Dam Parenting Dam Parenting Podcast

In this episode, Elizabeth- an award winning librarian, author and mother - joins Eva and Maren as they review the book - The Happiest Kids in the World, bringing up children the Dutch way.

This book is only available in OBA in Dutch! So listen in to this episode and get the insights from three different mothers as they break it down and give their own take aways.

Back towards the start of the podcast in late 2023, on episode 15 we spoke with Harriet, a postpartum doula in Amsterdam to give us her insights for mothers to be. We had discussed preparing for birth, insights she had learned through her clients, but also we learned Harriet herself would be welcoming her first child in early 2024.

On this episode, we speak with Harriet at the crucial 3 month mark, when hormones drop, when reality has well and truly set in, after the initial joys and well wishes and family travelling over to meet the newborn.

Harriet unveils her experience, her truths and we believe many mothers will feel seen listening to this.



You can follow Harriet on her instagram here

The importance of food is well known - and today Amélie joins Maren and Eva to discuss the importance of nutrition for our mental health.

As we become mothers, our self care can be sidelined which can include food - resulting in lax and easy choices which are not always beneficial for what our motherly bodies need.

Overwhelm is an expected feeling in motherhood- but what about if we needed more than just understanding. what if we need more. It's well documented that girls are diagnosed later than boys, and lately there is a surge in numbers of women in their 30's and 40's being diagnosed.

Today, Emma, the ADHD Potential coach, joins us to discuss ADHD in motherhood, and provides us some tips on how to manage ourselves. Routine is core, but setting realistic expectations is also crucial for our mindset.

It feels like we can all diagnosed ourselves with ADHD or ADD or another neurodiverse label - but today's episode will benefit every listener with some great insights from a professional.

For all of us who have experienced it, for those lucky not to have, but may know someone, this episode is a heartfelt discussion about the process it can take, the impact it can have and also the support that we can provide - to those who may be experiencing it - or may have already.

This topic is rarely discussed, but the Maternal Mental Health series felt like a great space to be able to open up this conversation and, with thanks to Ilena Standring, who supports mothers in all aspects of pregnancy, birthing and beyond, we hope listeners might want us to come back to discuss this topic further from certain angles that are rarely spoken about.



Ilena spoke about the article she wrote previously for Amsterdam Mamas which you can find here

This episode stems from an email we received from Erin, a relocation counsellor, coach and consultant who had been listening to episode 30: School and Languages.

Erin wanted to take up where Eva had mentioned about the anxiety of her daughter starting school and all that it entails, and discuss the impact that these moments we care so deeply for our little ones about - really we also need to think about it for ourselves also.

We too, need to be self compassionate, giving ourself time and grace to experience what is going on and not just keep the hamster wheel spinning.

Let's talk about it.