Growing a Mother

Thank you for joining this first season of Growing a Mother! I hope to be back in the fall to talk more about advocacy, and how mothers can advocate for themselves and eachother in this wild year of 2025. WE have collective power to make change in all spheres including birth, career/work, legislation, and beyond.   Let's Stay in Touch: https://growingamother.beehiiv.com/subscribe

I had the pleasure of chatting with Alexis Joseph, the recipe creator, former restauranteur, and registered dietitian behind Hummusapien. We spoke about birth, grief, balancing and prioritizing your needs, and how her relationship with food and cooking evolved in motherhood. I loved this conversation, and I felt validated to hear that I was not alone in feeding picky kids! Let's talk further! Join us on the Growing a Mother Newsletter.  

I had a deep, honest conversation with Larissa Spearnak about work, starting a family, and how she has planned her journey to motherhood. Larissa is a lover of all things, outdoors, health and wellness and tech startups. She started her career in functional medicine at a small lab company which took her to helping create & build Rupa Health, A tech start up that sold in November 2024 to a much larger corporate company, Fullscript. She was eight months pregnant when we recorded and is embarking on the journey of motherhood while balancing a career in high growth tech. Join the conversation here!    

Ankita and I explore how values change (or don't) during motherhood, the ways we can take care of ourselves, and to recognize that what you need right now may change.  Ankita is an entrepreneur, coach, mother, and an expert strategist. I hope you enjoy this conversation. To stay connected with me and to continue the discussion, join the newsletter: https://growingamother.beehiiv.com/  Learn more about Ankita and her work at https://www.ankitaterrell.com/    

Katie Dalebout, an author, podcaster, and creative consultant, brings her passion for inspiration to the table. They discuss the ebb and flow of creativity, emphasizing the importance of nurturing curiosity, especially for mothers. Dalebout shares how community support and self-reflection can reignite creative sparks. She advocates for journaling as a tool for introspection and details practical tips for starting new projects. Listeners are encouraged to embrace their interests and prioritize personal fulfillment amidst the challenges of motherhood.

Join my husband and I as we discuss how our relationship has ebbed and flowed so far in parenthood. We discuss the importance of communication and that alone time together doing new things is SO necessary for us to keep our romatic relationship thriving. If you like this conversation, please consider subscribing and reviewing the podcast! To get more in depth conversation and thoughts about the transition to motherhood, join us at Growing a Mother: https://growingamother.beehiiv.com/ We can't wait to continue the conversation with you!

Season 1: Episode 2 Let's normalize that you DON'T HAVE TO feel great in early motherhood with Dr. Jaci Witmer and Dr. Morgan Finkel We discuss: The ups and downs of early motherhood The idea of matrescence How to prioritize the things that make you, you Phases are fleeting...thank goodness Dr. Jaci Witmer is a clinical psychologist in private practice at https://drjaci.com and Dr. Morgan Finkel is a general pediatrician trained at Columbia, and both are experienced professionals working with new parents and perinatal patients. You can find more about what they are working on by emailing: jaciwitmer@drjaci.com  The Growing a Mother podcast would not exist without your support and feedback, please subscribe, rate, and review each episode and join us for deeper conversation on the Growing a Mother newsletter here: https://growingamother.beehiiv.com/ If you want to be a guest on the podcast, I would love to hear from you if you are an advocate for parental rights, if you have built out your own maternity leave, if you took maternity leave at a company, and/or you are the breadwinning mother in the family. Get in touch here: https://calendly.com/1mangalji/30-minute-meeting-clone?back=1&month=2025-04    

Episode 1!  Welcome to the Growing a Mother Podcast with your host, Salima Saunders.  Here we can learn together about how to add mother to our identity, we can learn from experts and other mothers about how to make the transition into motherhood a little less difficult, and we can create a community of women who support and encourage eachother in this wild ride of motherhood. This intro episode is where you can learn a bit more about me, my story, and why I want to bring this podcast to life. For additional context, it is a post-covid 2025 where we are navigating threats to reproductive rights and women's health. I really hope we can come together and support each other, especially now! To continue the conversation and to become a guest on the pod for the newsletter here: https://growingamother.beehiiv.com/