My plan is to create something very unfancy and unpolished here. I will rock up and just talk really – no script, no major editing. You might hear me in my car sometimes the goal is for me to be perfectly imperfect and set the tone for that being ok for you as well.
I want to explore ways to work with parental burnout and depletion and isolation and guilt that are really practical, focussed on radical self-compassion and really having fun. This less of a here’s the A-Z on parenting topics and more about Motherhood as an identity and an institution and where mental health fits within that.
Earlier this year I stopped using social media for my business and personally as well. It’s been one of the most rebellious things I could do and it’s been life changing. It has really brought me to question the ways in which I have used numbing and what you might call shadow comforts as replacement for real proper fun and real proper support.
This is not about saying don’t use social media – if you are a mum in business and genuinely seen results from it more power to you sister, however, I do come from the standpoint that this is our generation’s addiction. I think mothers are settling for substandard, faux-fun and while we are familiar with the old ‘do self care” I think a huge part of what’s missing in the motherhood mental health conversation is the idea of fun – like real, belly laugh I feel like myself not just someone’s mother or a worker – fun. That’s the crux of what I’m interested in exploring here.
If you don’t know me, Hello, I’m Dr Erin Bowe. I’m a mum to a 5 year old and 3 year old girls. The laundry list of professional stuff is that:
I’m a Clinical & Perinatal Psychologist, Course Creator, Business Mentor and Author of More Than a Healthy Baby: Finding Strength & Growth After Birth Trauma.
Some of you may know me from my birth trauma work. My online courses have over 2400 students from 36 countries. I’ve spoken to an audience of thousands on a birth trauma panel last year.
I used to teach Hypnobirthing, I’ve been a finalist in 2 categories for the AusMumpreneur Awards.
I’ve also been featured in the Sydney Morning Herald, Kidspot, Essential Baby & Essential Kids. I’m a published author, and I’m writing two more books: Parents of the Pandemic and a book on managing motherhood, mental health and social media.
I grew up in one of the most bogan places on earth – Devonport Tasmania. I’m the first person in my family to go to uni. I’m the daughter of Glaswegian parents – a catholic and a protestant who left Scotland for Australia in the late 1960s so they could get married. I’m a bonus baby after they tried to have kids for over 10 years, had my older brother and then miraculously managed to have me.
I’ve been with the same bloke since I was 16 or so. We moved to Melbourne and lived in St Kilda ten years ago, then moved out to the country to have our kids. I’ve had 3 pregnancies – one miscarriage followed by the pregnancy of my eldest daughter 6 weeks later – a little rainbow baby. I then had my second daughter two days before her older sister’s birthday. We also have our wedding anniversary that week in November.
I’ve had pretty severe hyperemesis gravidarum – so severe morning sickness in all my pregnancies. I’ve had two traumatic births, including birthing a 5 kilo (11 pound 3) baby with stuck shoulders.
Outside of the Mum thing and the work thing I love my animals – 2 dogs and currently 11 chickens. I like growing roses, veggies and herbs, I’m quite interested in herbal and natural remedies. If I didn’t train to be a psychologist I would have quite fancied being a music journalist or a florist, although my childhood dream was always to be an author, so that’s mostly what I’m working towards now. I have one published book and two more on the way.
https://doctorerin.com.au/
