MAMA, UNLEASHED! - Thrive in Motherhood Dr Jennifer Hacker Pearson PhD

Imagine a world where matrescence, the developmental transformation from woman to mother, was truly recognised. Where this rite of passage was as understood and spoken about as adolescence.While matrescence isn’t a household word YET, my guest today on MAMA, UNLEASHED!, Nikki McCahon, has created a framework and language around matrescence to make this uncertain, and often challenging, time of becoming a mother more clear and less scary.Nikki created her Seasons of Matrescence model to suppor...

What's the best motherhood brain hack to be a happier mother?Today on MAMA, UNLEASHED! I explain why I don’t like the term “hack”, especially in motherhood, and why we should instead be focussing on tools, strategies, exercises and protocols, to get real and long-lasting results. In this episode, I talk about the similarities, differences and connections of the brain and the mind, and the role each play in your feelings of happiness in motherhood. I give you my first of many non-hack mot...

Amazing things happen in a woman’s brain when she becomes a mother, and we don’t even know half of it yet. Thankfully maternal neuroscience researchers like Dr Jodi Pawluski are making great progress in this very understudied area of science.In this episode of MAMA, UNLEASHED! I have the absolute pleasure of delving into the brain of Dr Jodi Pawluski, a leading maternal neuroscientist, psychotherapist, and mother of two. We talk about so much, from why we must remove the negative connotations...

If you knew about matrescence - the developmental transformation a woman goes through when she becomes a mother - before you became a mum, would it have changed your motherhood experience?In this episode of MAMA, UNLEASHED! I share with you knowledge, information and an evidence-based strategy that will help you thrive in matrescence, especially if you are expecting a baby.Becoming a mother shakes you up and you have little control over how matrescence will manifest for you. But you can prepa...

I believe that as women there is so much we can learn from women who have gone before us. And my guest on this episode delivers learnings in spades. In this episode of MAMA, UNLEASHED! I speak with the amazing and admirable mum of three Wendy Euler. Wendy is the creator of the highly successful women’s empowerment movement Goodbye Crop Top and the podcast Cropped – a midlife minute.This conversation goes there! It is a conversation we need to have as women and as mothers.It is deep, nou...

So, it turns out that 'dropping the ball' is a good thing in motherhood, especially for your brain and mind. Hooray!In this episode of MAMA, UNLEASHED! I talk a lot about balls, and about dropping them. I also talk about perfectionism, mental space, and why doing less will benefit your brain and lead you to get the most out of motherhood. You will learn that every mother needs to purposely drop the ball sometimes to thrive in motherhood and that matrescence is the catalyst for beautiful thing...