In today's episode I am talking to Emma about her postnatal journey with her son Oska who is 16 months old. Emma is single mother, a Medical Herbalist and currently living out in Bali.

Emma had a homebirth with her Doula and best friend present and was looked after by friends and family in the first few weeks by dropping off lots of food to nourish her. She was physically forced to rest as she experienced a small prolapse and had heavy bleeding. As someone who normally finds it hard to stop, this enforced rest was really useful for her to fully embrace and surrender to the mess and chaos of motherhood and let people help her.

Despite feeling like she was naturally the mothering type, mothering still felt pretty shocking to her system and in the early days she really wasn't sure what to do!! Emma used herbs in her postpartum to support her placental delivery, her healing and the start of her breastfeeding journey which she shares for us alongisde how she now uses herbs with Oska too.

We discuss the hardest bits for Emma which have been sleep and the lack of a companion to share the hard moments with as a single parent. She had to stop going to mums groups as everyone around her seemed to be finding it easy and sleeping and she felt that noone could relate. She shares her sleepless night survival guide including the dulcet tones of Matthew McConaughey and how important it is to ask for help.

Emma spent a period of time with Oska's dad in Sicily and was very looked after by his family but she shares with us some of the coparenting challenges that she faced resulting in them going their separate ways and Emma moving to Bali.

It was really interesting to hear about life raising a child in Bali with thier love of children, play, the access to afordable childcare and cross generational living alongside grandparents, aunties and uncles. This family orientated rather than peer orientated living was very supportive and community driven and gave me a real sense of 'The village'.

Emma speaks candidly about her motherhood experience and shares a real insight into postpartum as a single parent and I am so grateful she came on the podcast.

To learn more about Emma's work as a medical herbalist and her membership space please visit https://www.artahealing.com/ or follow her on instagram at @arta_healing