THE GOOD ENOUGH MOTHER PODCAST



When you feel like you’re drowning in Motherhood


March 6, 2023

MATRESCENCE, CONGRUENT PARENTING, SOMATIC TOOLS, PARENTING PODCAST


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 Connell 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. Amanda has a range of offerings for professionals and the general public which will be launching soon from her website spiltmilkpsych.com

  • "We treat it as though it is a tug of war between mothers and babies. And the idea that we pit mothers against their infants in the battle for happiness and a battle for wellbeing… We have to look at this as contextual and we need dyadic solutions and we need to be providing solutions for families that aren't pitting the well being of mothers against babies, but looking at pulling them and allying them together against whatever struggle that they're having."

    — Amanda Connellin conversation with Sophie Brock, Ep #92 The Good Enough Mother Podcast

DO no harm.

Amanda Connellin conversation with Sophie Brock, Ep #92 The Good Enough Mother Podcast

"I think what we need to remember is that ‘do no harm’ is not the same as ‘feel no pain’… a part of the human condition is suffering, and that we will suffer and that our goal in life to have a rich and meaningful life is not to live a life free from suffering, but to live a life where we can handle the struggles and the suffering to which we are exposed. And it's the same for our children within parenting."

meet

Amanda

Connell

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.

— Amanda Connellin conversation with Sophie Brock, Ep #92 The Good Enough Mother Podcast

Learn to build our own ‘oxygen tank’ to ‘breathe under water’, and honour the ambivalence that is part of mothering.


connect with amanda


Episode 92 When you feel like you’re drowning in Motherhood Amanda Connell The Good Enough Mother Podcast with Dr Sophie Brock ..jpg