Transitioning Into Motherhood

The OM Mommas Podcast is a sacred space where Kristine McGlinchey-Yap discusses maternal health and spiritual wellness. In this episode, she covers OM Momma’s history and background, craving a community of supportive, like-minded momma’s, three powerful lessons learned when stepping into motherhood, motherhood as a role, not an identity and so much more!

Transcript

Welcome to the Ohmamah's podcast.

I'm your host,

Christine Maglenchia.

In each episode,

I'll cover topics in the area of maternal health and spiritual wellness.

You'll hear from guests who will share their professional and personal experiences as we navigate the journey to and through motherhood together.

This is an intentional space for you to learn and grow.

So sit back and enjoy.

Welcome to episode one of the Ohmamah's podcast.

This platform has been long overdue and I'm so excited to finally launch it and get it off the ground and really connect with the women in my community and all of the members who have been reaching out and asking for this to happen and come to life.

So a little bit of background on my history and how Ohmamah's began was when I became pregnant with my daughter.

Entering motherhood is a very tricky thing.

It's a tricky thing to navigate,

Even the thought of planning for a family.

For me,

My background is in corporate communications.

I was a PR manager for many years and I worked for travel companies,

Hospitality brands,

And I was just constantly traveling.

My days were 12 to 14 hours long.

And honestly,

I never saw motherhood in my future.

And although it was something I so deeply wanted,

I wanted a family,

But I resisted it.

And I told myself every single excuse as to why I couldn't have a family.

And that was,

Oh,

I'm just too busy.

Oh,

But if I have a family,

I won't be able to do this.

If I had kids,

I can't do this.

I can't travel.

I can't be free.

I was really telling myself a negative narrative about what it is to be a mother and what it is to have a family,

Especially in this day and age where we as women are programmed to believe that we can't have it all.

So we can't have a successful career and be successful mothers.

And that's very much the mentality I went into coming into motherhood.

And I knew that had to change.

So as soon as I found out I was pregnant,

I was just so happy.

On a soul level,

It just felt so good.

It was everything I've always wanted,

But in external,

In terms of my career and my path and my purpose,

I knew that it was shifting and it was transforming.

And I just knew that the career I was in wasn't sustainable.

And I wasn't,

Truly,

I wasn't even happy in it.

If I'm being completely honest,

I went into my career because it was a career that people told me to go into.

I wanted to be a writer.

I wanted to be a journalist.

And all of my mentors and my family,

They were telling me,

You know,

You're not going to make any money as a writer.

Just go into PR.

PR,

You get to write,

But you get to do all these things and you'll make a good living.

So that's what I did.

And I felt that most of my career,

I really lived someone else's life.

I was just going through the motions,

But at the root on a soul level,

I was deeply unhappy.

So when I became pregnant,

I knew that that was my opportunity to really take my life back and really build the life that I wanted.

And it took a lot of unlearning.

It took a lot of unbecoming.

And,

You know,

Last year with the state of the world,

It really took a lot of internal reflection.

My daughter's turning two this year and I started my business essentially two weeks postpartum.

So by the time I had my maternity leave was up,

I left my corporate job.

I had a handful of clients just doing random projects.

You know,

For one woman,

I was a VA.

I really just tried to get projects that would,

You know,

Help me make income,

Help me build my confidence while I really learned what it is,

But what my purpose here in this world is,

You know?

And through that,

I birthed the community.

And the community was everything I feel like I needed as a support system,

Looking for natural alternatives to motherhood in terms of,

You know,

Non-toxic solutions,

Having a vaginal birth was very important to me.

I really was dedicated to having that opportunity.

I did hypnobirthing,

And that really established the foundation and the core of my mindset going into motherhood.

And of course,

I learned a lot of really powerful lessons along the way in terms of how society views motherhood in general.

A lot of women were asking me,

Why do you want to have a vaginal birth?

Why don't you just get a C-section?

And,

You know,

For me,

It wasn't anything that I could explain.

I just knew that that was my path.

And,

You know,

Ideally that's what I wanted.

And I know a lot of women,

You know,

Start off wanting a vaginal birth,

But complications arise,

Or,

You know,

Sometimes at toward the end of their pregnancy,

They just go for the C-section and that's okay.

There's no judgment there.

I just knew from my path,

A vaginal birth was essentially in my future.

And a lot of women were just questioning it.

They're like,

What?

People still have vaginal births?

And I think just the motherhood experience and the labor and the birthing experience has become so sterilized by the patriarchal systems of our medical field.

And I'm not saying that women are settling,

But women forget that they have the right to choose,

That there's choice with our bodies and with the way we get to birth our children.

A lot of women didn't know they had options in terms of providing their doctors with birth plans.

And that really opened my eyes to the system in which we treat labor,

Childbirth,

As a medical procedure.

And really this message,

I would just like to empower women,

Just,

You know,

The right to choose.

And if you choose a C-section,

Hey,

Power to you.

That's your choice.

My whole stance is that you get one,

That you know,

And you're educated about your rights and about your choice and how you want to birth your child and bring your child into this world.

So that's how I started Ohmama's through my research,

My passion,

My dedication.

And honestly,

Because I needed the community,

The community of women,

Most of my life,

I spent in like this masculinity of like the corporate world and constantly doing,

Being,

Going,

And it just felt nice to surround myself with women and not only mothers,

But women who just are so supportive.

And I'll tell you,

My community might be called Ohmama's,

But there is a large majority of women who resonate with my work,

Who follow the community,

And they're not mothers and by choice.

To me,

All women are mothers because guess what?

We all have the genetic,

The DNA,

The codes programmed within us to nurture and to create.

And that is really what a mother is,

A nurturer and a creator.

And so this beautiful community was born and these beautiful women share their stories.

And it's just a really powerful testament to what happens when women come together.

And that has really been my journey for the past two years,

Stepping into motherhood,

Seeing how when women come together and when we remember that we're not separate,

That we're not meant to fight each other or to see each other as competition,

That really beautiful things happen.

And it's been a wonderful process for me.

And I've learned so much.

And I've found that my path and my purpose is really to encourage and empower and help women remember their choice as women and as providers,

As caregivers,

And really empower women to own that choice and to own their experience into motherhood.

I think a lot of the time,

The guilt and the shame associated with motherhood and the fact that women often lose their identity in being a mother,

Those are all things that we get to talk about.

Those are all things that we get to dissect and empower and support one another through that process.

Because let's face it,

Motherhood changes you for the good,

The bad,

The ugly,

But it does.

And that's okay as long as we're open to having these conversations,

As long as we have support systems,

As long as we really lean into one another.

And I'll tell you three things,

Three really powerful lessons that I learned stepping into motherhood were vulnerability,

Community,

And mindset.

The vulnerability aspect of being like,

Hey,

I'm not okay,

Mental health,

That awareness level,

Vulnerability of asking for help,

Asking for support.

These are things that women are so unconditioned to do because society tells us,

Oh,

You got it.

You're a woman,

You have to handle everything by yourself.

Just stay silent.

It's like that silent struggle that women are meant to endure.

We're not meant to speak our truth.

We're not meant to speak up about not being able to handle things,

But that gets to change because that vulnerability piece for me in motherhood was essential.

Asking for help is not weak.

Asking for help is a sign of strength because you're like,

Hey,

I'm not meant to do it alone.

None of us are.

So really that vulnerability piece is really key,

Especially stepping into motherhood,

Stepping into anything,

Stepping into entrepreneurship.

I birthed two babies at the same time,

My daughter and my business.

These pillars go for each.

My business,

I tapped into mentors who guided me,

Who supported me,

Women who were doing the things that I wanted to do,

Women who can support and hold my hand through the process of setting up my business,

Talking about what I want to be doing,

Really taking those limiting beliefs off my plate and having me go through that self-awareness aspect of where is this coming from?

Is this fear?

Which most of the things we're scared to do that are fear-based is just a preview of the things that we're meant to be doing and that we're growing into.

So for business and for motherhood,

These things are really important.

So then that second piece of community,

Not having to do it alone,

Finding your support systems,

Creating community if you don't have one that you resonate with,

Community that,

You know,

Kids take a village.

We've become so detached from that community that we're not going to do it alone.

We've become so detached from that thing,

But it's so true.

We need a village.

So finding your community,

Finding ways to get involved and to just be vulnerable and share your truths,

Share your story.

There's no shame in that.

And then that mindset piece.

Oh my gosh.

That mindset piece.

So that's where my book,

MOMtras,

Came from.

So my book,

MOMtras for Mindful Moms,

Which is available on Amazon,

That came from moments of me just really saying shitty things about myself,

To be quite honest.

You know,

I remember days where I would just sit on the floor like,

What am I doing?

Can I really do this?

Like I'm a horrible mother.

I would say the worst things.

I said things about myself that I would never speak to another human because that's how bad,

Like the self-defeating words were so real.

And I did have moments.

And,

You know,

Looking back on it now,

When people talk about postpartum depression,

There's just so many variants.

There's so many different levels of that.

And I did have postpartum anxiety.

So a lot of that self-defeating speak,

A lot of that fear,

A lot of that programming and conditioning came from that.

And I said,

Wait a second,

If I'm speaking to myself like this,

Oh my God,

What are other women?

What are other moms saying about themselves?

And it was like a voice that was taking over my head.

Like I knew in my heart that it wasn't true,

But this voice just kept playing in a loop,

Like,

You're not good enough.

You should have never became a mother.

How are you going to do this?

All of those things that were running through my head,

Cycling through my head constantly,

I said,

No,

This is not me because I am worthy.

I am more than good enough.

I honor and respect my strength.

And these words of encouragement and reminders were just everything that I needed to hear to pick up those pieces.

And so I put them in a book and I'm just so grateful for this community.

I'm so grateful for all the women who've purchased the book,

All of the men who've purchased the book as gifts and as reminders for their partners,

For the loved ones in their lives.

But that book,

And I was so self-conscious about doing it,

But I know that it needed,

It had its place in the world.

And so I did it.

I self-published on Amazon and I've sold over 500 copies since August.

And I know that that's only going to grow.

So vulnerability,

Community,

And mindset.

Three really important things that we get to talk about as women,

Either stepping into motherhood,

Current mothers,

Women who choose not to be mothers still need that reminder.

So these are the things that I strongly believe in.

And I'm really excited about this podcast because we're going to get to dive deeper and explore some of those ways.

We're going to get to listen to guest speakers who have a really interesting perspectives and their own stories that get to be heard because a lot of the time,

Right,

As mothers,

We don't even share our stories because we're embarrassed or we have no one to tell them to.

So let's normalize sharing about our motherhood experiences.

Just because you share it doesn't make you a bad mom.

It makes you a great mom and it makes you human.

Let's remember that we have identities other than mothers,

Right?

So motherhood is not an identity.

It's a role.

And we really get to tap into that role and really own it and make it what we want it to be.

So I will leave you with this wonderful reminder that we're taught we have to choose and that we can't have it all.

But we can.

We really can have it all if we just trust and allow it.

And,

You know,

We're all in this beautiful,

Wonderful,

Chaotic journey together.

And my hope and my intention is that this podcast illuminates conversations,

Ideas and topics that really spark your interest and really resonate with you on a heart and soul level.

And at any time,

You know,

I'd love for my listeners to reach out,

Find us on Instagram at Omamas.

And I'm always open to collaborations,

New ideas,

Feedback.

And I look forward to season one of the Omamas podcast and can't wait to get this thing started and launched.

Take care until next time.

Thank you for listening to the Omamas podcast.

Please leave a review and share this platform with a woman in your life who can benefit from the message.

Our book,

Momtras,

Momtras,

For Mindful Moms is currently available on Amazon.

If you'd like to continue the conversation,

Connect with us on Instagram at Omamas.

Reviews

That was a very nice talk about motherhood. I really liked her thoughts, opinions as well as her openness. I'd love to hear more talks and her podcast.