two tumours were found in her lungs. She had further surgery and the tumours were successfully removed. It has now been 12 years since her relapse but she continues to have regular scans. Hannah met her current partner Rick online, it was a slow start but they have always had a lot of fun together and they got married in 2017. They decided to start trying for a baby, lots of cancelled appointments and tests later they finally found out that Hannah's AMH was very low and that IVF would be their best chance of having a baby. They started the process of IVF with a private clinic and miraculously whilst getting ready for an egg transfer Hannah found out that she was pregnant, but sadly it ended in a miscarriage. It was devastating for them and took them some time to recover. It was at this time the IVF and fertility Instagram community really helped Hannah. Just talking and connecting with people who understood what she was going through was what she needed. When Hannah and Rick were happy to try again they weren't given very positive news and their consultant advised they will probably have to look at egg donation or surrogacy. Hannah had her AMH re-tested and incredibly it was high enough for the clinic to try another IVF cycle – which was successful! They then had their beautiful daughter Raffy!     BEST MOMENTS   “This diagnosis shattered my world”   “Everyone in hospital that had lung m--- had died”   “I decided I wasn't happy and hadn't been happy for a long time, I realised that you have one life and I couldn't afford to waste any more time”   VALUABLE RESOURCES   www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk   Hannah's Instagram: @eggainst_the_odds.   Instagram Mentions: @carefertility. @lyndsey_hookway @thegentlemama.       ABOUT THE GUEST Hannah Instagram: @eggainst_the_odds.   Instagram Mentions: @carefertility. @lyndsey_hookway @thegentlemama.     ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell                         See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  Today Zoe speaks to Shakira Akabusi, a speaker, podcaster and women's health trainer. She educates and shares a plethora of information on the incredible female body and is also a superb mother of four!   KEY TAKEAWAYS For Shakira, the first child was the hardest. She now has four children but still says the biggest challenge was the life change that you experience when you have your first. Before Shakira became a personal trainer she worked in the theatre industry but an operation on her vocal chords that sadly went wrong meant she had to change careers completely. Shakira set up ‘Strong Like Mum' and specialises in pre and post natal training. She finds the community she has built around Strong Like Mum makes her feel really empowered. The more we share and open up about the female experience including our normal bodies, physical and mental health the better. It shouldn't be ‘brave' to show your post partum body or talking about your imperfections, it should just be seen as normal. As a society we need to change the narrative around pre and post natal bodies in the fitness industry especially. The narrative shouldn't be around ‘bouncing' back etc but should be about creating deep, meaningful respect for what women's bodies have achieved.   BEST MOMENTS   “I have managed to connect with a very positive, real group of women that I find really empowering”   “We have to change the narrative”   “The female body is just amazing”   “We didn't evolve as instagrammers, we evolved as animals”   “I now see how much joy anxiety robbed me of”   VALUABLE RESOURCES   www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk   @shakira.akabusi @stronglikemumuk       ABOUT THE GUEST Shakira Akabusi @shakira.akabusi @stronglikemumuk     ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today Zoe speaks to broadcaster, voiceover artist, and podcaster Natalie Silverman. Natalie talks about the work she is doing around fertility and the relaunch of her podcast as well as her own journey to motherhood.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Natalie has been running her podcast the fertility podcast for 7 years. She had no idea what she was starting at the beginning and never expected for it to last this long. There wasn't the fertility community there is now when she began the podcast, it was her therapy and is one of the things she is most proud of. Natalie is relaunching the podcast with more of a linear and clear approach to fertility. Pre-covid she was working with GPs to get more information out there so she now wants to try and make it used as an NHS resource. Natalie and her husband had been trying for a baby but nothing was happening so they went to their GP and had tests ran. They found out that they had male-factor infertility, they were fortunate to have treatment and it worked. However, the diagnosis had a large impact on their relationship and Natalie's husband's confidence. Natalie was a breakfast host at the time and she was very open about all aspects of her life including the progression of her relationship and then marriage but she didn't feel like she could talk about her fertility journey. This was one of the reasons she wanted to break down the stigma. When Natalie thinks about her pregnancy she feels blessed as she had a good pregnancy and fairly straight forward birth. After her first child Natalie and her husband decided they didn't want to have another baby. They spent quite some time thinking about treatment and their lives to come to this decision including counselling. There can be a lot of stigma and guilt surround having one child. As a society, we need to talk about this more. Not all siblings get on and are supportive yet we are sold the story that having one child means they will be lonely, spoilt amongst other things. All children are so different and have different needs and all parenting is different too! Natalie is a freedom formula success consultant – it's a step by step formula that teaches you about how to deal with your emotions and looking after your mind whilst going through fertility problems. Natalie coaches and helps people with this formula to teach them how they can ‘come back to neutral'. It's a mixture of talking, CBT and visualisations and also helps people know how to cope with the outcomes of fertility problems.   BEST MOMENTS   “Have you felt stigma attached to only having one child?”   “It's been a real privilege to have people share such an intimate part of their world with you and learn so much”   “I'm talking about this private thing in a public way”   “Why do we have guilt for having one?”   “They've been part of the journey in their own way”   “I talk about it being the hardest decision of my life”   VALUABLE RESOURCES   www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk   www.thefertilitypodcast.com @fertilitypoddy      ABOUT THE GUEST Natalie Silverman   www.thefertilitypodcast.com @fertilitypoddy    ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell                         See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today Zoe speaks to Sam, aka The NICU Mummy.   Sam started blogging last year to offer an alternative voice for those who have experienced something other than the norm in pregnancy, birth and beyond. The blog is for those whose babies have spent time being cared for in a NICU in some way.   They discuss Sam's journey as well as some top tips of how you can support a friend or family member if they find themselves in a similar situation.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Sam met her partner when they were just children and they became a couple at 15. Not long after they were married Sam fell pregnant quite quickly. They had a scan at 20 weeks and the sonographer gave them the news that they couldn't quite see all the baby's diaphragm, they then had to come back to the hospital the next day so see a foetal medicine specialist. It was then they found out that their baby had a rare developmental issue where they had a lesion that then affected their heart. They were referred to great Ormond street (GOSH) which is a specialist children's hospital. They didn't know what would happen when baby was born or even if they would get to the end of the pregnancy. Sam's father in law drove them to and supported them with appointments at GOSH. This was so helpful to them as well as offering a third ear for the things they were being told and advised. At 39 weeks Sam was suffering with SPD and was on crutches. Her consultant allowed her to be induced because of this. Their son was born a day later and was taken to NICU straight away as he was unable to breathe on his own. After having more scans, their son had to be transferred to GOSH for surgery. Sam now recognises that she didn't know anything about NICU care or units until they needed one, a common theme amongst parents of NICU babies. In her second pregnancy, Sam felt like her concerns and worries were truly listened to and she received good care. She originally opted for a C-section but changed her mind when Covid hit as she did not want to be in hospital longer than she had to be. When Sam's friend became pregnant she offered lots of support and advice to her. Her friend said that she was giving so much good advice and tips that she encouraged her to make the information available to everyone. Especially as Sam has experienced things that a lot of people haven't. This is what led to her starting her blog and social media pages. Sam's top tips for self-care whilst having a baby in NICU is to eat, do something for yourself and to not beat yourself up for the time you are away from NICU. You are only human and you have to do what's right for you and for your family. Sam wants parents to know to allow themselves to feel how they want to feel, not how they are ‘supposed to', especially in the early days.     BEST MOMENTS   “Don't tell people when your scans are”   “It was handy to have someone who was almost impartial in a way”   “I think that's just what I had to think to get through the pregnancy”   “For me I don't think it matters how long you are in there for, it's a really, really tough place to be”   “I just needed to feel like I was being heard”   “If I could help one person, or make one person feel like they weren't alone then it was worth doing”   “There's no rulebook on how you should deal with that situation or how you should cope”   VALUABLE RESOURCES   www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk     ABOUT THE GUEST Sam, The NICU Mummy @the_nicu_mummy     ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  Today Zoe speaks to Laura Gallagher, a mother and author also known as Robo Mummy.   They discuss Laura's fertility struggles, how to normalise differing journeys to parenthood and Laura's incredible children's book ‘Robobabies'.   Laura wanted to write a book for children to tell them all about the different ways families are made. Although written for children, it is a book for everyone as we all need educating in this subject so we can break down societal taboos.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Laura met her husband Joe over a decade ago. They met in a nightclub and since first meeting they spoke every single day – they knew very early on they were going to be together for a long time. They got married in 2015, bought a flat and spent a couple of years enjoying life. After a period of not actively trying not to have a baby nothing happened and Laura had a feeling something ‘wasn't right'. After they had some tests privately, they realised that it was Laura's eggs that weren't of good quality and had the ‘age' of someone much older. So, time was especially important for them. When Laura found this out she was shocked and felt lonely and low. She didn't have anyone to share this with. Laura underwent her first round of IVF, she did anything and everything she possibly could to try and make it work the first time. Many people told her not to get her hopes up but incredibly they were successful. Becoming pregnant on the first round gave Laura anxiety throughout the pregnancy. She felt she had lucked out and the people surrounding her had told her so many stories that she felt scared. This carried on when her baby was born, she almost had a backlog of anxiety from the journey of becoming and being pregnant that many others fortunately don't have to experience and it never went away. Induction is often thought of as quick. It's important for health professionals to educate parents that its actually very normal for induction to be as long as 4 or 5 days. It's just your body preparing, it takes time. Many mothers feel like their body has failed them but that's not the case at all. Laura's birth experience was very traumatic for her and not what she wanted. It wasn't anyone's fault but it was very disappointing. She had preeclampsia and had to be induced but after a long induction period she had to have a C-section and then baby had to go to NICU. She found the entire birth experience difficult to come to terms with, but having a birth reflection session helped. After having her child Laura wanted to educate children especially, in how not everyone can just get married, have children and have a happy ever after. She wanted to help them in ways she wasn't helped. If she had known about the different ways families are formed it wouldn't have been as much of a shock to her to deal with infertility as an adult. So, she wrote the children's book Robobabies. Robobabies is all about robots on a planet and how some robots need a bit of extra help to get a robobaby. Some need science, some need a kind person to help carry a robobaby or some need a family to help them to feel safe. It's a gentle starter conversation to talk about fertility treatments, surrogacy and adoption to young children. People haven't been able to have children since the start of time but we don't talk about it as a society, this is why it is so often a shock to people who then struggle with infertility.     BEST MOMENTS   “The illustrations are gorgeous”   “I was so upset, my sister was pregnant, everyone around me was pregnant. I didn't know anyone who had gone through fertility stuff, I was shocked and embarrassed.”   “I can't get over people who just sleep together and then the next month they have a baby"   “I just couldn't believe he was here”   “I wanted to show how special children are, and how special families are in whatever capacity”   “When is a good time to talk about a problem that affects 1 in 7 people…that might be your son, that might be your daughter and wouldn't it be nice for them to know that isn't abnormal”   “I was almost embarrassed to tell people because that wasn't how it was supposed to go”   “Smile, love and be kind”   VALUABLE RESOURCES   www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk     ABOUT THE GUEST Laura Gallagher   Instagram: @robomummy  Buy the Book About the Book     ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today Zoe speaks to Nick Watson, ex Royal-marine, father and driving force being non-profit organisation Team Angel Wolf. Nick and his son Rio are well known in the sporting world in Dubai and for the last six years they have raised money doing countless triathlons. KEY TAKEAWAYS Nick and his wife moved to UAE and started developing their fitness business venture there. They started by offering personal training to individual clients and then in 2003 opened their own facility. Nick and his wife Delphine then had their son Rio. Everything was ‘normal' until Rio had a seizure at six months old. This started a journey to getting a diagnosis, it took 4 ½ years until Rio was diagnosed with a non-hereditary genetic disorder. Rio is non -verbal but absolutely loves anything with repetition, especially nursery rhymes! The family unfortunately went through a really difficult period after Rio was diagnosed in other areas of their life too. They lost their two businesses in succession and then Nick was diagnosed with a bowel growth. But after surgery Nick was reinvigorated and said to his wife as soon as he woke up that he wanted to do an iron man. This was the start of the beginning of the next chapter in their lives. Nick did a triathlon with Rio and discovered it was an incredible bonding experience and they just haven't stopped since. They have done over 350 races and Rio has done over 10,000 kilometres of races! In 2016 Nick thought about how they could make an impact on others and team angel wolf was born. This year has been very different for Nick and his family and for team angel wolf, like the rest of us. Covid has meant they have had to be more creative with what challenges they do, including doing things inside and having people join virtually. Nick is looking at way to get more people involved in team angel wolf and not just on a local level. His mission is to engage more people to make radical changes in the world of disabilities as well as generally getting all people more active and moving. And most importantly, ensuring everyone is included. BEST MOMENTS  “Rio lives for now” “One day I want to come back with my son and daughter” “that was the turning point then we realised we should race…as a father and as a son we had found a bond…we had found something together” “Our goal has always been about inclusion” “We're always looking at situations and thinking how can we make the most of this” VALUABLE RESOURCES @teamangelwolf  www.teamangelwolf.com www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk   ABOUT THE GUEST Nick Watson Team AngelWolf is a not for profit foundation that promotes an inclusive, active life with People of Determination. We work with families and individuals of all abilities in a welcoming, motivational and connected space. Everyone is welcome. Everyone is equal. www.teamangelwolf.com ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today Zoe speaks to Claire Falconer a health and fitness coach, personal trainer, yoga teacher and life-long wanderluster! Claire and her husband have been spending the past year travelling around Australia in a van and now that Claire is pregnant she talks about how her travelling experiences have prepared her for being a mother.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Claire moved to Dubai from Australia 10 years ago with 1500AUD and started up her business from the ground up. She met her husband Luke in Dubai and after some time they decided to move to Australia and pursue their dream of exploring living in a van. Claire and Luke have been trying to start a family since they got married. Claire had quite a lot of knowledge around getting her body ready for pregnancy by advice she had given previous clients, her health and fitness knowledge and by visiting the dr. before she started trying to conceive. After only three months Claire became pregnant, they told family immediately as didn't even think that everything wouldn't go to plan. Sadly, this was the first of two miscarriages. The miscarriage was so much more physically traumatising than Claire expected. On top of this, Claire had some retained pregnancy tissue so had to have medical invention. Claire was very grateful for the support she was given around her miscarriages and says she has a new-found respect for any woman who has gone through this trauma. We are better at talking about miscarriage in society than we once were but we often still do not talk about what specifically happens to a woman physically. One of the most confusing things for Claire to deal with around her miscarriages was the sense that her body had betrayed her. She did all of the right things and had so much knowledge of her body but she didn't feel like it did what it was supposed to, what she wanted it to do. After suffering her second miscarriage. Luke and Claire began their van life adventure. Being with nature and living a minimalist life was really healing for them both. When they were ready, Claire and Luke wanted investigation into the miscarriages, but the threshold for help was 3 miscarriages. Claire wouldn't accept this and managed to find someone to help her get into the system to get tests and she started to get help and support. Wonderfully, Claire fell pregnant for a third time and is now 26 weeks pregnant. After some complications at the start, at the 20 week scan Claire was downgraded to a normal, low risk pregnancy. They now feel more relaxed and excited for the arrival of their baby. Raising a baby in a van will certainly have its challenges but Claire is quietly confident of being able to extend her and her husbands minimalist lifestyle to parenthood.     BEST MOMENTS   “1 in 4 does not discriminate”   “You just get that sinking feeling; your heart skips a beat”   “It was the most horrendous thing to go through”   “At the time I think I thought I was emotionally ready, but in hindsight I wasn't”   “We can't control every at the moment so let's just chill”   “Each time it's holding your breath for the next scan”   “There are many countries around the world that don't use prams”   VALUABLE RESOURCES IG @clairefalconer__ @vanlifestraya @coachedbyclaire   www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk     ABOUT THE GUEST Claire Falconer   IG @clairefalconer__ @vanlifestraya @coachedbyclaire     ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell                         See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  Today Zoe speaks to specialist midwife Tessa Van Der Vord, also known as ‘The Mental Health Midwife'. Tessa opens up about suffering with severe anxiety when pregnant with her son, as those who work in mental health are not immune to experiencing their own difficulties.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Tessa wasn't too sure on what she wanted to do when she ‘grew up' and became a midwife almost by fluke! She had a friend whose mum was a midwife and it was listening to her stories that inspired her to go into midwifery. Tessa is a specialist midwife in mental health. Which means she has experience of working with different disciplines, teams and supports women with a history of or with current mental health needs. Because Tessa has been surrounded by friends and family that have had issues with fertility and pregnancy she always had a worry that she would too have problems. Tessa became pregnant just after she got married, she found out very early in the pregnancy but at her 7 week scan was told to ‘prepare for the worst'. Tessa knew logically the pregnancy was early so she shouldn't have ‘got her hopes up' but what mother doesn't think, plan and dream about their baby when they find out they are pregnant? After a week wait she found out that the embryo was fine and doing brilliantly. She felt great at first but then the anxiety started to creep back in. At 9 weeks Tessa had a bleed, the embryo was ok but she kept having bleeds and all of these things kept adding layers and layers to her anxiety. Often when we suffer from mental health issues, especially for the first time, it's hard to know when and if you need help and support. Being a midwife, Tessa convinced herself that all the things she had seen and dealt with would happen to her. She had so much anxiety around all aspects of pregnancy and birth. It also affected her being able to bond with her baby at the start. If any of Tessa's friends listen to this episode she says they would be surprised to hear how severe her anxiety was. In the future if Tessa suffers again she has vowed to be more open and transparent about how she is feeling with others. Tessa's top mum hack for others is to accept any kind of help you can in the early weeks, create strong relationships with other mothers and be kind. BEST MOMENTS   “Many of her closest friends still do not know the extent of what she went through”   “Wow those hands have delivered babies, what an amazing thing to do”   “As a midwife, you know about all these things that can happen and I just wanted to check”   “Doing all the things I tell women not to do, going on google, to find things”   “I was in awe of my body”   “It takes a village to raise a mother to raise a child”   VALUABLE RESOURCES     www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk     ABOUT THE GUEST   Tessa Van Der Vord @mentalhealth_midwife     ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today Zoe speaks to Not a Fictional Mum, a mother, wife, blogger, shop owner, and self-confessed perfectionist.   She says her life's greatest accomplishment is her adoptive son and blogs about the good, the bad and the ugly! The latter mostly coming from ignorance and a society not set-up to normalise families in all forms.     KEY TAKEAWAYS   Not a fictional mum has always wanted to remain anonymous so she doesn't use her real name at all, just NFM. She also refers to her son as ‘Nemo', you can read more about why in her blog. NFM met her partner and fell in love very quickly, they got married after two years and then started trying for a baby. After a year they were sent for fertility tests and found out that they would never conceive a baby naturally. As soon as you say you can't have children, people become obsessed with finding out which partner has the ‘problem'. It's for this reason NFM never states whether it is herself or her partner with the fertility problem. NFM and her husband were able to have one cycle on IVF, it was unsuccessful so they ended up spending 25k on more cycles. They suffered a miscarriage and decided they couldn't do it anymore. NFM believes that adoption as an option should be brought up much earlier in the infertility process. She feels that we are stuck in the past with our attitudes around adoption as a society. It's something she is advocating to normalise. They then started looking at adoption and chose to go through Barnardo's. When they were accepted they felt so much hope for the future. When adopting you are ‘exposed' to difficult scenarios so that you can be prepared for support your child may need. They ask you what kind of situations you think you could handle and you have to be really honest with them about that. The amount of checks and balances in place for adoption are so necessary. They just want the adoption to work for both you and the child so need to make sure you are well matched. The moment NFM fell in love with their little boy was through a difficult time. Nemo connected very well with her husband but not her. He was very upset one night but didn't want to be comforted by her but after some time he put his little hand through the cot bars and reached for her. It was an incredible moment for them both. NFM has created many things for companies to try and normalise and change the perspective of society on adoption. She has written pieces for retailers, created cards and more.   BEST MOMENTS   “It's another route to parenthood, it's an option for you”   “Why isn't adoption an option sooner?”   “I laugh at how naive I was, no matter the age of the child they will have suffered some kind of attachment trauma”   “I've had my beautiful moments, they're just not what you see in the media, tv and film”   “It's just another way to be a family, I'm just trying to break some barriers”   VALUABLE RESOURCES   www.notafictionalmum.com www.shopnotafictionalmum.com www.barnardos.org.uk   www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk     ABOUT THE GUEST   IG @notafictionalmum www.notafictionalmum.com www.shopnotafictionalmum.com www.barnardos.org.uk     ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell                         See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today Zoe speaks to Charlie Barker, mother, entrepreneur and founder of bumps and burpees post-natal fitness company.   Charlie talks to Zoe about starting and running her own business, writing and getting a book published in a year (whilst pregnant and in a pandemic!) and life after having a baby. They also talk in depth about Charlie's three tragic miscarriages before the birth of her beautiful child Archie.     KEY TAKEAWAYS   Charlie met her husband George at university and they have now been together for 12 years. Charlie trained to be a personal trainer but after a postnatal PT at her gym left she took on some of her clients and got many referrals. It was this that made her decide to do more training and become more specialised to be a pre and post-natal PT. She found that a lot of the time the ‘barriers' these women faced was very different to other clients, in the fact that getting childcare could often be a struggle. It was this that made her incorporate babies into her clients training. She would start going to their houses and help facilitate her clients training by helping look after the babies, including changing nappies! Once her diary became full she then began training and recruiting other PTs and this is how the business grew. She would almost ‘match-make' clients to PT's to give them the best experience. Charlie got pregnant the first month they started trying, they were over the moon. Sadly, she started having some bleeding very early on and started miscarrying. They fell pregnant again very quickly, and told their families. They went for a private scan and the sonographer wasn't sure they could see a heartbeat. She asked them to come back two weeks later. When she went back they had the tragic news that the baby hadn't carried on developing and it was a missed miscarriage. As a society, we need to talk more about the physical side of miscarriage. We have started to become better at talking about the emotional side but it would be so helpful for so many women if we talked about what physically happened when we go through a miscarriage. Only after Charlie felt better in herself did her Husband George feel like he could then grieve and be honest about how he was feeling about the miscarriage. Devastatingly, her third pregnancy ended in a miscarriage too, whilst she was speaking at a baby show of all places. As Charlie had now had three miscarriages she had hit the NHS threshold for investigation and tests. But, all her tests came back fine and she was told it was ‘bad luck' and to just keep trying. Charlie didn't accept this and arranged to see a specialist but whilst waiting to see him she got pregnant! He did some tests and found out that her immune system was almost ‘fighting' her pregnancies. She was put on steroids and some other drugs until she was 14 weeks pregnant and incredibly Charlie gave birth to Albie at 41 weeks!   BEST MOMENTS   “The stars aligned for you”   “I was removing that baby from them, letting them train and be themselves and do what they love and doing everything I possibly could to keep that baby to keep them training”   “It taught me some good multitasking tips”   “Often the lows aren't spoken about”   “I had a gut feeling that if I didn't take control this would keep happening”   “It was the first time we saw a heartbeat…I was in love”   “You have to live hour by hour and the baby is boss!”    "As a new mum I only drink cold tea now!"   VALUABLE RESOURCES   Charlie's Book - Bumps & Burpees   www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk     ABOUT THE GUEST Charlie Barker   IG @charlielaunder IG @bumpsandburpees IG @clarebournephysio   Charlie's Book - Bumps & Burpees     ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today Zoe speaks to Becky Kearns, also known as the defining mum! Becky shares her journey into parenthood which resulted in using donor eggs to conceive her three beautiful girls. Zoe learnt so much from listening to Becky and found her story fascinating. Listen in today for an emotional and insightful episode.     KEY TAKEAWAYS   Becky met her husband after being in a long-term relationship, they were introduced by friends and hit it off straight away. They both knew what they wanted from life which meant things moved quite quickly and after a little of two years they started trying for a baby. As Becky came off contraception to conceive she started to realise that her cycles didn't seem normal. After seeing the GP three times the Drs ran some tests, expecting nothing to be wrong as Becky was only 27. It turned out that Becky's FSH was a lot higher than normal, after seeing a private specialist for some answers she was told it was likely that she was experiencing premature ovarian failure and that her egg reserve reflected someone who was in their late 40s. Becky started IVF quickly and fell pregnant on the first round. She started having some abdominal pains so went for a scan but devastatingly she found out it was likely that she had miscarried. A week later the sad news was confirmed. After four failures Becky and her husband asked for some hard statistics from the specialists, it was being told that using Becky's eggs would only give them a 5% chance of having a baby that started to lead them down the path of donor eggs. Becky began to shift her mindset, this is how defining mum was born. Rather than focusing on what she would ‘lose' in terms of a genetic connection she instead focused on what she would still gain. After another failed cycle with Becky's eggs, they found a clinic in the Czech Republic and were matched with a donor quite quickly which led onto a successful pregnancy and a second twin pregnancy further down the line, they now have three beautiful daughters. If Becky's girls want to try and find their donor when they are older, Becky and her husband will support them completely and be honest and help them with all that they can. Becky and her husband recognise there is a lot of complexity around this kind of journey to motherhood and how you talk to the children as a result. All their children are under 4 and already know in a child friendly way that their ‘mummy's eggs were broken'. As they get older they will give them more information and detail. Now having the girls, Becky sees more and more every day how much she is passing on to them, genetics is such a small part. If she'd known this more before, she feels it would have made her decision much easier, which is why she endeavours to share as much as she can with the world via definingmum.com It's so important that we talk about people who have gone through infertility and that at the end of the day they are just a normal family. Things are going to be hard sometimes, you aren't meant to enjoy all of parenting. It's ok to be tired and frustrated sometimes, we are all human.       BEST MOMENTS   “That was a huge moment in my life, at the time I don't think I realised how big it was”   “It's like you're in limbo”   “It's being a parent though isn't it, you make the right decision at the time with what you've got…You did the right thing at that time and that's all you can do”   “We talk about it in a positive way and I don't want them to feel any shame around it in any way, I want them to be able to talk about it with pride”   “I would be a lot kinder to myself, recognising how big a deal it was. I would also have accessed some more specific counselling”   “It's an absolutely beautiful story, thank you for sharing it”   “As a mum, you always think you can't do it but you kinda just do!”       VALUABLE RESOURCES www.definingmum.com   https://www.amazon.co.uk/Happy-Together-Science-Positive-Psychology/dp/0143130595/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=happy+together&qid=1609229452&s=books&sr=1-1   www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk     ABOUT THE GUEST Becky Kearns IG: @definingmum @paths_to_parenthub     ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell                         See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Happy New Year! As many of us will be thinking of how to be healthier as we start 2021, today Zoe speaks to Lucy Slimmon, founder of the rainbow running club!   Whilst battling through difficult times in her life, including baby loss, Lucy found that running gave her back a sense of control, joy and purpose. She realised that if running could to this for her then it could help so many other women too.   KEY TAKEAWAYS   Lucy and her husband met when they were quite young, just 19! They bought a house but it was when Lucy turned 30 she wanted to start trying for a baby. Lucy fell pregnant quite quickly but sadly she miscarried at 7 weeks. After dealing with this sad news Lucy and her partner decided to try again but they didn't fall pregnant. They had many tests and two years after her miscarriage they got a diagnosis of unexplained fertility. Lucy and her partner had counselling together and they found this had an incredible impact on their relationship and made them feel closer to one another. It meant by the time they started IVF they could talk about absolutely anything together. After a difficult start to the IVF and pregnancy at 10 weeks everything ended up being ‘normal' for Lucy and they had a beautiful daughter born on her due date. After the birth of her daughter Lucy managed to fall pregnant naturally but sadly this ended in a miscarriage. It did make her and her partner realise they wanted another baby so they tried again. She got pregnant again but traumatically she miscarried again, they were heartbroken. Lucy knew she had to keep going for her daughter, no matter how she felt. She was reading the booking 21 Miles and this is what made her start running. It made her feel so happy and she realised if it helped her, it could help other women too. This lead to her setting up a running club for women who had suffered miscarriages and baby loss and the Rainbow Running Club was born. Rainbow Running Club was an overnight success and is a lifeline for so many women. Lucy finds it incredibly uplifting to see everyone running, talking to each other and supporting one another. COVID has meant that they haven't been able to meet in the traditional way for a lot of this year but this has meant that Lucy has been able to reach even more women via zoom!   BEST MOMENTS   “I just became lost in this desire to have a baby”   “I don't think I fully allowed myself to believe that I would be coming home with a baby until she was actually here”   “I can't be the only person that has gone through all of these experiences and I can't be the only person who would benefit from running”   “It's really uplifting seeing everyone talk to each other and supporting each other”   VALUABLE RESOURCES Rainbow Running Club 21 Miles: Swimming in Search of the Meaning of Motherhood Book Stop Pleasing Start Living Book   www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk     ABOUT THE GUEST Lucy Slimmon @_mother_of_one_ @rainbowrunningclub @rainbowyogaclub     ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today Zoe speaks to Molly Forbes, mother, writer, speaker, podcaster and body image campaigner.  She uses her platform to raise awareness and try and bring change around the normality of the diet culture within our society and its effect on our children.   They talk all things body image, as well as parenting, social media and more, a really thought provoking and value affirming episode.   KEY TAKEAWAYS It is intrinsically important to all of us to embrace and normalise our bodies, especially around our children. As a journalist, Molly has many different roles including in radio and as a presenter. After moving to Devon, Molly focused on social media and blogging, she mostly spoke about the realistic motherhood experience and this is where her following started. In doing this she realised she had negative associations about her own body and she was conscious that she didn't want to raise her girls to feel this way. She spent time researching the topic of body image and then began writing more about body image, mental health and how these topics intercept with motherhood. Becoming body confident is an ongoing process. It is about recognising the messages around us and not allowing them to ‘seep in'. You need to have internal resilience but we also need to change the culture we live in. After coming to terms with all of these messages as an adult Molly turned her attention to how body image and culture impacts children. It's so important for adults to think about how they react to their own body and the things they say about it around children – they absorb everything. Don't body shame yourself or other people. Molly now creates workshops and ‘body happy' spaces for children to be in. And is starting to run masterclasses for parents (you can sign up for the first one below under valuable resources!)   BEST MOMENTS   “Giving an alternative to the glossy, picture perfect version of mother we often see”   “My daughter asked me why I was weighing spinach and I didn't have an answer for her...if this is what I have to do to make my body look like this then maybe this isn't what my body is supposed to look like”   “The mainstream narrative is still that thin is best”   “We've never had a plus-size princess”   “It's quite liberating not thinking about your body”   VALUABLE RESOURCES Molly's IG:@mollyjforbes Molly's Podcast Body Cons The Body Happy Kids workshops for teachers and youth leaders that Molly runs:  https://www.freefromdiets.org/body-happy-kids-workshop The first Body Happy Kids Masterclass (for parents and any adults who are ever around kids! Happening 30th Jan 2021 - waiting list now open):  https://www.freefromdiets.org/masterclass https://www.freefromdiets.org/shop www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk (Additional resources from Molly Forbes under 'Additional Resources below)   ABOUT THE GUEST Molly J Forbes Body happy mum. A writer, campaigner and creator of workshops and podcasts. Molly's IG:@mollyjforbes Molly's Podcast Body Cons     ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell   ADDITIONAL VALUABLE RESOURCES Books that are a great introduction to the subject of body image / health / weight stigma and how it intersects with other social justice issues. For Adults: Health At Every Size by Lindo (formerly Linda) Bacon PhD Fearing the Black Body by Sabrina Strings  Train Happy by Tally Rye Big Fit Girl by Louise Green Just Eat It by Laura Thomas PhD Happy Fat by Sofie Hagen  The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf Body Positive Power by Megan Jayne Crabbe Anti Diet by Christy Harrison MPH, RD   Books that are great for kids / teens:  You Are Enough by Harri Rose (for teens and adults)  Celebrate Your Body (and it's changes too!) by Sonya Renee Taylor (a body positive guide for girls aged 8+) Jemima Small Versus the Universe by Tamsin Winter It's Okay to be Different by Todd Parr Her Body Can, by Katie Crenshaw and Ady Meschke Shapesville by Andy Mills and Becky Osborn   Podcasts:  Body Cons (Molly's!) Don't Salt My Game  Food Psych Appearance Matters  Train Happy  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  Today Zoe speaks to Lala Langtry White, a pregnancy, birth and parenting support specialist. She is passionate about supporting individualised care for every unique journey.   Lala talks to Zoe about her surprise pregnancy with twin boys, the complications involved and their journey to today.     KEY TAKEAWAYS   After moving to Dubai with her husband and first two children Lala found herself unexpectedly pregnant…and with twins! Due to the type of twins Lala was pregnant with she needed specialist monitoring. Her twins had their own amniotic sacks but shared a placenta. At her twelve week scan Lala found out that the twins were in stage 2 of twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome. She was contacted by an incredible in-utero surgeon who offered to take on her case. Lala had in-utero surgery on the twins and initially it looked to be successful but after having a scan later on in the pregnancy there were further complications. At 33 weeks both twins were born via caesarean, they still needed support so Lala was unable to be with her babies for the start of their lives, which she found very difficult. But they were here and even now she feels so incredibly lucky. Lala felt really supported by the many health professionals she dealt with throughout her pregnancy and birth. She said we should approach pregnancy/birth as a circle that surrounds the birthing person, rather than an inverted triangle where we just look up at all the people who ‘know' more than us. Someone will always seemingly have it better than you, in pregnancy, birth and in life. But we need to focus on what connects us and this is where true support lies.   BEST MOMENTS   “It wasn't thunderbolts and lightening, it was you hadn't realised you were holding your breath… and you could suddenly breathe out”   “The NHS were my saving grace”   “The kindness of strangers means so much”   “No one has the intuition that a mum has”   VALUABLE RESOURCES IG: lalalangtrywhitesuppoort www.lalalangtrywhite.com www.TwinsPlusArabia.com www.smallandmightybabies.com   TTTS support - Arabia: https://www.facebook.com/Twin-to-Twin-Transfusion-Syndrome-TTTS-Parents-Arabia-1699149873687130   www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk     ABOUT THE GUEST Lala Langtry White A pregnancy, birth and parenting support specialist and mum of four.   IG: lalalangtrywhitesuppoort     ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today Zoe speaks to Charlie Watson, a successful blogger who has only recently shared her fertility prognosis with the world. An episode which talks about Charlie's journey of discovery with her condition but also her and her partners next big step to create their own unique family; surrogacy.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Charlie was born with the condition MRKH, which means that although she has functioning ovaries her uterus and cervix did not develop properly which means she cannot carry her own children. Charlie is a very successful blogger, her blog and Instagram started off being about running but have now transitioned into being about all of life. Surrogacy is still quite complex in the UK so Charlie and her Partner Tom have decided to do it in the US which has much better legal protection for them as the genetic parents. Charlie and her partner wanted to be really open an honest about their surrogacy journey as it isn't spoken about enough. Most people only know about surrogacy from celebrities! Now was the perfect time for Charlie to open up about her issues as she feels most of her friends support would have not been quite the same 10, 8 or even 5 years ago as they are all in a different life stage now. She also feels like the more awareness around mental health and the fertility communities on places like Facebook and Instagram have somewhat paved the way for people like herself to talk openly. The rules and regulations around workplaces and IVF need to change, it's astounding how unsupportive some workplaces can be. Women are given time off around maternity appointments but often not to undertake IVF.   BEST MOMENTS   “It's really reframed me accepting…I'm so lucky”   “This is ridiculous…the NHS doesn't help at all and the law protects the birth mother and not the genetic parents”   “It's been invaluable speaking to women about their experiences”     VALUABLE RESOURCES https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/cook-eat-run/id1500910254 https://www.amazon.com/Cook-Eat-Run-Performance-Ultimate/dp/1787134296   https://www.beautifulyoumrkh.org https://surrogacyuk.org   www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk     ABOUT THE GUEST Charlie Watson   IG: @therunnerbeans https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/cook-eat-run/id1500910254 https://www.amazon.com/Cook-Eat-Run-Performance-Ultimate/dp/1787134296   https://www.beautifulyoumrkh.org https://surrogacyuk.org       ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today Zoe speaks to midwife Sophie Martin. Sophie shares her story of infertility, IVF, and birth.   Infertility and baby loss are never easy but the strength to go through these whilst still being surrounded and caring for mothers and babies as a midwife shows how incredibly self-less, passionate and resilient Sophie is.   KEY TAKEAWAYS   After doing a drama degree and starting a masters Sophie decided she wanted to be a midwife. She completed her masters and got a job as a maternity support worker at the same time which she did for a couple of years before training to be a midwife. After trying for a while to get pregnant Sophie and her husband sought help. When the waiting lists for more investigation into what was happening were awfully long Sophie and her husband went private for a round of IVF. Their first round of IVF was successful and it was with twins, something so magical that Sophie couldn't believe it was happening to them. Sophie suffered with awful morning sickness, it made her truly sympathise with all the mothers that had told her previously how they were suffering. Sophie struggled mentally through her pregnancy but didn't feel like she could talk to anyone about it. She felt she was lucky and should be grateful so didn't feel like she could talk to anyone. At 21 weeks Sophie started bleeding and went to hospital to get checked out. But by day three she started to feel quite unwell and went back to hospital where they found out her cervix had began to open. After a night as an inpatient her waters broke. Sophie knew this was ‘the end'. In a very short amount of time she gave birth to both of her boys. They were both born alive which shocked Sophie but she feels so blessed that they were and that she had that time with them. Sophie and her partner find it really helpful to talk about Cecil and Wilfred. It is extremely hurtful to them if anyone doesn't treat the twins as if they are people. Awareness of how difficult some peoples infertility journeys are is so important. Having awareness of the tragic events that can happen makes us all more compassionate to those around us.   BEST MOMENTS  “I was a woman obsessed with having a baby” “We were happy but we were so cautious and so exhausted by this point because the emotional toll it takes on you is really hard” “When you have been through so much you can only ever think about the worst outcomes” “If we are going to be open about infertility then we have to open about everything”   VALUABLE RESOURCES www.theinfertilemidwife.com www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk     ABOUT THE GUEST Sophie Martin   Midwife and mother to Cecil and Wilfred, who never made it home.   IG @the.infertile.midwife www.theinfertilemidwife.com www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk       ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today Zoe speaks to Laura Buckingham and Bex Gunn, they have only met in person once but within a few weeks of finding one another started a movement to offer education and support to the 1 in 4 women who suffer miscarriage. Zoe talks with them about their experiences that brought them together and what made them start their amazing podcast.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Laura and Bex first spoke when Bex wrote a blog post about her miscarriage and Laura contacted her about ‘smashing the stigma'! 1 in 4 women have to deal with the tragedy of miscarriage is why is it so many of us do not know where to go for help, advice or support? Bex had three straightforward pregnancies but her fourth pregnancy was a missed miscarriage. On top of an already horrendous experience for any parents Covid added another level of stress, emotion and heartbreak. Bex found that writing and talking to others about their experiences with miscarriage helped her feel just that little bit better about the situation. Laura has been part of the baby loss community for a number of years after suffering with multiple miscarriages and a molar pregnancy. It was only through her own research and determination that meant she was able to find out what her issues were. She fell pregnant before her treatment started but was able to start once pregnant and finally had her baby Bertie. Laura found that having her rainbow baby meant that she was no longer consumed by miscarriage and fertility which meant she was able to focus and drive to help others. Laura and Bex have moved fast and created various support spaces this year for women including on Facebook, Instagram and their own podcast. Suffering miscarriage and baby loss can make many feel ‘unwomanly' but since creating these spaces with Laura, Bex has found that she feels the most womanly and the most empowered in her life. In trying to say something that helps, people who have not suffered miscarriage can say something inadvertently hurtful. We all need educating.   BEST MOMENTS “You sound like you've got balls!” “I was very naive and I was very laid back about everything” “It's about raising awareness, it's maybe about letting women speak about how they coped and using everyone's experiences rather than just my own” “The worst part is the isolation…Whatever you're dealing with if you know someone else is dealing with it too it does ease it a little”   VALUABLE RESOURCES www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org   ABOUT THE GUESTS Laura Buckingham and Bex Gunn, founders and creators of safe spaces for support and education around miscarriage and baby loss. Find them below: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-worst-girl-gang-ever/id1524031149 https://www.facebook.com/pg/theworstgirlgangever/     ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today Zoe speaks to Doula extraordinaire Kicki Hansard. She is also an author and is behind the hashtag #butnotmaternity campaign.   They talk about Kicki's pregnancy and births, her work as a Doula, physiological birth and her work on the campaign behind maternity services in the current pandemic.   KEY TAKEAWAYS   Families, women and babies are suffering because of the strict restrictions still surrounding maternity care in the NHS. Kicki is part of the team behind the #butnotmaternity campaign. The campaign has achieved a lot by putting pressure on every trust in the UK. There was a shocking 20% rise in babies being killed or harmed in the months of the first UK lockdown, this cannot happen again. Kicki found the birth of her children quite easy and straightforward but struggled, like so many mothers, will the newborn phase. The kind of help Kicki wanted was not there. She just needed someone to tell her that how she was feeling was normal. That this transition into motherhood is what many went through and that there is no such thing as a perfect parent. Kicki wished someone had said that babies don't just cry when they are hurt or sad. Babies cry because that's how they communicate. It was Kicki's experience of early motherhood that made her want to become a Doula. A Doula is a person that provides informational, emotional and practical support to parents before, during and after childbirth. There are so many studies showing the importance of a birth partner, having that birth partner be a Doula makes an even bigger difference because of the informative and emotional support they can provide. Birth physiology is such a big secret, Kicki doesn't understand why it isn't taught more. It's the lack of this knowledge that causes so much of the fear around childbirth.     BEST MOMENTS   “I was very much just waking up every day and doing the best I could”   “Is it my expectation of motherhood that's the problem…yes”   “Unless you feel safe in that environment, you are going to struggle”   “It's inhumane… it's completely wrong”   VALUABLE RESOURCES  www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.birthbliss.co.uk www.thedouladirectory.com https://www.change.org/p/partners-allowed-for-entirety-of-labour-birth-in-all-hospitals https://www.amazon.co.uk/Supporting-Survivors-Abuse-Hansard-Kicki/dp/1848194242/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Kicki+hansard&qid=1604815951&sr=8-1 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secrets-Birth-every-should-motherhood/dp/1517251192/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=Kicki+hansard&qid=1604815951&sr=8-2   ABOUT THE GUEST Kicki Hansard. Originally from Sweden but has been living in the UK for the past 30 years where she has become a mother, doula and author.   ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today Zoe speaks to Sofi Chabowski, owner of eco-aware baby shop Eggs and Soldiers.   Sofi talks about her tragic first pregnancy, her other pregnancies including dealing with finding cleft palate in her Son Luca, her amazing business, juggling family life and more. An emotional episode that gives insight into dealing with pregnancy abnormalities and birth defects and the strength of Sofi and her family.     KEY TAKEAWAYS   Sofi used cloth nappies for her eldest child as she had heard that disposable nappies were poor quality in Dubai. The more she read about it the more she discovered and thought about the financial and environmental side. Sofi then decided to sell cloth nappies herself, it was a small business as first with a basic website and she would sell on markets. She ended up doing a pop up shop with a friend, she took over her friend's business and then kept growing to where the shop is now. At her 20 week scan for her first pregnancy Sofi found out that things might not be ok, they were then told that the baby was incompatible with life due to a heart defect. Her second pregnancy was ok and Kiya was a Christmas baby with no issues but her third baby Luca was found to have a cleft, which meant travel to London again and more specialists. After detailed scans they could not see any other issues apart from the bi-lateral cleft – but it was a very worrying time as nothing could be ruled out completely, particularly regarding genetic abnormalities as a cleft lip can often be a symptom of something else. When Luca was born there were no additional issues to the bi-lateral cleft. It has been quite a journey for Sofi and her family, she had to learn how to feed all over again amongst other things and Luca has had to have three surgeries with more to go. But they have all managed tremendously and Luca is proud of his cleft, it's part of who he is.   BEST MOMENTS   “You don't need to buy as much as you think you need to buy”   “As heart-breaking as it was we just knew it was right”   “I'm very open and honest about it as though it was hard and horrible to go through we went through it…we survived”   “Your baby's your baby, you don't want them to change”   “If you have a load of baskets you don't have to tidy up, you don't have to be a neat person!”     VALUABLE RESOURCES  www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.eggsnsoldiers.com Eco-aware and sustainable baby shop in Dubai. Use ZOECM10 for discount.   ABOUT THE GUEST Sofi Chabowski, found and owner of eggs and soldiers baby shop, based in Dubai and online (www.eggsnsoldiers.com Use ZOECM10 for discount).     ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today Zoe speaks to Louise Emma Clarke, journalist, columnist, blogger and author. Listen in today for a varied episode with a great insight into expat life as well as motherhood and Louise's writing.   KEY TAKEAWAYS   Louise moved to Dubai when her husband moved there for six months and didn't want to come back! Louise's first son Stanley was born in Dubai. Being pregnant with him gave her a network and made her really start to enjoy living in Dubai. Louise says that she was very lucky in all her pregnancies and births. She felt more scared in her first pregnancy so found she didn't do much research but this changed in subsequent pregnancies. Louise's pregnancies were all quite long and she was induced with all three. Zoe points out that in France they don't even give a due date they just give a month window, which makes a lot of sense. Louise found the hardest time in her motherhood journey was when she went from one child to two. Her circumstances were hard to deal with and it took her time to change the circumstances and get some help. Nannies are much more common in places like Dubai, one of the reasons being that mothers generally have much less of a support network. Before Louise's second child was about to start school her and her husband decided after staying with her mum in the summer that it was the right time to come back to the UK. Louise always uses her own life experiences in her writing, especially in her books. She tries to make her characters more real so that the reader will empathise with them and feels like she can write so much more convincingly about things she has experienced herself.   BEST MOMENTS   “After you have your first baby you throw yourself into learning more about how it all works”   “There's a theory that we all have different gestation times and mine would just go on”   “For a long time I felt displaced and a bit like I had two homes”   “I put myself in the shoes of every character I write to try and make them real”   “I don't want to go for tea I want to go for wine!”   VALUABLE RESOURCES  www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org ABOUT THE GUEST Louise Emma Clarke IG @mumofboysandmabel www.mumofboys.co.uk Facebook: Mum of Boys and Mabel Facebook: Bargain Buys for Mums and Dads Louise's Book    ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today Zoe speaks to Hayley Bukhamsin infant sleep educator ‘the gentle mama'.   Hayley prides herself on giving scientific facts on infant sleep and development, helping parents tap into their own intuition and giving sleep solutions that are holistic and personal to each family's needs.   Listen in today for a refreshing take on ‘sleep solutions' as well as learning snippets on infant development and what made Hayley begin this venture.   KEY TAKEAWAYS   Hayley has two girls and admits herself that pregnancy with both was a challenge. Particularly with SPD (Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction). Hayley and Zoe agree that there is so much pressure on women to ‘get back' to their former selves after giving birth. But it takes time to recover from pregnancy and birth. You will not be the same person again, you are different and that's ok. Hayley tried hypnobirthing with her first baby but she didn't feel that she could get ‘deep' enough for it to truly work. She found her second birth much easier, she felt she had done ‘everything right' with hypnobirthing. The oxytocin was flowing and it was a much better experience for her this time round. It was Hayley's experience of the 8-month sleep progression with her first born that made her want to develop her sleep education. She couldn't find a sleep consultant that was gentle enough to help with her own baby. Hayley then began researching and learning as much as she could about infant sleep development. She started looking at certification when pregnant with her second baby. When her second baby turned one she started The Gentle Mama. Hayley is an infant sleep educator, she looks at the root cause of sleep behaviours. If it is a ‘normal' behaviour then she will support parents through this. If it is something that doesn't seem right then she will look at the root cause rather than just changing the behaviour. Hayley looks at things from a developmental perspective rather than a behavioural perspective. There is no licensing around sleep training, you don't have to have certification. Something that terrifies both Hayley and Zoe.   BEST MOMENTS   “There is no such thing as bouncing back, you are a different person after you have given birth”   “When a baby is born, a mother is born as well”   “I was schooled by social media and society that you have to push…I was still trying to do the things you see on TV” “They are progressing they are not regressing”   “I think expectation is the biggest culprit in a lot of issues that go wrong”   “Societal pressures are such a huge factor in what is happening to parents nowadays, a lot of struggles mothers are going through are due to societal expectations”     VALUABLE RESOURCES  www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org ABOUT THE GUEST Hayley Bukhamsin IG @thegentlemama www.thegentlemama.com Facebook: The Gentle Mama  www.brenebrown.com www.pinkymckay.com www.jasminecollin.com Neasa Barry: http://amcdubai.org/      ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today Zoe speaks to Sophie and Em, best friends who showed the true meaning of love when Em was a surrogate for Sophie so she could realise her dream of being a mum.   They talk about the journey of getting to surrogacy, the reality of surrogacy and what life has been like after such an incredible, yet surreal, time in their lives.   KEY TAKEAWAYS   Em and Sophie met in secondary school and have been close friends ever since. Sophie and her partner Jack were childhood sweethearts. They managed to get pregnant multiple times but tragically suffered many miscarriages. Em offered to be a surrogate for Sophie and Jack and five years into Sophie and Jacks fertility journey they took them up on this incredible, life changing offer. Sophie didn't know if it was her body or the embryos that were the reason she had been miscarrying so although Em becoming pregnant via natural IVF was incredible she did not feel a weight lift until the first heartbeat at 7 weeks. Sophie started to have trust in Em's body. Surrogacy gave them back hope. They all decided that the best way for Leo to be born was via elective C-section for many reasons – the fact it ended up being very different to Em's previous births was a further benefit. Leo was born in lockdown but luckily Jack and Sophie were still able to be at the birth. It was still an incredibly difficult time to have a baby but Sophie and Jack just focused on Leo. Even now Sophie and Jack can't believe they have a baby in the house – they pinch themselves that Leo is here!     BEST MOMENTS   “It gave hope that there was another option if we needed it”   “Feel pregnant, just tell me that you feel pregnant!”   “It's very hard after six years to hide things from people”   “That was just the most magical moment of my whole life”   VALUABLE RESOURCES  www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org ABOUT THE GUESTS Sophie and Em, best friends from school. Sophie showed the true meaning of love when Em was a surrogate for Sophie.     IG Life.Before.You IG themindfulbirthgroup   www.themindfulbirthgroup.com https://www.gov.uk/legal-rights-when-using-surrogates-and-donors https://surrogacyuk.org      ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The second part of two episodes, Zoe speaks to Leonie about when she finally fell pregnant naturally after so many years of trying to conceive. Listen in today to hear about this welcomed but scary surprise and the impact on Leonie's first Daughter Bea and the rest of her family.   KEY TAKEAWAYS   When Bea was three Leonie surprisingly discovered that she was pregnant! Leonie kept the pregnancy to herself at first, it didn't feel real. Becoming unexpectedly pregnant is life altering for any woman but considering everything Leonie and her partner had been through it was just unbelievable – it impacted her pregnancy journey a lot, particularly with fear. The pregnancy had complications towards the end and Leonie had to be induced. Leonie says that parenting both Bea and Dottie has felt the same even though her journey to have them as daughters was so different. Leonie's life hack for any mum is to make some time for yourself- even if it is just half an hour to have a proper shower. It makes all the difference to how you feel. You can be a much better mother if you put yourself first sometimes.     BEST MOMENTS   “She sees us all as mothers”   “She was this magical unicorn at parties as she ended up with this miracle baby”   “It was terrifying, I was constantly waiting for something to go wrong”   “The best thing about hypnobirthing was that I'd learnt a lot and it made me have a discussion weeks before about what I did and didn't want”   VALUABLE RESOURCES  www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org Eggsnsoldiers.com Eco-aware and sustainable baby shop in Dubai. Use ZOECM10 for discount. ABOUT THE GUEST Leonie Pitts Mum of two girls, Bea who was adopted at 16 months and Dottie, her biological daughter.   IG @leonieash Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/ASGDUBAI      ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell                       See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The first part of two episodes, Zoe speaks to Leonie about her first journey to becoming a mother. Listen in to this episode for an insight into IVF and what the adoption process can look like. Leonie talks though the highs, the lows and the spreadsheets!   KEY TAKEAWAYS   Leonie has always really wanted children, it was a family joke that she always wanted to be a mummy. Leonie and her partner started trying to get pregnant as soon as they got married, when nothing happened Leonie saw a Dr about it, but not much happened until they moved to Dubai for Leonie's partners work. They had lots of fertility tests in Dubai but were diagnosed with unexplained fertility so started IVF. Leonie told many people when they were having IVF the first time. The second time round they didn't tell anyone and found this a lot easier as they didn't have to talk about it. Fertility clinics need to offer better emotional support as at the moment all they are doing is ‘selling hope' and then there is no support for when it often doesn't work. Leonie found IVF so difficult that she couldn't bear to do another round, her and her partner then looked into adoption. After a complicated and long wait they finally adopted 16 month old Bea from Ethiopia. It was quite an adjustment when they finally had Bea in their arms, but they were thrilled to be a family and she kept surprising them in so many ways!   BEST MOMENTS   “All they're doing is selling hope, it's magical in so many ways”   “I didn't know the slightest thing about them (babies)…I think that's true for most new mums!”     VALUABLE RESOURCES  www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org Eggsnsoldiers.com Eco-aware and sustainable baby shop in Dubai. Use ZOECM10 for discount. ABOUT THE GUEST Leonie Pitts Mum of two girls, Bea who was adopted at 16 months and Dottie, her biological daughter.   IG @leonieash Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/ASGDUBAI      ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In today's episode Zoe speaks to Amy Campbell. Amy bravely talks about the premature birth of her twin girls, Esme and Charlotte and then the tragic death of Esme at 7 weeks old. Tune in today to listen to an inspiring and thoughtful episode showing Amy's strength through trauma that is sprinkled with hope and inspiration.   KEY TAKEAWAYS   Amy feared before trying for a baby that she may have difficulties due to her polycystic ovaries and weight but it actually didn't take her long at all to fall pregnant. Severe pregnancy sickness and a stressful work environment meant that Amy had to take sick leave from work at 16 weeks. Although Amy flagged pain several times it was never looked into further and turns out it was her body telling her that she was going to go into premature labour – at 24 weeks her waters broke. After being admitted to hospital the pregnancy was able to continue but then at 27 weeks both babies were born. Amy spent the first weeks of their life visiting them in NICU, but at 6 weeks things started to go downhill very quickly, Amy and her partner tragically lost their daughter Esme at 7 weeks. Losing Esme sparked Amy's passion for writing and this is when she started her blog and began helping and inspiring others. 5 months after Esme's death Amy realised she needed help, she was able to see a bereavement counsellor, she then went on to have psychotherapy both of which helped her deal with Esme's death and her trauma.   BEST MOMENTS   “The mum guilt even starts before the babies are born”   “It wasn't my body that was doing something wrong it was that I was listening to wrong advice”   “The word congratulations have never felt so wrong in my entire life”   “It's incredible what a mothers instinct is like”   “I didn't want my life to be full of sadness”     VALUABLE RESOURCES  www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org Eggsnsoldiers.com Eco-aware and sustainable baby shop in Dubai. Use ZOECM10 for discount. ABOUT THE GUEST Amy Campbell   IG @thisismybraveface thisismybraveface.blog      ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell                       See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's episode is with Zara Dawson “the most unbelievable woman Zoe's ever spoken to”! Zara talks about her traumatic and frightening fertility journey and opens up about her difficult pregnancies and her unfortunately flawed pre and post-natal care. This is an emotive episode which shows how incredible women can be and Zara's incredible resilience and strength.   KEY TAKEAWAYS   Zara has family history of endometriosis and fertility problems so always thought she may have some difficulty in becoming a mother, after a year of trying she went to her GP and was referred for IVF. On top of this Zara had multiple medical problems throughout her pregnancy, it was a very complex pregnancy and extremely scary for Zara and her family. OHSS is a very serious condition that isn't spoken about enough. Many women going through IVF aren't aware of the risks of OHSS. Despite the multiple problems Zara had to deal with in pregnancy and birth she wasn't offered any mental health support. She suffered with undiagnosed PND when Jax was born. Zara's second pregnancy was also complicated, not helped by the reminders everywhere of the issues she suffered with her first born Jax. She felt she just ‘knew' that things were not going to be ok. Zara's second baby Jesse was diagnosed with Body Stalk Anomaly, she did not receive the care that she needed or deserved. Because of Zara's determination and hard work Tommy's, Arc & Petals are now creating a campaign to break the silence for termination for medical reasons. This is just the start but will help so many women in the future.   BEST MOMENTS   ‘If she doesn't have this operation I don't know if she will be here in the morning”   “YAY for that Midwife!”   “I just did not let myself get connected to him”   “It is quite barbaric what has been going on behind the scenes”   VALUABLE RESOURCES  www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org Eggsnsoldiers.com Eco-aware and sustainable baby shop in Dubai. Use ZOECM10 for discount. ABOUT THE GUEST Zara Dawson Zara is a businesswoman, actress, style-icon and designer. She is a mum to two boys and has been tireless in raising awareness of TFMR after her own experience highlighted the huge pitfalls in cohesive care and support. Instagram: @littlenorfolkcottage      ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today Zoe talks to Cat Strawbridge, trying to conceive community advocate and fellow podcaster, about her personal experiences in becoming a mum; starting right from the beginning, through some very difficult times to where she is now. Listen in today for both an emotional and humorous insight to Cat's journey to motherhood.     KEY TAKEAWAYS   Motherhood comes in so many different forms, ‘everybody has a different kettle of fish' to be contending with. Cat and her partner were diagnosed with unexplained fertility – they believe often this is actually just a ‘lack of knowledge' about infertility. The progress in fertility is very limited compared to other healthcare areas, there is so much more research that needs to be done. Women need to be given more information and be more prepared about miscarriages, it's something that isn't spoken about enough and this and the lack of preparation given to women makes it even more traumatic. Finding a sense of mindfulness really helped Cat. She discovered that when she drew she didn't think of anything else and this really helped her in emotionally recovering from the trauma of infertility and miscarrying. It's very hard having fertility problems and being pregnant. You often feel like you don't belong in pregnancy spaces even though you are pregnant. There's a stronger link between women who have fertility issues and post-natal depression.  Just because you have had a more difficult time ‘getting the baby' it does not mean that you have to enjoy every single moment of motherhood. Cat found there was a lack of support when she became pregnant after fertility issues. So, she created something called ‘the hangout' as a safe place for exactly that. A place where women can share worries, anxieties as well as celebrate without worrying about upsetting the TTC community who are still trying so hard to become pregnant.     BEST MOMENTS   ‘It's something people don't speak about enough…it's a massive event, it's huge and it hurts, it hurts physically and emotionally”   “Slowly but surely I rebuilt myself”   “I loved being pregnant and I made the most of it as much as I could”   “It's ‘AND' not OR'. You can love them AND you can be really pi**ed off because they are not sleeping…there are a lot of emotions that come with having a baby it is really bloody hard”     VALUABLE RESOURCES Eggsnsoldiers.com Eco-aware and sustainable baby shop in Dubai. Use ZOECM10 for discount.   ABOUT THE GUEST Cat Strawbridge   IG @tryingyears IG @itscatandalice Podcast Finally Pregnant www.catstrawbridge.com   Cat is a leading advocate of the trying to conceive community after her own experience of infertility. She talks about her journey to motherhood and the birth of her little girl Wren.    ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe's goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe's own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS  Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell     See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.