The Good Enough Mother

In this episode I speak with Dr Greer Kirshenbaum - a neuroscientist, doula, educator, and author of her newly released book: "The Nurture Revolution: Grow Your Baby's Brain and Transform Their Mental Health through the Art of Nurtured Parenting.” Greer shares with us revolutionary science about the power of nurturing in infancy - which is defined as the first 3 years of life. Throughout Greer’s book and this episode, Greer dispels common myths surrounding the care and nurture of babies: including social narratives about self-soothing, sleep training, temperamental differences between our babies, and the level of control we really have over how our children behave, feel, and react. We dive into a discussion of epigenetics and how we are influenced by ancestral experiences. I share my favourite parts of Greer’s work that have revolutionised my own understanding of childhood - and motherhood. In this episode you’ll learn about the links between mental health, infancy, our stress-system, and nurture as a practice. We also discuss toxic cultures of ‘low nurture’ and talk about Greer’s concept of ‘nurtured empathy’ for both our babies and ourselves. Please share this episode with anyone you know who is involved in the care and nurture of infants, and the care and support of parents, and check out more about the episode including key quotes and where to buy Greer’s book. You can find more about Dr Greer here - https://www.nurture-neuroscience.com/ Instagram: Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/nurture_neuroscience_parenting/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NurtureNeuroscience/ Episode show notes for quotes and where to find Greer's book: https://drsophiebrock.com/podcast97

Are we being ‘duped’ by our current cultural conception of what it means to be a mother? In this episode, I speak with Tess Wilkinson-Ryan who is a law professor and moral psychologist at The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. Tess is the author of her recently released book: FOOL PROOF: How Fear of Playing the Sucker Shapes Ourselves and the Social Order―and What We Can Do About It. The book is on the psychology of feeling duped or betrayed, exploring the human experience of feeling like a ‘sucker’, and we focus our conversation on one particular chapter of the book: Mothersucker. Tess shares how motherhood can be like playing a relentless public goods game (she explains what this is in the episode) in which a mother's job is to contribute, but everyone else gets to play whatever strategy they want and benefit from her work while she remains undervalued and taken for granted. We unpack the discrepancy between the cultural promise and social rewards of motherhood with what mothers then experience, and Tess shares research into the bias and discrimination that mothers face. This conversation explores the relationship between individualism and care-work, the ways mothers are socialized into patriarchal motherhood, collectivism, the allocation of resources, the economy of motherhood and more. We also explore the dynamic between an individual mothers’ life, psychology and decision-making, with the broader social-cultural-moral context of motherhood that she is living within. You can find more about Tess here - https://twitter.com/tesswilkry or https://www.tesswilkinsonryan.com/ Purchase Tess's Book: Fool Proof: How Fear of Playing the Sucker Shapes Our Selves and the Social Order—and What We Can Do About It: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/fool-proof-tess-wilkinson-ryan?variant=40485173723170 Episode shownotes: https://drsophiebrock.com/podcast96

In this episode I reflect on the context of Mother's Day and how cultural messages are communicated to us about motherhood and how this affects our sense of self and identity. I reflect on developing our skill of perceiving and picking up on the cultural messages we're sent, placing them within a broader social context, cultivating greater self-compassion to lessen guilt and self-judgement, and how this is key to reducing comparison, competition, and disconnection between us and other mothers. In the episode the research I reference when reflecting on differing interpretations of how feminism has treated mothers comes from Associate Professor Julie Stephens and her work on 'postmaternal thinking'. I refer to another episode of the podcast that I released on the 'fish tank' of motherhood model - go back and find this episode as number 89. You can find the 3min animation explaining the theory here: https://drsophiebrock.com/thefishtankofmotherhood Find information on and the graphic of The Good Mother Bad Mother Binary concept here - https://drsophiebrock.com/conceptualmodels Find a replay of my talk at The Oath Summit on Maternal Anger here - https://youtu.be/epvnQKxI72I . . . The Motherhood Studies Practitioner Certification runs once a year and enrolment for the 2023 round of the course is open until Thursday 18th May. Email info@drsophiebrock.com if you have any questions and secure your place here: https://drsophiebrock.com/motherhoodstudies/

In this episode I speak with Emily, bilingual/bicultural mamá of two, pediatric Speech-Language Pathologist, Clinical Assistant Professor and Supervisor of graduate speech-language students, and the author of "Unexpected: A Postpartum Memoir." Emily shares the challenges she went through in becoming a mother of two, and the journey she went on with her mental health, construction of identity, and exploration of what it means to mother. Emily completed The Motherhood Studies Certification in 2021 and shares how the context and content of Motherhood Studies and supported and expanded her understanding of her own experience of motherhood, and how this work is now integrated within her career. We talk about the socialization of mothers, examination of maternal expectations - particularly when transitioning from 1 to 2 children - and how to ‘speak back’ to the inner critique we’ve internalised from patriarchal motherhood that polices our feelings, thoughts, and behaviours. From this conversation, you’ll hear about the ways that big life transitions can usher in both disorientation but also potential for immense growth, self-learning, and expansion as we ‘undo’ in order to ‘recreate’. Emily’s book and work encapsulate both the grief and love, vulnerability and power, breaking down and breaking through that can be part of our experience of motherhood. Purchase Emily’s book: https://www.emilyadlermosqueda.com/book Unexpected: A Postpartum Memoir “Repeat mothers are assumed to know what to expect during pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period. Unexpected: A Postpartum Memoir is the moving, raw account of a second-time mother who finds herself struggling for the first time with postpartum depression, anxiety and motherhood itself. Only as a mother of two does Emily find herself unable to ignore the impossible tempo of motherhood. At eight-months postpartum, Emily finds motherhood to be punctuated with unexpected sensations of irritability and feelings of rage all lathered in immobilizing guilt and shame. Readers witness the author’s personal evolution through her internal review and deconstruction of self and her examination of maternal expectations. It is through this journey of examining and feeling that truly opens up the unexpected possibilities of understanding and what it means to be content in motherhood." https://www.emilyadlermosqueda.com/ . . . Doors are now open for enrolment into the 2023 round of The Motherhood Studies Practitioner Certification, starting May 22nd. Head here for more info -https://drsophiebrock.com/motherhoodstudies/

In this episode, I talk with author and psychotherapist Dr Margo Lowy, exploring the concept of maternal ambivalence – an often-silenced but integral part of the mothering experience. Maternal ambivalence is defined as many conflicting feelings or contradictory feelings that can exist at the same time. In her book, "The Maternal Experience: Encounters with Ambivalence and Love", Dr Lowy further develops the concept of maternal ambivalence into being part of a new ‘language of maternal love’ and explains how maternal ambivalence is an integral part of our mothering that can actually strengthen maternal love. Learn why this is the case, the reasons why maternal ambivalence remains a cultural taboo, and how to start embracing maternal ambivalence to connect more deeply with your child/ren and yourself. Connect with Dr Lowy’s work further at www.drmargolowy.com and her Instagram @drmargolowy See show notes at - https://drsophiebrock.com/podcast93

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/

In this episode I speak to some criticisms of the concept and application of ‘good enough mothering' as an approach to parenting. Some of us can have a reaction of: 'good enough?, why would I want to be JUST good enough as a parent?'. For those who identify as perfectionists, who feel the 'high stakes' nature of parenting, who are feeling guilty and not enough, and pressure to constantly do/be more as a mother, this episode offers a reprieve and an invitation to consider a perspective shift that can lighten the load we so often feel as mothers. I share both some of the research and my own personal reflections as a mother on why I find 'good enough mothering' a valuable tool and perspective for both us and our children.

This episode takes sections from podcast episode 32 with Julianne Boutaleb – a consultant perinatal psychologist and Director of Parenthood in Mind. Julianne speaks about the processes of attachment between a mother and her baby, the early attachment needs of a baby, self regulation and co-regulation between carers and babies, and changes that happen in a woman’s brain when she becomes a mother. 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’. You can connect further with Julianne on Instagram @parenthoodinmind or through www.parenthoodinmind.co.uk/

There is a piecing-back-together that we are called to do after we go through a journey of pulling apart the version of motherhood we've been sold. To ask: well, what DO I want for my motherhood? If I understand the perfect mother myth, and how we're 'swimming' within a culture that sets us up for a certain experience of motherhood, what are the next steps I can take after unpacking these realizations? I speak to these types of questions in this episode and reflect on the process of what it means to go on the journey of unpacking how we have internalised the ‘perfect mother myth’ and have been socialized into the expectations of what it means to be a ‘Mother’. The birth of a new awareness, and (re)creation of a new identity can feel alluring, exciting, liberating, and/or empowering. But it can also feel really unsettling, especially at first. This episode speaks to this experience and on how we can build new models of what it means to be a mother. I consider a model of ‘integrated’ motherhood, and invite you to reflect on some questions about your own sense of self and identity. . . . Enrol in The Sociology of Motherhood Starter Bundle of 3 of my most popular self-study courses. I've converted these courses into a private podcast and you can receive 40% off until January 31st 2023 by entering the coupon code NEWYEARS at checkout. https://drsophiebrock.com/starterbundle

This episode is a training Sophie delivered, translating the predominant theoretical finding from her PhD research - the 'fish tank of motherhood' model. This model offers us a way of understanding what the 'social construction of Motherhood' actually is, how it shapes our experience as mothers, and what it really takes to claim and create opportunities for mothers to step into their power and be acknowledged for their importance. You'll hear a description of the 'rule book' of good motherhood, what happens when we don't fit within the rules, what maternal thinking is, and the exciting opportunity we currently have as mothers and motherhood-support professionals to make a difference. To see the fish-tank graphic referred to during the training head here: https://drsophiebrock.com/fishtanktraining If you work with mothers as a therapist, healthcare practitioner, in postpartum care, coaching, or any role where you support mothers or you're looking to transition into this field, join the waitlist to find out more about enroling in The Motherhood Studies Certification training - https://drsophiebrock.com/motherhoodstudies/ with the next round beginning May 22nd 2023.