To Make a Mother

Apparently I seem very calm online. Which is lovely, but I am not always a calm mum. I get frustrated. I get short. I have raised my voice. And sometimes I am outwardly holding it together while internally I have 47 tabs open and one is playing loud music at me. Which is partly why I keep talking about the nervous system. Not because nervous system regulation is the latest wellness trend, but beca...

Morning sickness sounds like "oh, I felt a little queasy before breakfast". How cute. Actual morning sickness: feel sick when you wake up. Feel sick because you haven't eaten. Feel sick when you eat. Feel sick because someone mentioned chicken. Feel sick because the fridge apparently has a smell now. And somehow you are expected to continue functioning normally while growing a human...

Apparently everything is perimenopause now. Tired? Perimenopause. Irritable? Perimenopause. Can't remember why you walked into the kitchen? Obviously perimenopause. But sometimes it is perimenopause. And sometimes you are sleep deprived, iron deficient, chronically stressed, dealing with subclinical thyroid dysfunction, or enjoying a delightful combination platter of all of the above. And that...

I used to think I had a really good immune system. Turns out I was just really good at avoiding snotty toddlers. Then I had kids! Can we actually build more resilient immunity in our kids and ourselves? Yes. But probably not by panic buying fourteen immune supplements the second someone sneezes. The boring stuff matters. A lot. And then the supplements sit on top of that. And then there are the th...

Antibiotics save lives, but they also change your child's gut microbiome. In this episode of To Make a Mother , we're exploring what antibiotics actually do beyond treating infection, why the effects on the gut can last far longer than most parents realise, and the simple, evidence based ways you can support your child's microbiome during and after a course of antibiotics. This isn&#39...

Last episode was about understanding the problem. This one is about what to actually do about it. Rebuilding iron is not just take a supplement and hope for the best. It requires strategy, around what you're eating, when you're eating it, which form of iron you're taking, and what's happening in your gut. For most women who struggle to rebuild iron, it isn't because they aren&#...

More than a third of women under 50 are iron deficient. Most of them have been told their blood results are normal. This episode is about the gap between those two things. Iron deficiency without anaemia is the stage most women are in when they come to see me, and the stage that standard blood testing isn't quite looking for. It's also the stage where women are experiencing very real, meas...

Most children with ear infections are given antibiotics. Most don't need them. This episode explains what's actually going on and what you can do about it. Ear infections are the single most common reason children receive antibiotics worldwide, yet most parents are never told that the majority of uncomplicated cases resolve without them, and that gut health, diet, and a few simple lifestyl...

If you've ever hit that 4pm wall, snapped at your kids, and then felt terrible about it this episode is for you. Spoiler: you're not a bad mum. It could be your biochemistry. This week I'm talking about blood sugar stability, and why it's one of the most important and most overlooked things mothers can pay attention to fairly easily. This isn't a diabetes conversation. This is...

Welcome to episode one. We're really diving straight in with this one. I'm Kate Holm, naturopath, nutritionist, and mum of three, and this podcast is about the parts of motherhood that taste amazing, the parts that make a mess, and the parts you keep hearing are good for you but have no idea what to do with. This week I'm talking about something that comes up in almost every appointmen...

Welcome to To Make a Mother. I'm Kate Holm, naturopath, nutritionist, and mum of three. This is a show about motherhood - the clinical, the personal, and everything in between. New episodes every Thursday starting July 2nd. Find me at kateholm.com or on Instagram at @kate__holm