Transcript: 150th Episode

This is a text transcript from The First Time Mum’s Chat podcast. The episode is the 150th Episode and you can click on the link to view the full episode page, listen to the episode and view the show notes.

This week, I am thrilled to be bringing you the 150th episode of First Time Mum’s Chat. Woohoo! Please help me celebrate reaching this amazing milestone by sharing this episode with other mums.

If you’ve been listening to the podcast for some time, you’ll know that I have a background in child care going back more than 30 years, and I’ve worked with parents as a childcare educator and more recently as a baby massage instructor. I was motivated to commence First Time Mum’s Chat because with my work, I regularly chat with parents and it had become evident to me that many felt lost when embarking on their parenting journey. I felt that with many years of experience, I could help and hence the idea of First Time Mum’s Chat was born.

Way back in January 2021, when I started the First Time Mum’s Chat podcast, I had a goal to help mums who were about to become parents or who had just entered the daunting world of parenthood by providing a weekly episode with information, tips and tricks and resources to help.

I am proud of my track record over almost 3 years and looking back over the podcast, I’ve interviewed many wonderful women and let’s not forget the handful of gents who have shared their expertise in a wide range of areas. Their areas of expertise are too wide ranging for me to list here, but they’ve included nurses, pediatricians, postpartum recovery experts, experts who help women recover their bodies physically from following birth, educators, and many self help experts. I’ve also put together a number of episodes where I’ve talked about the many ways baby massage can help parents develop an amazing bond with their little one, as well as a range of other topics.

Something I have learnt in the podcasting world is that it can be challenging for listeners to search through podcast content to see if there is any episode providing information and support for them on a topic they are looking for. To make this easier, my partner Jonathan, who handles all of my podcast logistics, other than speaking into the microphone, set up a podcasting area on my website, which includes an easy to search facility, and you’ll find this when you look up the podcast at MyBabyMassage.net/podcast. Just enter the topic you’re interested in and you’ll know instantly whether I’ve covered it, and you can click directly through to that episode.

Each episode of First Time Mum’s Chat has its own unique web page, which include the links mentioned in the episode, as well as guest bio and means to find and contact them. For those guests that are book authors, we include a link to where their book can be purchased via Amazon. Please support our guests who are authors, as well as First Time Mum’s Chat, by purchasing their books via these links. We earn a small commission when you buy them, though at no extra cost to you.

Since episode 22 of the podcast, I’ve also included a text transcript of each episode, which you can access via the episode webpage. This will help you if you’ve missed something or have any problems understanding me or my guests. I realise that some of our differing accents can be challenging for some listeners.

Thank you to all those listeners who have reviewed First Time Mum’s Chat on Apple Podcasts. It is highly appreciated and helps other mums find the podcast. If you’ve listened to the podcast and found it a valuable resource, then I’d be extremely grateful if you could review it on Apple Podcasts. This will help me spread the word and grow my audience, and it only takes a moment.

One goal that I had when I started First Time Mum’s Chat, which I’ve found challenging to achieve, is to build a community of mums, and to get your input as well. I always encourage mums to give me feedback, and tell me what topics they want to hear more about, so that I can work on delivering this but I’ve received little feedback to date. I can easily be reached via email or a simple to use facility, which is accessible to you from each and every episode webpage to leave a voice message. Please do take advantage of this opportunity of contributing your input to help me produce content. that is of interest and relevant to you.

I highly encourage you to take advantage of this and let me know topics you would like to hear more about, what do you like about First Time Mum’s Chat and what I can do to make it more interesting or relevant to you, anything else you would like to tell me.

To encourage this, as part of my celebration for this 150th episode, I’ve put together a survey for my listeners to complete, to help me plan the direction of First Time Mum’s Chat. I’m offering a prize to one of my listeners. All you need to do is to complete my survey and I will enter you in a prize draw for a copy of Susanne Yatim Aslam’s book, ‘Post Pardon Me’.

Susanne talked about her journey through postpartum anxiety and depression and how she got through it in an episode called ‘Living with Postpartum Anxiety and Depression’ and one lucky listener will get a copy of her book. Here is a short excerpt from the episode of what Suzanne had to say about postpartum depression and baby blues…

“So anyway, I got really upset and my body ached constantly in my bones. When I would wake up, I’d actually have a hard time picking up the baby because my joints hurt and with baby blues that lasts for a few weeks, maybe 2 – 3 weeks, you’ll be suffering through that. It’s just your body sort of trying to bounce back from pregnancy and labor, but then it didn’t go away.

The thing is I never dealt with depression before, so I didn’t know that that was depression. So at the same time I became depressed was the same time I became a mother. So to me, correlation was causation. So I thought, oh, this is what it’s like to be a mom, this is terrible. You know what I mean? I didn’t really stop to think oh there’s something wrong. It just doesn’t occur to you. So I remember, of course, you burst into tears all the time at the beginning for no reason at all and all that happened, but then it just never went away. And then it got worse.”

To enter, fill in my survey form, which will take you a minute or two to complete before December the 25th and one lucky listener will receive Post Pardon Me as a gift. You can access the survey on my website by going to MyBabyMassage.net/prizedraw.

You can also help me spread the word by following First Time Mum’s Chat on Instagram at firsttimemumschat. I share details of each episode on this Instagram location.

I’m going to give myself a well earned break, and First Time Mum’s Chat will return on the morning of January the 11th, or for those of you located in North America, the afternoon of Wednesday, January the 10th. Looking ahead into 2024 and beyond, I’ve decided to produce an episode every fortnight instead of weekly. This will allow more time to work on growing the podcast audience and to work harder on building a community of mums.

In closing, I would like to thank you all for supporting First Time Mum’s Chat and listening every week and I wish you well for the coming holiday and a prosperous 2024. I am looking forward to bringing more information and tips and tricks to mums to help make your life easier as you transition into the world of parenting.

Don’t forget to complete my survey and go into the drawer. for a copy of Post Pardon Me, before December the 25th. You will find the links to this in the show notes, which can be found at MyBabyMassage.net/podcast/150.