THE GOOD ENOUGH MOTHER PODCAST
The Becoming of a Mother
May, 2020
MOTHERHOOD, THE LOST DAUGHTER, THE BAD MOTHER, MATERNAL TRANSGRESSION, CULTURAL TABOOS, PARENT & INFANTS, PERINATAL, REALITY OF MOTHERHOOD, PARENT TO BE, PODCAST EPISODE
with Consultant Perinatal Psychologist Julianne Boutaleb
In this episode I talk with Julianne Boutaleb – a consultant perinatal psychologist and Director of Parenthood in Mind – about the transition to motherhood, particularly in the context of the Covid-19 global pandemic. We discuss the dynamics and importance of the birth environment and postpartum period, and how parents can prepare for how their experience will be impacted by the context of a global pandemic. Julianne speaks about the processes of attachment between a mother and her baby, revealing some of the early attachment needs of a baby that may surprise you. As some of those most vulnerable members in our society, this episode highlights the experience of the baby in transitioning into the world, particularly in the context of Covid-19. We also talk about the changes that happen in a woman’s brain when she becomes a mother, and why mothers and babies are ‘born’ three times. Part of this process of readjustment and transitioning into the ‘mother’ role also can involve a sense of loss and grieving. Julianne offers advice about how we can move through these experiences with a sense of forgiveness, compassion, and gentleness, in order to use this time as an opportunity to settle into a new ‘maternal rhythm’.
support lines
Australia - www.panda.org.au/ - 1300 726 306
UK - pandasfoundation.org.uk/ - 0808 1961 776
USA - www.postpartum.net/ - Text “Help” to 800-944-4773 (EN)
podcast notes
Cultured magazine: ‘In the lost daughter mums are people too’ - Mariah Kreutter.
The Guardian: ‘How The Lost Daughter confronts one of our most enduring cultural taboos’ - Adrian Horton
Winnicott’s theory of A Good Enough Mother
Sara Ruddick; Feminist philosopher and the author of Maternal Thinking: Toward a Politics of Peace
Foucault and Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon
Melanie Klein; Austrian-British author and psychoanalyst known for her work in child analysis.
MEeT Julianne Boutaleb
Julianne is a passionate and highly experienced perinatal psychologist who has worked for over 15 years in the NHS and private practice with parents and parents-to-be and their babies. She is a member of the Birth Trauma Association and Association for Infant Mental Health and specialises in working therapeutically with birth trauma, PTSD and tokophobia (fear of giving birth) as these issues impact the mother, couple relationship and parent-infant attachment. In addition, she is also affiliated with BICA (British Infertility Counselling Association) and offers therapy to individuals and couples who are pregnant or are parenting following ART (IVF, ICSI, donor conception, surrogacy) or adoption. She draws on attachment, object relations theory and the watch, Wait and Wonder model in her clinical practice.
From 2003 to 2009, she was part of a multidisciplinary strategic health team that successfully established Sure Start services in East London. As part of that initiative, she set up and ran a community-based perinatal psychology service in Newham. From 2009 to 2015, she held clinical lead roles as Clinical Lead for Perinatal Mental Health in primary care and latterly in IAPT services in Newham. She has over 15 years of experience teaching and training clinical and counselling psychologists, psychotherapists and other health professionals on issues of parental mental health, attachment, early years and positive mental health for babies and young children.
Between 2003 to 2015, she was one of the few psychologists in the UK to offer a specialist perinatal psychology placement as part of the North Thames Clinical Psychology training programme. She has taught in these specialist areas in clinical and counselling psychology training courses at the University of Essex and UEL. She is a BPC-accredited DIT therapist and supervisor.
Click here to visit Parenthood in Mind to learn more about Julianne.
Follow her Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/parenthoodinmind/