YDGM Ep 32: Chantal Challenger, life as a mum and an expat.
You're Doing Great Mom
Chantal Challenger lives a different life from many of us, traveling around the world with her husband and two kids. She and her husband work in the hospitality/hotel industry, and have chosen a life as expats currently living in Jakarta. She shares about how they chose to move from their home in Australia, and how they’ve adapted to raising their family in a different culture.
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YDGM Ep 31: My husband Julian Wiseman talking about his book on Port Vintages.
You're Doing Great Mom
My husband Julian Wiseman and me chat about his new book. If you are a wine lover and you also enjoy port, this episode is so interesting with so much information about wine and Vintage Port. And you will see how much of a port geek he is.
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YDGM Ep 30: Keith Wassung
You're Doing Great Mom
Keith Wassung knows more about chiropractic than most chiropractors. He's been spreading information about chiropractic for over 30 years through his educational material, photos, slides, and website to help people learn more about chiropractic. He's a father of six, so that makes him an expert in fatherhood! Listen to this awesome episode as Keith talks about his life and love for chiropractic. It was great to learn so much about him!
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YDGM Ep 29: Thomas Waller DC
You're Doing Great Mom
Chatting with chiropractor extraordinaire Thomas Waller DC about fatherhood, chiropractic, and his mission in life. Tom’s the kinda guy that you can hang out with, have a beer with, and chat about anything. His energy fuels you each and every minute. He’s also the guy you could call up and ask his advice and he’d stop and give you his 100% with a solid answer. And he’s also the guy you’d see on a stage in front of thousands of people. He’s unstoppable.
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YDGM Ep 28: Craig Peterson, an American living in Rome
You're Doing Great Mom
Craig Peterson is American who lives in Rome Italy. He’s 35 years old and he’s a Network Spinal Chiropractor. He is not a father, and he’s in a relationship with a woman who doesn’t want children. He’s thought about having kids, and it was his current girlfriend who gave him the deeper thought of why he wants kids, and why not live life without having kids.
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YDGM Ep 27: Brendan Waddington on Fatherhood
You're Doing Great Mom
Brendan is a naturopath, soft-tissue therapist, personal trainer, and he also helps miners by coaching them on their health. When I asked him to be on my podcast, he didn't think I'd be interested because he's not a father. Naturally, it's what people would think, but I was very keen on having men who are not fathers to talk about their views on the subject. Brendan mentions that he definitely wants kids eventually, and it was interesting to hear how he thinks and feels about fatherhood.
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YDGM Ep 26: Julian D A Wiseman AKA My Husband
You're Doing Great Mom
My husband and I talk about a lot of things sort of relating to fatherhood.
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YDGM Ep 25: Lillian Lartey
You're Doing Great Mom
Lillian Lartey is a personal trainer, massage therapist, and I consider her a life coach for women because she is so grounded in her values and commitment to having an extraordinary life. As a life coach, she has helped women, many of them mothers, to focus on themselves and to achieve happiness, building back their health, self-esteem, and love for life.
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YDGM Ep 024: Drea Clark
You're Doing Great Mom
Drea Clark lives in LA and works in film. She's my sister's best friend from highschool and we've known each other for a really long time. I asked her to be on my podcast for this current series of conversations with women who are not mothers, and she was totally enthusiastic to participate. I knew it would be a fantastic conversation, a fun one too, because Drea is just so articulate in just about anything. You ask her about anything, and she'll have something to say about it.
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YDGM Ep 023: Angie Dairou
You're Doing Great Mom
Angie is a successful therapist, working with individuals as well as companies, big and small. This episode was awesome, with so many interesting and thought-provoking nuggets of wisdom, ideas, and stories about motherhood and how we can shift our perspectives about it in the context of applying it to roles of leadership and life in general.
info_outlineOne of my biggest take-homes from this conversation is this.
Melissa explains,
“I think the mistake we make is that it’s not our births. It’s our children’s births. We don’t even know who they are yet. We don’t what their personality is. We don’t know anything about them. And it’s their journey and we’re just the vehicle for that. So being able to connect with them and let them have their journey is kind of really where it’s at. And when we try and make it about us, the birth, about making it look really pretty and trying to control it ... I don’t think we should do that.”
Six natural births. Empowering, positive, and loved being pregnant.
So much experience and so much wisdom.
“This is a bit of a fire-up statement. I can pretty much tell you, when I meet a pregnant woman whether they’re gonna end up having a safe and natural delivery or whether they’re gonna end up having an intervention. I can tell by the language they use because behind the language is their own fear. And when they start using disclaimers about well ‘I have to do what the hospital says, I have to do what the doctor says’. They’re relinquishing ownership of their bodies and control. When you use language like that and your emotions are really fear-based, you just have no hope.”
Melissa is a super mom. She’s amazing. She’s so grounded, full of wisdom, she’s full of life, and is an expert on motherhood, love, and enjoying life. Melissa moved from Melbourne, Australia to Devon, UK and lived there for nearly 20 years. She has six children, her eldest studying chiropractic in Australia. She met her first husband, who is British, in Australia, moved to Devon together and had her first three children who are now 23, 21, and 18.
Then, also while living in the UK, met her second husband, and has three children with him. They are 10, 7, and 5.
Chiropractic has been a huge part of her adult life, started getting adjusted regularly as part of her healthy lifestyle. Her first husband was a chiropractor, with whom she separated, and then remarried again, who is also a chiropractor.
Melissa is a woman who loved being pregnant. She fully embraced being pregnant, being a mother, having the mindset of ease, peace, and enjoying every aspect of it. She talks about each of her births in detail, what she discovered and learned about herself, her babies, and her body with each one.
“With my last three, I actually didn’t see a midwife until a week before I was ready to give birth.”
“I’d done it before, I knew, when you tune into your body you know when you’re well and when you’re not well. I didn’t want to be poked and prodded and weaned on a stick all the time. I have a busy life and fitting that in was stressful and I didn’t want that for myself.”
Fear and stress in labor is what creates a cascade of complications and interventions. Melissa shares how she was able to keep the fear and panic out of the equation to embrace the natural process of birth.
“Once you go into that panic place it’s all over, red-rover. When women are in that place it’s much more difficult to give birth. I think you shut down. Your contractions shut down. And so I was very aware not to put myself in that head space.”
“In our society we don’t place any value on your emotional and mental health. We don’t any value at all on the fact that your emotional state can affect your physical state. That’s just crazy.”
Melissa gives her wonderful story of natural birth, her strength, and she shares many tools for women to hear about having an empowering and beautiful birth.
To reach out to Melissa, email her at [email protected]
Tune in to hear more!
(This episode is brought to you by The Motherbox. To claim your 5% discount, email them and mention this podcast with code YDGM!)