[00:00:00] Dr Renee White: Knowledge is power, and we are all about empowering the mamas of the world. In each episode, we will unravel and interpret the latest research and evidence-based practices for pregnancy, postpartum, and motherhood. As mums and researchers ourselves, we have experienced firsthand the overwhelming complexity of information myths and those classic old wives tales.

[00:00:27] I'm Dr. Renee White, and this is The Science of Motherhood hello and welcome to episode 165 of The Science of Motherhood. Thank you so much for joining me today. My name is Dr. Renee White. I am your host and today, gosh, we are so good with timing on this. It is International Women's Day. Hallelujah. Um, in today's episode, I'm gonna be giving a huge shout out and talking about key women in my life [00:01:00] who have made a serious, serious impact.

[00:01:03] But before we dive into that, I just wanted to do a quick please and thank you. Uh, first of all, thank you to those people who, um, have already written reviews for the podcast. I really do appreciate it. And for those of you out there who have been listening and you really love an episode, like an episode, you feel like it's made an impact.

[00:01:27] You've learnt something really informative. I would absolutely love. Please, please, please write a review. You have no idea how important it is to really accelerate and gain awareness for this podcast, and that is what we are trying to do day in and day out. It is a passion project for me. I love being able to talk to guests and being able to give you the information that they are doing in the research lab or they have, you know, worked out themselves. I want to be able to give that to you so, so quickly instead [00:02:00] of being stuffed away in like a journal article or some book or something like that. So if you have found any of my episodes super helpful, please write a review.

[00:02:11] It makes such, such an impact. I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Alright, today's episode, as I said, it is International Women's Day, which is so exciting and I know we always talk about, I definitely bang on about the fact that, you know, in motherhood it is so much easier to do this when you have your village around you.

[00:02:32] And I think that holds true also for womanhood as well. And today I wanted to do a really quick shout out because I don't talk about these people enough because it's not normally a personal kind of episode for me on our check-in Tuesday episodes, and so I just wanted to call out some certain people in my life and I know that there's gonna be people who I miss.

[00:02:53] I absolutely do, but. I just wanted to go through, you have a look at the International Women's Day [00:03:00] website and this year's theme is Accelerate Action. And so when we are looking at accelerating action, they've listed a few different kind of impactful organisations, um, or groups across the world that deliver an array of effective strategies and resources.

[00:03:18] And they've named a few different areas to look at, and I've kind of just used that. As some little, little, uh, what shall I call it, platforms to jump from and when I'm gonna call out few people in my life that have made some serious kind of core memories for me. And being able to, I think, accelerate my professional career, me personally, like it has just been so useful to have these people around me, and I've always understood the concept that, you know, we can't know everything, and that's fine, and that's actually great because when you want big. Impactful things. [00:04:00] You need a group of people, you cannot do it alone. Um, it's too exhausting and it's too lonely as well.

[00:04:07] So, um, I'm just gonna walk you through some of these areas and I want you to start thinking about perhaps the people in your life who have made a serious impact in these particular areas. So, first one is forging women's economic empowerment. And Also, I'm gonna tie it in with recruiting, retaining, and developing diverse talent and supporting women and girls in leadership, decision making, business and stem.

[00:04:36] Now, the first set of people I wanna call out is I am terrible at numbers. Okay? I'm a scientist, I've never, I've never done well with numbers. Maths was not my strongest suit. So I have an amazing accountant in my team, her name is Laura. She, um, I'm gonna call her out. She works at Koustas and Co in Melbourne.[00:05:00]

[00:05:00] She has been with my other business. Almost since day dot and she is just amazing. You get on the phone to her, she has the most amazing business ideas as well as like keeping your numbers in check and she is just a serious champion of Fill your cup. And so there have been some very tricky situations in the past that she has held my hand through and been just such an amazing woman.

[00:05:29] She's also a mum as well, to two boys, so she gets it. The whole motherhood thing, she totally gets. The second person I wanna call out is Alex, alex is our go-to um, lawyer. She's at Atticus Lawyers. She has founded that practice, so she's badass as far as I'm concerned. Anyone who has got the bravery and audacity to start their own law firm, I'm just like, all hail to you Alex, like you are absolutely [00:06:00] amazing. The thing I love about Alex is that given that I'm from like a law background as well, you have, you can see that there are certain people who are just like absolute sharks and who just will keep that timer ticking. Alex is amazing. She's so pragmatic and she's just like, gives you exactly what you need.

[00:06:22] She doesn't overdo it, but it is still exactly the information that, that you want, um, in that moment. So yes, she has done some serious handholding for me as well, which has been absolutely amazing. In terms of, uh, business kind of things, I have had some amazing business coaches. Um, the first person that always comes to mind is Fiona Killackey.

[00:06:48] Just amazing. I have followed her podcast for so long and then I was so fortunate to be able to have an opportunity to work with her in small group [00:07:00] coaching, which is fantastic. I've got all of her books, definitely she is, um, My Daily Business so if you wanna look her up, she's absolutely amazing. The other person I wanna give a huge shout out to is Amy Pearson from Sun Mother Studios.

[00:07:17] She did our recent rebrand, and it wasn't just about, you know, putting our big girl pants on and putting some, you know, fresh colors on and getting a new logo like, she really got me. She was just like, yeah, okay, this is, this is the mission, this is the vision, this is our new promise to all of our families, and she was absolutely amazing. I was in shock and awe all at the same time of how easy it was to work with Amy because it felt like I had like two conversations with her and just the quality of work that came back was, [00:08:00] chef's kiss, and as I said, she just got me. She just totally understood me. So Fiona and Amy, you are amazing.

[00:08:09] The next topic on the International Women's Day kind of section is helping women and girls make informed decisions about their health. Now, this has been a huge topic for me in the past couple of years. I was always kind of conscious of health and wellness for myself, particularly after I became a mum and you know, then we slipped into Covid Lockdowns, and when I came to Tasmania, I joined a new gym.

[00:08:42] Art Gym it's called, which is amazing 'cause it's got beautiful art and plants everywhere. And it's a bit, it's a bit rustic, but it's exactly what I love. I don't like, like walking into like a carpeted gym with Fluro lights everywhere and things like that. It's just not my jam. [00:09:00] And I met the owner there.

[00:09:02] Um, her name's Eilish Kidd and she is, I'm she's a force to be reckoned with, but she's so quiet and lovely and unassuming. But that woman, again, there's a running theme about people who sit and listen and you want to be heard as a woman and she did that. She did exactly that, and she listened and heard me and really kind of dive deep into like.

[00:09:35] What were my goals? Like genuinely what were my goals when it came to fitness and looked at it as a very holistic thing as well. And so, as you may have seen, if you followed me on social media at Fill Your Cup underscore, I managed to do a chinup for the first time in my life, and previously I had been told.

[00:09:57] Um, by men, um, [00:10:00] that I wasn't strong enough that I just couldn't do it, that my wrists were too weak, that it just was never gonna be possible, which I told Eilish at the time, and she called BS on it and we trained and trained and trained. And last year I did one by myself and I can now do multiple, which is amazing.

[00:10:22] So she listened and heard me and I did it, it was amazing. So I do workouts with her, um, every week, which is fantastic. And the other person I wanna call out when it comes to fitness is Josie, who is also at our gym now Josie has started this amazing bush walking group here in Hobart called Groundwork.

[00:10:45] And it is essentially about it is about bush walking, but it's so much more than that. It's about building women's bodies up so you are fit and strong and that you [00:11:00] can actually go in a bush walk and hold a 15 kilo pack and be like, I got this. Right. It's about the relationship building, it's about the storytelling that you have with the people that you are walking with.

[00:11:14] And so we are two thirds of our way through this bush walking, um, program that we've got. So we work out during the week with strength exercises, and then every month we do like a really big day walk and we are gearing up for a two night walk here in Tasmania, which I'm so excited. I'm not a camping girl at all, but I was like, you know what?

[00:11:37] I wanna put myself out of my comfort zone, and that is what I'm trying to do as I get older. And she has been absolutely amazing with all of that, all the discussions about, you know, being confident enough to, um, wee in the bush and all of those things, all the way to like, you know, what food to pack and what gear to get and all of those, you know, beautiful [00:12:00] things when it comes to camping. So big shout out to Eilish and Josie, and I have to say to Miskad as well, who, who is Eilish's, um, husband he also owns the gym and he has been amazing. I can't leave him out. He's been amazing when it comes to my fitness as well. Couple of other things that I wanted to touch on, providing women and girls with access to quality education and training.

[00:12:24] That I really think comes back to the women in my life who have been instrumental in my science and law career. I think it was pretty much an all female lab when I was doing my PhD and, and each one of those women have, definitely made an impact on the person that I am, the confidence that I have, the way that I think, the way that I critically analyse things.

[00:12:54] So that was a huge, huge impact for me so when I was doing my [00:13:00] PhD, there was Lakshmi and Beck and Nat, and I was the baby of, of the lab. So, that was a really, really good opportunity. There was also another woman, and I do talk about this briefly sometimes. I was fortunate enough to go over to Sweden and work in another lab over there for two weeks and there was this woman called Anna and she ran the, ran the lab and I have never seen.

[00:13:30] At that time, I'd never seen a woman just command attention and be so confident with her decision making and just the way that she ran everything, and she instilled some sort of magical level of confidence in me, and it was such a short moment of time in my life, like it was two weeks, two weeks when I was like 24.

[00:13:57] And yeah, she has [00:14:00] definitely instilled some core memories in me at that time. The final kind of topics that, uh, that are on there are promoting creative and artistic talent of women and girls, and I guess, you know, just addressing all further areas when it's supporting the advancement of women and girls.

[00:14:20] I think it would be remiss of me not to talk about. You know the people who are in my personal life, my mum, my sister, my daughter, my bestest friends who are here in Tasmania, Carly and Megan. You know, as you get older, you go through really difficult times in your life. You can or doesn't mean even need to be older, can be anytime in your life, but those are the people that stand by you and you know, you, I know you can start thinking about the things and people that who.

[00:14:52] When time gets tough, they're the ones who are al always there, the ones who go and get tattoos with you. They're the ones who you keep [00:15:00] around. And finally, I just wanted to, um, finish up with the people, I guess here at Fill Your Cup. I've got an amazing new virtual assistant, Giulia, who honestly, it feel starts to feel like she's my second mum.

[00:15:14] She keeps me in line and I know, Giulia, you're gonna be listening to this. You keep me in line, and I absolutely love it. You are amazing. You have really turned, um, this whole podcast around and I, I know it's gonna be on, on nothing, but on the up. And also I think finally my doula team. I couldn't do Fill Your Cup without these amazing women around me.

[00:15:40] I'm so fortunate to have these amazing doulas, um, who I get to work alongside and who, um, you know, can look after families across Australia. I'm so proud of the work that we do. So, yes, thank you to you, to you all. I, I'm not gonna sit here and rattle off all the names [00:16:00] 'cause there's past and present and, and there's definitely gonna be future as well.

[00:16:03] So thank you to all of those women who have shaped my life, um, to what it is now. But I want you to start thinking about the people in your life. Who, who is it that can accelerate you professionally, personally? Who is going to really like hold you up? Not pull you down, um, from that ladder. Because I think once we all start propping each other up with amazing positivity and encouragement and collaboration, that's when we see things really, really shine.

[00:16:42] So I just wanna leave you with that. Think about those people in your life and maybe text them and just let them know. I appreciate you. I really do. Alright, everyone. Happy International Women's Day. I will see you next week. Bye. If you loved [00:17:00] this episode, please hit the subscribe button and leave a review.

[00:17:05] If you know someone out there who would also love to listen to this episode, please hit the share button so they can benefit from it as well. You've just listened to another episode of The Science of Motherhood proudly presented by Fill Your Cup, Australia's first doula village. Head to our website ifillyourcup.com to learn more about our birth and postpartum doula offerings where every mother we pledge to be the steady hand that guides you back to yourself.

[00:17:35] Ensuring you feel nurtured, informed, and empowered so you can fully embrace the joy of motherhood with confidence. Until next time, bye.