52| Kayla. VBAC birth, Nurturing the mother, planning postpartum and finding harmony of masculine v feminine energy.

Please welcome Kayla Ruston, former founder of The PCOS Bible and Motherhood Leaked podcast, now mum of two and womb wellness coach. Kayla empowers women to reconnect with and reclaim their feminine essence and transform their pain into power. Clare and Kayla have a very long friendship going back to gymnastics when they were 5 years old, living in a share house with first loves, and then entering into motherhood at the same time with our first-born sons. They bonded over tricky transitions into motherhood, loss of identity, and expectations as first-time mums versus the healing second postpartum.

Clare and Kayla both suffered with postnatal anxiety with their first-borns, and they openly talk about how that manifested for each of them and the paths they took to manage this, whilst reflecting on how healthy second births and postpartum can be. Kayla wisely states the importance of nurturing the mother’s spark, as her light guides the path for the whole family unit. If we forget to feed the flame of the mother, then everyone is left in the dark.

We approach how self-care manifests for us, how we reclaim a sense of self in postpartum, and that it is okay to want more than “just being mum.” Clare was able to help Kayla plan her VBAC birth for Ari, her second-born son, and we dive into the tricky mix of woo-woo spirituality, whilst also being comfortable with modern medicine, and how you can have a beautiful birth in a hospital setting.

Kayla had to let go of “success” being a home birth with no interventions, when in fact we need to validate birth in all forms. So much of birth is about the strength of letting go, lowering expectations, and leaning into your intuition — all things important for postpartum. Kayla had a painful posterior labour and had to surrender many prior “ideals” for her birth.

This chat is raw, honest, and healing on all accounts. The perfect reminder to soften and accept our feminine energy and let go of the fast-paced, task-driven, goal-setting masculine side of us. A touch of woo-woo spirituality, balanced with the realness of motherhood.

Love,
Patty x