The Essential Nature of Birth and Postpartum Storytelling with Whitney Molitor
Whitney Molitor is a mother to two girls, a wife, and a Marriage and Family Therapist specializing in eating disorders, body image, and disordered eating. Above and beyond her titles, Whitney is a Minnesotan at heart and a woman passionate about connecting with other women and storytelling.
Julia and Whitney’s conversation was truly just that - a real conversation where they shared their experiences with conception, pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. Whitney was humble, genuine, and vulnerable as she offered her story to A Podcast for Moms. This episode will speak to any woman looking to reflect on and honor their experience becoming a mom.
We Discuss:
- The conception, pregnancy, birth, and postpartum experiences with both of Whitney’s daughters
- Whitney’s intention/plan for her first birth and her experience with hypnobirthing
- Postpartum depression and anxiety – Whitney referred to the first 4 months postpartum - with her first daughter - as the hardest time of her life
- Julia shares about the suffering she experienced after there was a “rapture” from her birth plan during her first pregnancy
- Whitney shares her breastfeeding journey with her first daughter and how chiropractic work and craniosacral therapy aided them on their journey
- How shame around her birth and breastfeeding experiences kept Whitney from receiving support
- Whitney references the emotional and physically healing practices she has pursued to care for herself postpartum
- Whitney shares about her postpartum experience with her second daughter and what she did differently to better support her and her family: being okay with hiring outside support and letting go of the notion that we “have to do it all”
- Whitney and Julia share their experiences with relinquishing control in parenting, the power of surrendering, the emotional load of motherhood, and the journey of parenting as opposed to arriving to a “destination”
Powerful Words from Whitney:
- Speaking to a Change in Her Birth Plan: “That also was another pivotal point of feeling really crushed because I had such a strong attachment to, ‘I need to do it this way’…”
- On healing trauma: “I don’t necessarily think that it was the actual birth that was traumatic to me… I think the word trauma is - [sometimes we so often] view it as oh I have to be a war veteran or I have to go through this terrible abuse to say that I’ve gone through trauma -but, I personally I think trauma is anytime we disconnect from - our nervous system just gets flooded and we go into fight, flight, or freeze and it’s really hard for us to integrate back into our body and I think that birth experience was the catalyst to me experiencing postpartum depression and anxiety because of how much shame and disappointment I felt towards myself and the experience…”
- Describing her postpartum experience: “The beautiful thing - I needed to crack to that degree to find my place in motherhood and to find my feet and to find stability but it took a lot of time and a lot of support…”
- On the power of sharing our stories: “It’s essential as women, not even just mothers, but as women for us to find a space where we can share our stories and our truths without the other person or group of people needing to fix it, change it, or interject with their agenda…”
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