Hello! This is episode four of The Motherkind Café Podcast, the podcast where we talk honestly about motherhood, mental health and everything in between. 

This week we talked about that unwanted visitor that arrives when you suddenly have a small person to look after – GUILT.

We take a rambling journey through the guilt we’ve felt about bad haircuts, screen time, sleep training, childcare, work, finding motherhood boring, and having to leave young babies or children in hospital.

Katherine and Kats also carried out a systematic review of “guilt in fathers” by asking their husbands whether they feel guilty about parenting choices. Spoiler: Not really. 

We also answer the important question of “Which Paw Patrol Character Are You?” and Katherine tells us how she recently convinced her kids to recreate a bar on the Copacobana so she could legitimately have a Pina Colada at 5pm. TOP Mum points! 

Hello! This is episode 3 of The Motherkind Café Podcast, the podcast where we talk honestly about motherhood, mental health and everything in between. This week, we talk about Frozen-themed facemasks, coping with lockdown, and Kats’ experience of becoming a mum, which includes her husband coming to pick up her and their newborn baby from hospital dressed in black tie…

Kats also tells us about struggling with depression throughout her life, alongside managing a diagnosis of Crohn’s disease in her 20s, and the subsequent worries she had about becoming a parent for the first time. She ended up finding the experience of motherhood a very positive and healing process, although – trigger warning – she did find an internal examination in hospital a few days after her son was born very traumatic, and she tells us a little about what that felt like and the repercussions it had on her mental health in the months that followed. 

You can find all the episodes of our podcast here.

Hello! This is episode two of The Motherkind Café Podcast, the podcast where we talk honestly about motherhood, mental health and everything in between.

Warning: This podcast contains references to depression and suicide which some listeners may find distressing.

In this episode, Katherine frankly discusses her experience of suffering with postnatal depression after the birth of her second child. She talks about her struggles with breastfeeding and how her eldest daughter was admitted to intensive care with a virus shortly after her second baby was born and how the trauma of that experience stayed with her for a long time after her daughter had recovered. With support from her GP and a local CBT group for women suffering with postnatal depression, as well as some therapy through work, Katherine was able to recover and is now a peer supporter at The Motherkind Café and helps run the group!

If you have been affected by any of the things discussed in this conversation and would like support now, please contact your GP or Health Visitor, or there are some numbers below that can also provide support and advice:

The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Mental Health 01865 904997

PANDAS Support national helpline 0808 1961 776

Oxford Samaritans 01865 722 122

You can find all the episodes of our podcast here.

Hello! This is the very first episode of The Motherkind Café Podcast, the podcast where we talk honestly about motherhood, mental health and everything in between. In this episode, we introduce ourselves, talk a little about what it’s like being stuck in the middle of a global pandemic as parents to young children, and Emily shares her story of postnatal depression and anxiety after the birth of her son and how the experience led to the concept behind The Motherkind Café. There is a very small amount of swearing, for which we will not be apologising. But maybe don’t listen with the kids (actually definitely don’t, for many other reasons…).

You can find all the episodes of our podcast here.