Beyond 6 Weeks: The Real Postpartum Journey, with Maranda Bower | #32
Release Date: 09/03/2025
Raising Anti-Doomers: Hope and Grounding in a Heavy World feat. Ariella Cook-Shonkoff | #48
Spoil Your Baby
How can we stay emotionally grounded and raise hopeful children when the world around us feels so heavy? Ariella Cook-Shonkoff is a psychotherapist and writer who has spent her life finding healing and refuge through the creative process. Her journey toward writing her book, Raising Anti-Doomers, was sparked by her own "mother bear" worries about raising kids in a California region increasingly threatened by intense wildfires. In her therapy practice, she also noticed a deep need to resource parents and young people who were struggling with climate anxiety and a sense of hopelessness. She...
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Trust Your Instinct: Quieting the Sleep Training Noise feat. Gabrielle Ferrara | #47
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Why is "normal" infant sleep so often labeled as a problem needing medical intervention? Gabrielle Ferrara began her professional life dedicated to mental health counseling and social work, holding a Master’s in Social Work and licensure as a clinical social worker in both New Jersey and Florida. She initially planned to return to her full-time therapy job after having her son, never anticipating motherhood would completely uproot her career path. When her son’s personal sleep journey began to get "a little hairy" at four months old, she discovered Greer's work. Listening to the...
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Discipline and Development: The Zero to Three Guide feat. Dr. Vanessa Lapointe | #46
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Why is traditional discipline actually causing anxiety and behavioral problems in our children? Dr. Vanessa Lapointe began her career as a practicing psychologist and mother, having been trained in a behaviorist approach that taught her to squash any unwanted behavior to make it stop. She quickly noticed a profound mismatch between this training and the reality of the children coming into her clinic. Dr. Lapointe observed that many referrals were anxiety-based, and it seemed that the very discipline methods being employed by parents were actually causing the anxiety and leading to...
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Why Nasal Breathing is Essential for Early Development feat. Dr. Shereen Lim | #45
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How does optimal breathing and jaw development impact your child's sleep, mood, and ability to thrive? Dr. Shereen Lim, originally a general dentist for 26 years, first delved into the world of sleep apnea due to her husband’s persistent snoring. Her initial focus was on dental devices for adults, but this quickly shifted when she wondered why children’s jaws weren't helped to grow properly from the start. She came across research indicating that palate expansion could reduce snoring and obstructive sleep apnea in children. This led her to pursue early interceptive orthodontics....
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I'm Right, You're Stupid: Healing Adult Sibling Wounds feat. Jessica Marriot and Dr. Bluma Sapir | #44
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Why is healing the complex relationships between adult siblings a universally overlooked area in mental health? Jessica Marriot and Dr. Bluma Sapir, who are sisters, were estranged and hated each other for their entire lives until the pandemic prompted a change. Their relationship healing began slowly on Zoom. This unusual process led to a realization: adult sibling healing is a universally overlooked population in the mental health field, with everything else seeming to exist except for it. This observation reinforced their decision to document their journey and write their book, I'm...
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Evolutionary Parenting: Beyond the Sleep Training Narrative feat. Tracy Cassels | #43
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Why does our society place more value on controlled baby sleep than on maternal support, proper feeding, or comfort? Tracy Cassels began her influential work while pursuing her PhD in developmental psychology, coinciding with her pregnancy. She observed a profound contradiction between the widespread advice advocating for infant sleep training—even when pushed by some academics—and the robust findings found in developmental literature and her own research. This mismatch, which she initially felt was a foreign concept given her own background, became the critical momentum to start...
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Why Maternal Love is a Neurobiological Craving feat. Kelly McDaniel | #42
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What happens when we spend our adult lives searching for a quality of maternal love we never received as a child? Kelly McDaniel, a licensed professional counselor and author, introduced the concept of "Mother Hunger" in her first book, Ready to Heal. She identified Mother Hunger as an attachment injury stemming from maternal deprivation, noting that millions of women suffer a lifelong emotional burden that adversely affects self-worth, eating habits, and relational wellness. This profound attachment trauma, Kelly explains, is a neurobiological craving for unmet needs: nurturing,...
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Self-Mothering: Your Most Important Parenting Job feat. Dr. Gertrude Lyons | #41
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What if the most crucial job we have in motherhood is learning to mother ourselves? Dr. Gertrude Lyons, a master coach and thought leader, developed the “Rewriting the Mother Code” framework after conducting an in-depth doctoral thesis. Her purpose is to help women rewrite outdated narratives surrounding motherhood, self-worth, and identity. Dr. Lyons was prompted to begin this work after realizing that even as an established coach, she had lost herself in motherhood, stopped mothering herself, and experienced deep regret and remorse. This experience motivated her to investigate what is...
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Beyond Perfection: Getting "Good Enough" Sleep feat. Talia Shapero | #40
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Is it possible to improve our sleep and reduce anxiety, even when navigating the exhaustion of new parenthood? Talia Shapero's journey to becoming an adult sleep coach began with her own years-long battle with insomnia. This sleep struggle became significantly worse after the birth of her son. Even when her baby started sleeping through the night, Talia found she was unable to. This chronic lack of quality sleep severely impacted her cognitive, physical, and emotional health, leading to intense anxiety and a dysregulated mood. Fortunately, her medical practitioners were insightful,...
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From Low Nurture to Nurture Revolution feat. The Nurture Duo | #39
Spoil Your Baby
How do you turn a childhood of "low nurture" into a passion for helping other parents find confidence and joy in responsive motherhood? Erin and Hayley are twins and the co-founders of The Nurture Duo. They shared their challenging upbringing, having grown up in a single-parent household with two older brothers. Due to circumstances including poverty, mental illness, and addiction, they experienced a "low nurture" background, though they are grateful their parents did the best they could. They always nurtured each other from the womb, leading to a strong bond. Their shared love of children led...
info_outlineAre we truly supporting mothers postpartum, or are we perpetuating a cycle of misunderstanding and neglect?
Maranda Bower, a biological researcher, bestselling author, and the visionary behind Postpartum University, embarked on her journey into postpartum health driven by her own profound and unprepared experience as a new mother.
Sixteen years ago, with her first child, she found herself amidst extreme postpartum depression and anxiety, experiencing panic attacks and fearing for her son, all while the topic of postpartum mental health was largely taboo and unsupported by research or public conversation. This personal crisis fueled her determination to understand why this was happening, pushing her beyond conventional science into anthropological studies of ancient cultures. She discovered universal "postpartum truths" from cultures worldwide, traditions that had specific, often unscientific-sounding yet physiologically accurate, methods for caring for new mothers.
These ancient practices, which focused on needs like digestion and overall body care, revealed a stark contrast to modern North American norms. Maranda transformed her personal quest into a professional mission, becoming a postpartum doula and childbirth educator.
She developed the "postpartum restorative method," a framework for healing that blends traditional wisdom with modern scientific understanding. Through Postpartum University, she now educates and certifies providers, empowering them with the crucial knowledge often missing from their formal training, ultimately changing the world by healing mothers.
Key Takeaways
● Postpartum care extends far beyond the traditional six-week mark, with physiological and psychological changes lasting up to six years.
● Many common postpartum practices in modern society, like drinking smoothies, can actually hinder a mother's recovery, especially regarding digestion.
● Societal pressures often lead to the medication of natural female life stages (menstruation, birth, postpartum, menopause), preventing natural transformations.
● "Postpartum depression" is often a misdiagnosis, masking deep mourning for a previous life or a biological warning from isolation.
● Comprehensive postpartum support encompasses physiological restoration, proper nutrition and absorption, neurological regulation, rhythmic recovery, and identity integration.
Resources
● Manranda’s Podcast: Postpartum University podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/postpartum-university-podcast/id1562727360
● Guest's Website: https://postpartumu.com/
● Guest Bio: Maranda Bower is a biological researcher, and the CEO and Founder of Postpartum University®, supporting both mothers and professionals in health and whole body healing. She is a renowned expert and top educator in the fields of functional nutrition and coaching in relation to postpartum and nicknamed the “Womb Whisperer”. Named as a best-selling author, international speaker, and has appeared in over 50+ publications.
Ready to Connect with Greer?:
● “Nurture Neuroscience” Website: https://www.nurture-neuroscience.com/
● Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drgreerkirshenbaum/
● LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greerkirshenbaum/
● FREE GUIDE, “Nurture Your Baby’s Stress: https://www.nurture-neuroscience.com/nurture-your-babys-stress
● FREE GUIDE, “Manage the Stressors & Triggers of Parenting”: https://www.nurture-neuroscience.com/manage-the-stressors-of-parenting
● Order “The Nurture Revolution” Book: https://www.nurture-neuroscience.com/the-nurture-revolution