For episode 8 of Beyond Postpartum I got to interview Juno Rinaldi, who is an actor, writer, and creative, and a mom of two! It was such a pleasure to virtually ‘sit down’ with Juno and hear her story. I hope you enjoy listening to our conversation as much as I enjoyed having it!
In this episode, Juno and I talk about:
- The ‘perfect storm’ of factors that contributed to her Postpartum struggles
- How surprising it can be when we struggle the 2nd time around – shouldn’t we know what we are doing by now?
- Feeling desperate to get back to ‘normal’ and rushing the process
- The feeling of failing at all the things
- How physical the experience of Postpartum Anxiety can be
- Sleep being the ‘missing link’
- The power in reaching out for support
- Being grateful for postpartum struggles after the fact – but how hard it was to go through at the time
- Intrusive thoughts
- How she knew that she wasn’t ok
- Shame – and how this arises from external judgements that we internalize
- How we get shame to go away
- Finding a sense of belonging
- What healing looked like for Juno
- Making hard decisions about breastfeeding and how much it helps – and how she still feels shame (even though she recognizes she shouldn’t!)
- How harmful black-and-white thinking can be
- Why taking care of ourselves is important on so many levels
- What self care can look like and how it evolves over time
- How much judgment we are subjected to as new parents
- Trusting ourselves and our instincts
- The tools she learned in her postpartum time that she still uses today
- Coming back to Pacific Post Partum as a volunteer and how that was a big part of her healing
- The practice of setting boundaries – how hard it is and yet how important it is
- Turing pain and struggle into art
- Sharing our stories and how they bring healing
- What she would say to others who are struggling and to herself when she was struggling the most
Resources
- You can find Juno on Instagram: @juno.rinaldi
- Signs of PPD/A
- Anxiety Canada
- MindShift App
- InsightTimer App
- BounceBack CBT Program
