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How have your personal experiences launched you into a certain line of work or the pursuit of a passion? Today\u2019s show is about someone who used the tough and challenging journey into motherhood to find ways to help others through their difficulties. If your road to motherhood has been anything but smooth sailing, then you don\u2019t want to miss today\u2019s show!\n\xa0\nMellisa Reeves is a doula, coach, and the co-founder of the Motherbirth podcast and community. She shares her personal story around postpartum anxiety and the difficulties that caused in connecting with her son, along with the subsequent loss, birth trauma, and milestones that came and went. She shares about what she had to overcome and how she felt disconnected after the birth of her son and how her experiences have shaped the work she does today. Mellisa works with women who have experienced pregnancy loss and want to trust their bodies again, helping them find their path to hope and healing through the innate intuition they each possess. Brought up with an innate love for simple, natural, rhythmic living, Mellisa\u2019s perspective on motherhood and life comes from a slow reawakening to the depth of feminine wisdom through her experience of stillbirth, multiple miscarriages, and postpartum anxiety. Mellisa is based in Portland but travels semi-fulltime with her husband and two children.\xa0\n\xa0\nShow Highlights:\n\xa0\n\nHow Mellisa\u2019s interest in perinatal wellness was sparked by her first pregnancy loss, and then intensified with a difficult postpartum period with her son and the stillbirth of her second son\n\nAs the oldest of ten siblings, she grew up on a farm in Canada with a hippie mother who was either pregnant or breastfeeding for Mellisa\u2019s entire childhood and youth\n\nHow her mother was very intentional, thoughtful, and present as a mom, and how Mellisa drew confidence from her about the manual aspects of motherhood, but felt severely lacking in the emotional preparation\n\nThe challenges with a difficult birth, postpartum, and bonding issues with her son\n\nHow she struggled with postpartum anxiety and felt like that trying time period would NEVER end\n\nHow she was so overwhelmed that she couldn\u2019t comprehend having more children, lacked any peer support, and lacked connection with her intuition and inner voice\n\nHow her son reacted with force to her attempts to control him and she thought she would never have a connected relationship with him\n\nWhy it\u2019s difficult to admit that our relationships with our children are less than ideal because of what it says about us as mothers\n\nHow her podcast shares stories and experiences of women and the significant identity shift that takes place with the birth of the firstborn\n\nHow the podcast shares stories of the transition to motherhood and its themes and narratives that are common and shared\n\nHer co-host, Laura, is finishing up her doctorate in Nurse Midwifery and focuses on the power of storytelling and group coaching\n\n\xa0\nResources:\nThe Conscious Parent by Shefali Tsabary\nFind Mellisa online, along with her courses and group coaching:\xa0www.trustyourbodyagain.com\nFind the Motherbirth podcast:\xa0www.motherbirth.co\nConnect with Mellisa on Instagram