Ripple Effect

Taya Griffin, IBCLC dispells common myths about breastfeeding answers breastfeeding questions submitted by the Anointment community in Part 2 of a two-part conversation.

Taya Griffin, IBCLC shares her journey from Corporate Strategist to Lactation Consultant and her breastfeeding journey. Learn about some common challenges overcome by her lactation clients, and Taya's answers to  breastfeeding questions submitted by the Anointment community in Part 1 of a two-part conversation.

Host April MacKinnon shares the story of the link between her birth experience and becoming a skin care business owner and how it ties in to the original goal of this podcast.  

Since the onset of COVID, birth trauma rates have doubled. Nicole MacRae of Oak and Cedar Wellness is a certified perinatal mental health and trauma counsellor who explains the journey she took to become certified, how building your relationship with a perinatal counsellor BEFORE birth can reduce the likelihood of developing a postpartum mood disorder, and how counselling can help you with postpartum depression and anxiety, intrusive thoughts, and birth trauma - even years postpartum.

Motherhood is often desired and treasured but it also comes with a host of emotions we are not always comfortable with or have the skills to process. Author, coach, and mother Jessie Harrold returns for a deep dive into the uncomfortable feelings of matrescence including grief, rage, and loss, while offering actionable suggestions to help build the skills to work through these feelings before they accumulate into deep resentments. 

Lara Proud, RN returns in part 2 of this two-part series to talk about the reasons behind declining breastfeeding initiation rates in our hospitals since 2016 and how to navigate available resources to set your breastfeeding journey up for success.

Lara Proud, RN shares how even as a nurse, she was unprepared for her own birth. From this experience, her business Beyond the Bump Education was born. In part one of a two part series, Lara explains why empowered evidence-based birth preparation is so important, how it can improve your outcome and reduce your exposure to birth trauma, and how it can empower your birth partner to reduce the decision making and stress on the birthing person.

Physiotherapist Eryn Matheson joins us to talk all things pessary: what they are, how they can help with pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence, and how to get fitted. We talk about recognizing the symptoms of pelvic organ prolapse and the percentage of people with a uterus who may experience this (spoiler alert: it's high). Eryn also drops a truth bomb on the ONE thing you can do to protect your pelvic floor health over the course of your lifetime, and it's not what you think!

Registered Dietitian Jillian Reid is on a mission to cut through the noise of diet culture and offers tangible and actionable suggestions on improving our relationship with food at all stages of life and how a diet professional can help you on your nutrition journey.

Ripple Effect is back! Host April MacKinnon shares the reason behind the unexpected podcast hiatus along with a glimpse into future episodes.

Coach, doula, and author Jessie Harrold shares her knowledge and wisdom of matrescence, the birthing the of the mother and how it often catalyses huge life changes. We explore ways to cope with feeling stuck, how looking back can help us move forward and explore her new book, Mothershift.

Moving forward in life or in business takes a lot of emotional work, and often requires an outside perspective. Heather Chauvin, business leader and coach speaks to why we are so comfortable in emotional discomfort while Chantal Brine, founder of EnPoint Mentorship shares the steps she took to find her own path forward and why an objective outside voice - like a mentor - is so important in that journey. 

Martine Chiasson is a kinesiologist, mom of three children, and the owner of the Mama Movement. Martine's passion s in supporting pregnant and postpartum people on their fitness journey. Martine does not coach weight loss but instead leads conversations around what it means to move our bodies, help uncover the “why” of exercise for YOU and how exercise can support your whole being through all of the seasons of life. She helps people of all fitness levels continue to move in ways that feel good during pregnancy and in preparation for birth. During the postpartum journey and motherhood, she guides and supports the return to exercise while honouring all physical, mental, and emotional aspects so you can return to doing things you love.

Dr. Sarah Hardy Walsh, ND, IBCLC joined us in episode 4 where we talked about feeling connected and confident in new parenthood. Her messaging resonates in reflection on the last two years of a pandemic and the overwhelm many people, particularly parents of young children, are feeling.  We discuss how to determine your core values and how they can help guide decision making in a time of burn out, being flexible on outcomes, particularly unpredictable times, and how to tune in to what you need in this moment.

Katie Kelly, B.Sc., M.Sc., PT shares how a pelvic floor physiotherapist can help you prepare for an empowered birth. We cover perineal massage, positioning, and non-pharmaceutical pain management along with a suprising fact about Kegels.

Diving into previous episodes and exploring the takeaways. In this episode, we explore being empowered about our reproductive health, specifically:  1. You do not have to live with urinary incontinence or pain with intercourse. Ramona Kieser teaches us the basics of pelvic floor physiotherapy and how it can empower you and improve not only your health but your quality of life. 2. Scar rehabilitation and the role pelvic floor physiotherapists can play in C-section recovery with Katie Kelly.

Diving into a previous episodes and some of the limiting beliefs best left behind as we move into a new year. In this episode, we explore the following: 1. We should strive to feel our best in all aspects of our lives. Heather Chauvin and Dr. Saira Athar, MD on learning to value our existence. 2. It's Never too late. Katarina Reed encourages us to let go of the stories that keep us playing small and Robyn Berman's incredible journey to change careers in midlife.

Happy New Year! Let's resolve to change the mindset around weight centered resolutions. Dr. Jennifer Salib-Huber returns to explain why restrictive resolutions and diets not only don't work but can be harmful, and why ADDING a fun activity or joyful movement - without weight loss specific outcomes - to your life may be the mindset change you've been looking for to set you up for success. 

In New Brunswick, 20% of families experience food insecurity. Breakfast Clubs of Canada provides funding to schools to run school food programs. When schools closed in March 2020, an incredible pivot by and for our local community provided access to food in a safe, trauma informed way. Salem Elementary School Breakfast Club Program Coordinator Lindsay Cary shares the story of the impact school food had on families at the height of lockdowns and volunteers came together to ensure kids didn't go hungry.

In the early months of the pandemic, Sarah Evans and Alan Barbour closed their popular and successful cafe, the Black Duck. In the weeks and months that followed Sarah realized the path forward could only be found by stepping back and out of the business completely and laying every option on the table before finding the path forward.   

Host April MacKinnon shares her difficulty in understanding "joy" as a concept and how she found it in the most unlikely way. 

Jennifer Myers Chua is the host of the Cost of Goods Sold podcast, where she explores the environmental and social costs of the things we buy and the stories behind businesses built to create impact. Jennifer reveals the personal experience that prompted the idea to begin a podcast and how the final product is vastly different than she originally planned. We dig into the highlights of some of her episodes, and the common threads emerging from the founder stories she shares.

Red seal chef Sarah Bennetto O'Brien is the owner of Prince Edward Island's beloved Handpie Company, where they manufacture handpies for island-wide distribution and a take-home retail location. Sarah shares her story of the impact of life changing decisions dropping into your lap and how world travel, working in agriculture, and gratitude for every single day forged her optimistic outlook and drives her mission. 

Host April MacKinnon shares the deeply personal WHY behind this podcast project. How a decade of working at home while parenting three children left her feeling a deep sense of loss of self, community, and confidence and how this project is leading to a reclamation of her voice while amplifying the stories of those around her.

For 27 years Bummis cloth diapers lived their commitment to "Made Here" manufacturing and for their advocacy of the juvenile products industry. At a crucial point in their business, they suddenly exited the market in what founder Betsy Thomas describes as a conflagration. Betsy shares the story of growth, the circumstances that led to the end of the business she began at home with three small children, spent most of her adult life building, and how she took the pain, grief, and loss and turned it into a new beginning at age 64. 

Beeswax food wrap disrupted a food storage category dominated by plastic wrap in 2008. In conversation with Abeego founder and inventor of the beeswax food wrap, Toni Desrosiers shares how she was inspired to invent Abeego, how her mission is greater than the product, why she consciously decided NOT to patent idea along with frank and open discussion of the realities of business ownership, parenthood, and a truth bomb about the one feeling entrepreneurs struggle with the most.  

Dr. Jennifer Salib-Huber, RD, ND breaks down perimenopause. Talking about reproductive health often ends at postpartum. We're here to change that. An important discussion for anyone who will experience perimenopause and those who care for them. Learn the difference between perimenopause and menopause and what common symptoms you may expect with changing hormones and why they happen. Learn some holistic coping strategies, how nutrition and body movement can help (spoiler: it's not a specific diet or exercise routine). You're not going crazy, and you're not alone.

Sheena Russell is the founder of Made with Local and has navigated massive growth of her B corp certified snack bar brand from Farmers' Market to mass grocery while re-writing the business model AND growing a family. Join us behind the scenes for a frank discussion about confidence, personal growth, the realities of growing a business at the intersection of family life, and the challenges of sticking to your core values.

Dr. Lisa Dawn Hamilton is an Associate Professor at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick, the host of Do We Know Things? podcast and a dedicated sex educator. Lisa Dawn reveals the most common misinformation around desire and sexual satisfaction for people with vulvas, the lack of sex eduction as it relates to clitoral stimulation and insight on how to talk to your children about sex. Content warning: this episode discusses sex, sexuality and genitalia.

Dr. Saira Athar is a family physician who provides insight into patterns she has observed in women's health during her time in practice, how she sees a primary health care providers' role in the optimization of health, the possible hurdles to diagnosis, and the collaborative role allied health professionals provide in overall wellness. 

Robyn Berman is Lead Clinical Midwife at the Ottawa Birth and Wellness Centre in Ottawa, Ontario. Robyn's journey includes paving the way for a birth community as a doula and breastfeeding educator in Halifax, Nova Scotia to deciding to study midwifery at 40 while parenting two young children. Robyn explains what midwifery care means and how it compares to hospital-based care and her story on becoming a midwife in midlife.

EnPoint founder Chantal Brine describes the experience with mentorship that led to a turning point in her career and an entrepreneurship journey to impact and connect one million people through mentorship. She shared how important it is to ask questions and actually hear the answers, and why mentorship is so important to women, in particular.

Oh Mother! Care Kits founder Nicole Landry on the isolation and loneliness of new motherhood that inspired a business idea and how she manages her expectations as her family and business grow. 

Hillary LeBlanc is a model, blogger, and co-host of the Black in the Maritimes podcast. Hillary shares her story of resilience and finding her identity as she builds a relationship with her African father and explores her identity as a Black woman. She is using the power of her word to advocate for and educate about Black culture and history, particularly in the Maritimes. Content warning: this episode contains discussion of substance abuse, intergenerational trauma, and sexual assault.

Amanda Rhyno is the founder of Nourished Magnesium, a topical Magnesium-based wellness company. Amanda shares her own wellness journey and how discovering the benefits of topical magnesium changed the direction of her life from working in the hospitality industry to wellness company founder and the challenges of building a business as a single parent.

Giselle Baumet is an Afro-Latina childbirth educator, a holistic postpartum doula, a trained aromatherapist and herbalist, an energy worker, a lactation educator, a hypnotherapist, women's life coach, CPR instructor, and perinatal mental health specialist AND a mother of four. Giselle shares her path to educating and coaching connection-based positive parenting solutions through inner child self-healing.

How a simple text exchange between Deanne Fitzpatrick, host of the Create Beauty Everyday podcast and April MacKinnon became an explanation of April's business clarity, leadership growth, lessons learned, and leaning into Anointment's niche. 

Amy MacAulay, owner of Embrace Doula, Atlantic Canada's first agency-model postpartum doula mentorship program talks about the increasing demand for postpartum doula support, her shift in focus from birth to postpartum, and her insight on how to create a supportive postpartum plan.

Women need connection. Balance and Burnout coach Wendy McCallum and I tell our personal stories of discovering the need for connection and our experience of building community among women. We discuss why it can be hard to make new connections as we age, and explore ways we can nurture our sense of community as a key to mental wellness, longevity and stress management.

Leadership coach, host of the Mom Is In Control podcast and author of Dying to Be a Good Mother, Heather Chauvin reveals vulnerable truths about womanhood, marriage, parenting, living through stage 4 cancer and running a successful business without burning out.

How 2020 broke me open and allowed me to let go of old beliefs. After a long break from this community, I am rebuilding from the ground up with small, consistent steps forward.

Co-founder of Open Sky, Margaret Tusz-King, shares her story of how a family history of austim, her career in health sciences, post-graduate work in Adult Education, environmentalism and social activism led to her Ripple Effect: the creation of a sustainable farm and program facility in Sackville, NB founded to fill a gap in support services for adults who experience barriers due to social disabilities or mental health challenges.  

Pelvic floor physiotherapist Katie Kelly, B.Sc., M.Sc., PT, shares the experience that led to her passion to educate women about  preparation tips for and recovering from C-section birth along with new research on how to care for your C-section scar from a physical and mental health perspective.

Host April MacKinnon shares the personal story that led her to this moment: from a career in Engineering to a natural parenting store to a skin care formulator and brand owner and a woman who is passionate about women's reproductive health and wellbeing and how the Ripple Effect Podcast was born. A 10th episode celebration!

Rug hooking artist, author and small business owner Deanne Fitzpatrick describes her journey from professional therapist to embracing her identity as an artist. At the heart of it all how living authentically has shaped a successful career, but even more so, a life of creating beauty every day. 

Hypopressives instructor, yoga teacher, and doula Christina De Haas describes the practice of hypopressives and how this European postpartum standard of care using breath and posture can improve the strength of your pelvic floor, your abdominals and diaphragm, allow you to be better connected to your body, and contribute to your overall wellness in a way that you can control with a daily (or several days weekly) 10 minute practice.   

Katharina Reed has been supporting women for over 35 years. Having experienced a transformative event with the birth of her granddaughter, Katharina is filled with a renewed mission to work with women interested in lifting themselves up, shed self-limiting beliefs and intergenerational stories to live their potential. Using archetypes to identify her story, Katharina shares what led her here, how it has shaped her work and inspired a new business.

Serial entrepreneur Renee Warren candidly tells her story of becoming a mother - twice - in 11 months while building a business, and in an incredibly busy season of life. She found herself caught in what she came to understand was an undiagnosed postpartum mood disorder. Renee shares her experience, the moment she realized she needed to take steps to achieve better balance, and how that has shaped her life and led to a business helping entrepreneurial families achieve balance of their own.

Designer Janet Murphy describes her path to embracing progress not perfection through gratitude journaling. Sharing her journey from burn out to conscious living, Janet tells us step by step how to cultivate gratitude daily and project gratitude to build joy into every day living as we approach a new year.

Dr. Sarah Hardy Walsh, ND, IBCLC shares how she helps women cultivate resilience during their transition to motherhood through community based drop-in sessions, group programs and private house call consultations. She shares her thoughts and experience on providing compassionate care for women and babies, advice for how to connect with your inner wisdom to determine your core values as a parent, and her wishes for changes to how women are supported in their early days of mothering.

In Canada, at any given time, there are approximately 4,500 people waiting for organ transplants. 76% of them are waiting for a kidney. Lindsay Murray is the Production Manager at Anointment and in 2019 she became a living kidney donor. She shares her story, post-surgery successes, debunks the fear around living organ donation and proves that life with one kidney doesn't have to slow you down!