Mama Making Podcast

Did you know you can bring your own gown to a hospital? Most women don't.  In this episode, Jessica sits down with Lauren Pfeifer — third-generation nurse, PhD-prepared researcher, mom of three, and founder of Untethered — a mission-driven company creating organic cotton recovery gowns for women navigating pregnancy, birth, postpartum, cancer, chronic illness, and medical care. Lauren shares...

Teen suicide rates have tripled in twenty years. And Lauren Sims — who spent two decades designing environments that shape human behavior for brands like Vanity Fair, Fox, and Grey Goose — believes she knows part of the answer.  In this episode, Jessica sits down with Lauren, founder of Baton Baton, a members club launching in Los Angeles for kids ages 11 to 14. It's a physical space with cre...

What if the way you're parenting right now has less to do with your choices — and more to do with patterns you inherited and never examined?  In this episode, Jessica sits down with Shree Rego — coach, single mom of two, and founder of a practice helping working moms break generational cycles and build the close, trusting relationships they've always wanted with their kids. Shree shares...

What if the life you've been dreaming about didn't require waiting until retirement?  In this episode, Jessica sits down with Kate Kurdziej — business strategist, retreat host, and founder of Olivier Consultancy — who packed up her family and moved from the UK to France to Spain, built a multi-six-figure business along the way, and now helps established female founders do the strategic t...

What do you do when life falls apart — and you feel completely alone in it?  In this episode, Jessica sits down with Elizabeth Rago, founder of MGW Media, The Modern Domestic Woman magazine, and executive director of MDW CARES — a nonprofit dedicated to helping women navigate life's transitions through trusted information, meaningful connection, and accessible support. Elizabeth shares the se...

What do you give someone when you don't know what to say?  In this episode, Jessica sits down with Lauren Dewey — mom of two boys, former corporate sales leader, and founder of Brooksy Box — a curated care package company serving women at every stage of the motherhood journey: infertility, baby loss, pregnancy, the NICU, postpartum, and beyond. Lauren shares her nearly three-year infertility...

What happens when the person closest to the problems decides to go fix them?  In this episode, Jessica sits down with Michele Clark — former early childhood learning center owner, director of development for the D300 Food Pantry, and candidate for Illinois State Senate in the 33rd district. Michele talks about 11 years of running a preschool while raising her own children, what she learned about c...

What if getting dressed postpartum didn't feel like a battle with your own body? In this episode, Jessica sits down with Catherine Walsh — mom of three under four, trained doula, and founder of Holly Rose Co. — a Canadian brand creating locally made, organic cotton breastfeeding clothing that is comfortable, beautiful, and functional all at once. Catherine shares the body image journey that s...

What does it look like to build a practice from the ground up — not to fit the system, but to actually serve the people in front of you?  In this episode, Jessica sits down with Katrina Ostmeyer, licensed psychologist, board certified behavior analyst, mom of two neurodivergent kids, and founder of Beyond the Individual. From a difficult pregnancy and a preterm birth that shifted her entire trajec...

What if the book you needed in postpartum didn't exist — so you wrote it yourself?  In this episode, Jessica sits down with Courtney Naliboff — writer, teacher, EMT, musician, and co-author of Your Postpartum Body: The Complete Guide to Healing After Pregnancy — for a conversation about refusing to lose yourself in motherhood, processing identity through punk music, and the postpartum informa...

What does it take to build a children's publishing house rooted in imagination, equity, and purpose — while raising two kids and learning the industry from scratch?  In this episode, Jessica sits down with Ashley Wall, founder of Mama Bear Books and award-winning children's author, to talk about the books she was called to write, the under-resourced classrooms that shaped her mission, ho...

What if you could scan any food in any grocery store and instantly know whether it's safe for where you are in your pregnancy?  In this episode, Jessica sits down with Erica Bunton — co-founder of Good Roots, a pregnancy nutrition app backed by FDA, CDC, and ACOG data — to talk about the app she built after her own scary prenatal health scare, the statistic about Black women and childbirth co...

What if the most powerful thing a mom can do is understand that politics and motherhood are not separate?  In this episode, Jessica sits down with Amanda Kingsley Malo — civic educator, democracy advocate, and founder of PoliticsNow — for a conversation about making civic engagement accessible, getting more women into office, and why not voting is also a political choice.  Amanda has helped elect...

What happens when a therapist, a doula agency founder, and a community of perinatal providers decide that maternal mental health has been silent long enough?  In this live recap, Jessica sits down with Liz Gray — therapist and founder of Maternal Trauma Support Network — and Anna Rodney — founder of Chicago Family Doulas and Birth and Baby University — to recap their second annual Maternal Mental...

What if you didn't have to choose between being a great mom and building a great business?   Beth Mazza and Victoria Sivrais — co-founders of Female Mavericks and authors of Entrepreneur Like a Mother — are living proof that you don't. Together they've built and sold two services businesses, raised nine children across their combined entrepreneurial journeys, and built a 20,000-stro...

What do you do when you lose your entire immediate family four months after giving birth, in a country that isn't your home, with no roadmap for what comes next?  If you're Renata Heringer, you grieve — and then you build. In this episode, Jessica sits down with Renata, a former physician from Brazil who immigrated to Canada, navigated unimaginable loss, and launched Tupi Açaí from her h...

What if the reason your fitness plan isn't working isn't your discipline — it's the plan?  In this episode, Jessica sits down with Bronwyn Barry, founder of BU Fitness and Nutrition, a functional fitness and nutrition practice built for people the wellness industry forgets: new parents, women in life transition, and anyone over 35 who's tired of being sold results they never ac...

What if the voice you've been ignoring is the most important one you have? In this episode, Jessica sits down with Julie Jancius — known as the Angel Medium, host of the top-ranked Angels and Awakening podcast, founder of Angel Reiki School, and author of the upcoming Angel Signs — for a conversation about intuition, divine guidance, and what it means to stop shrinking yourself and start livi...

What happens when you do everything right — and still feel like a stranger in your own life?  In this episode, Jessica sits down with Thomai Roi, former pharmacist, founder of Arguably Feral Women, and divorce doula, for one of the most honest conversations about identity, burnout, and rebuilding this podcast has ever had. Thomai navigated three burnouts, three shuttered businesses, postpartum dep...

Most of us walk into our first OB appointment with an arm out for blood work — and no idea what we're actually being tested for.  In this episode, Jessica sits down with Ushta Canteenwalla, board-certified genetic counselor and founder of Find Genetics, to demystify prenatal and reproductive genetic testing from the ground up. From carrier screening before pregnancy to NIPT during, from IVF e...

What if being a little "selfish" actually made you a better mom?  In this episode, Jessica sits down with Paulina Roe — Chicago radio personality, podcast host, and founder of the Mami Collective — for a candid, energetic, and deeply relatable conversation about ambitious motherhood, identity after baby, and why community changes everything. From her decade on Chicago radio to building a...

What does it mean to raise globally conscious children in a world full of noise, misinformation, and borders — both literal and cultural?  In this episode, Jessica sits down with Maria Ahmad, humanitarian, multilingual professional, journalist, and mom of two, whose life has spanned Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Latin America. Maria shares her journey from BBC radio journalist covering...

WELCOME TO SEASON 5: Moms Making Impact  🎉 What if the hardest parts of postpartum aren't a sign that something is wrong with you — but a sign that something is finally waking up?  In this episode, Jessica sits down with Jenny Tucker, founder of Centerline Community, a support space for new and expecting moms navigating postpartum and matrescence. Jenny brings her background in mental health...

What do you do when you get laid off while pregnant, have a toddler at home, and just bought a house?  If you're Alexandra Swayne, you start a marketing business, invent a baby product, and launch a women's networking group — all within a year. In this episode, Jessica sits down with Alex to talk about the layoff that cracked everything open, the 2 a.m. manufacturer calls that turned Bin...

What would it mean to raise a child who never learns to be ashamed of their body?  In this episode, Jessica sits down with Dr. Tina Schermer Sellers — licensed sex therapist, bestselling author, researcher, and founder of the Northwest Institute on Intimacy — for a conversation that every parent needs to hear.  From the definition of sexual shame and how it develops from infancy, to the impact of...