The First Six Months

Neave, Joanie and Vicki have been my pals since our babies were a few months old. We get together whenever we can and here we managed to send our partners off with the bigger babies so we could have a chat about our First Six Months together and their second six months. 

Wonderful to reconnect with an old pal, Jess, who lives in Paris with her Brazilian partner. What a fantastic conversation, exploring navigating being mother in a family of multiple cultures.  

A delightful conversation with actress extraordinare Steph Parry on going back into rehearsal three weeks post partum, whilst then touring the whole of Asia with Mamma Mia, playing the lead part. We had so many moments of laughter in this episode, as well as navigating feelings of failure, postnatal depression and trying to do what's right by your family when your job asks you to travel. 

In this episode, we discuss Mary's experience as a new mother, sharing her journey from pregnancy through childbirth and the first 11 months with her baby. Mary, a psychotherapist who had long wanted to become a mother, described her 4-day labor process, including the physical challenges and eventual need for an epidural, as well as her decision to rest intensively for about 10 days after giv...

*Content Warning* We talk about premature birth and haemorrhaging so perhaps not an episode to listen to if you are anxious about birth. Great one to listen to if you are, yourself, in the midst of a first six months in the NICU. Thanks to Shari for sharing her story and reminding us that even when it isn't plain sailing, there can be hope and there can be laughter.

A delicious conversation with Helen Foster about becoming a mother, rules we place on ourselves and failing. Accept the fail!

Chine McDonald has many hats and she wears them well. However, during those first six months, she had to figure out which hats to wear, when. This is a brilliant episode for any 'highlighter girls' out there - the kinda of person who might be looking to get an A* in motherhood. We unpack the many mysteries around where our unconscious ideals might be coming from, as well as visiting Chin...

Helen Duff is a brilliant comedian (@duffmarvel) and VoiceOver artist (enjoy her dulcet tones) who brings to The First Six Months a vast array of topics as she shares her experiences, whilst heavily pregnant with her next one. We talk about prolapses, mastitis, other cultures honouring new mothers rather than hiding them away and many, many other things. 

Elizabeth Oldfield is one of my wisest pals and I am so glad she agreed to come on The First Six Months. We talked about leading a ThinkTank whilst being secretly pregnant (spoiler:no one noticed), the pros and cons of having a Midwife for a mother and missing that soft, soft baby.  Elizabeth is the host of @sacred_podcast - an exploration in talking to people different than ourselves.

After reading Mother Animal by Helen Jukes I KNEW we would have such a fantastic conversation about all things pregnancy and matrescence. Helen was a wonderful guest and we get right into it about what the animal kingdom has to teach us about our still pretty victorian birth and parenting practises. We discuss everything from chaos and structure, baboons, the use of the phrase 'baby brain&apo...

Minia is a massage therapist who lives in Bristol with her partner and her six year old daughter. We talk about the joy of being surrounded by women, dislocating her arm within the first two weeks, having a fabulous birth despite bits of placenta being left inside and the realisation that despite being committed to breastfeeding, she just wanted her breasts to be hers again.  #birth #sixmonths #pl...

Margaret Cabourn Smith is a podcaster and actress and mother to two children. She talks about how she found the first six months really, really hard and how she kept Bridget Christie and Lucy Montgomery's names written down to remind her that people had had children and managed to have a career in comedy. We talk about the contradiction of how any minute spent with your child is not a wasted...

Jay Lafferty discusses all things IVF, fear of a C-Section, going back to work almost immediately and how one of the less talked about aftereffects of birth can be blood clots in your vajayjay. Always a pleasure to speak to one of my favourite Edinburgh comedy pals.  #bloodclots #firstsixmonths #baby #mum #backtowork #csection #IVF 

Alyssa Kyria is a fantastic comic who performs as The Funny Mummy around the UK. Married to Will with one daughter Lola, Alyssa talks about the ups an downs of her first six months, including her panic at the sudden realisation that children are forever. She also opens up about her depression and the support she received from a Mental Health Midwife.  @thefunnymummyuk 

Ali is the local Sing and Sign leader in Edinburgh, where Pippa lives. Ali is married with three children and talks all things mastitis, PND and deciding to have more children when the first-first six months is so tricky. We also agree that Sleep When The Baby Sleeps is the most annoying advice. 

Melissa Jacques is one of the UKs West End Royalty and also mum to two girls. She talks about juggling Mamma Mia and a new baby, the kindness of custard creams and how if they are the only person awake, you need to call Mary Poppins.  @melissajacques

Whilst at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Pippa went to see Good Luck, Cathrine Frost - a brilliant show about pregnancy, miscarriage and motherhood which somehow manages to talk about all these things with a lightness and a seriousness, whilst spanking Socrates on the bottom. Pippa leapt at the chance to interview Cathrine about her First Six Months and to discuss some of the themes of the show. ...

TW: Miscarriage In this episode, Pippa talks to Gemma about having a baby in a different country, sleep deprivation and the fear that comes when you have experienced multiple losses; how it can feel impossible to believe this pregnancy is going to make it.  They also discuss, at length, piles and what to do about them.

Content Warning: Difficult birth Pippa talks to Sophie about a tricky birth, body autonomy and uncovering health issues later in life that may have impacted those first six months.

CONTENT WARNING: Attempted suicide In this episode, Pippa is talking to Carrie Carlisle about her First Six Months. Carrie’s husband tried to take his own life when she was six months pregnant, which meant her first six months was  dominated by trying to get her husband well. She talks about the amazing care she received, the loneliness of people not knowing what to say and how life doesn’t have t...

Michelle talks to Pippa about her relatively easy pregnancy and birth experience (amazing what we count as easy, that's all I'll say), having a Lockdown Baby and many tales of trying to express milk.  #mum #newmum #firstsixmonths #matrescence #express #lockdownbaby #SpritzForBits

Pippa talks to Clare Bourne (@clarebournephysio), a pelvic health specialist and full time mum. She loved her first six months but her second six months was disrupted by covid, meaning her husband couldn’t come home as a GP in the NHS. Clare talks about navigating loneliness and anxiety but ultimately finding her way through.  Being a Pelvic Health Specialist, we also talk A LOT about vaginas. So...

"If you've waited so long for this, are you allowed not to enjoy it sometimes?" In this episode, Pippa speaks with Prachi, a mother and sexual health doctor based in Edinburgh about her experiences of the first six months. After a difficult time with IVF, Prachi was determined to make the best of her first and (most likely) only six months. There is a lot of joy in this episode, as...

Two weeks late, double mastitis and a 27 hour labour. Anything else you want to throw at me? Pippa talks to the delightful Cariad Lloyd about her first Six Months and how she managed to navigate the unbelievable number of challenges sent her way.  We had to label this episode 'explicit' because of Cariad's potty mouth. #hipdysplacia #mastitsis #csection #breastfeeding #hormones #bro...

Pippa talks to the delightful Roddie about becoming a dad for the first time and how he navigated supporting his partner, Natalie, through a difficult birth, in Covid conditions.  Content Warning: We discuss the fear of cot death quite a lot, as something that played on our minds hugely for the first six months.