THE GOOD ENOUGH MOTHER PODCAST
Allying the Needs of Both Mothers
and their Children
September 14, 2020
MATERNAL RAGE, BREASTFEEDING FEEDING DISORDER, BIRTH TRAUMA, PERINATAL MENTAL HEALTH
with Clinical Psychologist Amanda Connell
Often, there can feel as though there is a conflict between the ways we would like to parent, and the social and structural forces that shape and influence our everyday lives as mothers.
Amanda Donnet from Spilt Milk Psychology joins me in this conversation to discuss the ways so often, our ‘needs’ as mothers are framed as being in competition with the needs of our children. Negotiating this and finding space for our ‘selves’ is therefore connected with the idea that we need to be separated from our children – to have time away from the to ‘come up for air’.
We challenge this narrative and the pressure mothers face to always centralize our children and place their needs above our own. Amanda offers us examples and tools for how we can learn to build our own ‘oxygen tank’ to ‘breathe under water’, and honour the ambivalence that is part of mothering. We talk about toxic positivity, how to teach our children how to deal with disappointment, strategies to cultivate self-compassion, and much more.
LISTEN UP.
Meet
Amanda Donnet
Amanda Connell is a clinical psychologist working at the intersection of infant feeding, mental health and early parenting. For too long, discussions around parental mental health have pitted parents against their children in the battle for happiness. Amanda passionately believes there is enough love for everyone. She champions the mother-baby connection, bringing fierce compassion to perinatal mental health. Her human-centred approach empowers families by providing insightful, practical, and relatable information and support.
