For decades, women and mothers have been hiding. We cover up our breasts as we feed our babies because since forever, our breasts have been sexualised. How dare you get those tarty things out to offer nourishment to that hungry, tired love of your life. Put them away.

We hide the blood that drops between our legs because we've been told it's disgusting. And what's more repulsive, more unattractive, more intolerable, they tell us, is the mood swings that it brings. A woman on her period, they say, is crazy.

And often, we hide the depths of our feelings as we navigate the throes of early motherhood, because we're meant to be grateful. We're meant to be giving. We're meant to be naturally good at it.

That doesn't leave much room for comfort in motherhood, in fact it creates a feeling entirely opposite to warmth. And that is loneliness.

And it was when Keshia Hutchens and Ariel Bryant were walking the streets of Melbourne with their third babies that they wondered - interrogated, even - why there wasn't a safe space for mothers to go. To think and feel and learn and question and laugh and cry.

And so, they created From Day One; a space that is pulling mothers from outside of their own four walls and bringing them their village.

From how the two co-founders have made work, work over the years, to the magic that they're witnessing between the mothers who are making up the village that is From Day One, this is a special conversation about loneliness and the antidote to it.

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Shop the Ready or Not Go To Guides now, for $29 each or $69 for the trio and 10% off with code READY10:

• Breastfeeding and Returning to Work
• Childcare 101
• Postpartum and Return to Work Planning

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Thanks for listening to Witching Hour! If you liked the show, please tell your friends, subscribe or write a review. You can also find us on Instagram at readyornot.pod

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Boon Wurong people of the Kulin Nation. The land on which we're lucky enough to raise our sons and daughters always was and always will be Aboriginal land.

We Pay The Rent and you can too here.

As a youngest child with three older brothers, I've always been fascinated by sisters and the way I witnessed sisterhood play out among friends and family as a kid, and I think that's why I found today's guests and co-founders of The Big Sister Experience so interesting.

As they're about to tell you, while their best friends, business partners, perhaps even each other's soul mate in a lot of ways, Bianca and Kritz Sciessere could not be more different in a lot of ways. Bianca longed for and dreamed of motherhood her entire life, and while I wouldn't describe Kritz as apathetic towards motherhood, it certainly didn't consume her thoughts in the same way.

And so as you can imagine, this led to tensions when Bianca took her first parental leave. The training wheels were on as the two were thrown into the deep end of figuring out how to manage their booming business while Bianca was finding her feet as a first time mum, and with both sisters feeling lonely and challenged in their own unique way, it led to their first and only big fight in five years of business. And they're here to tell us all about it.

But not only are the two navigating motherhood and business, through their work, they're offering a transformative journey for girls and gender-diverse students, dedicated to inspiring the next generation.

So not only was I deeply interested to hear about their journey of navigating motherhood and sisterhood in business, I also wanted to learn about the youth of today - what gives them hope, what the common themes are, and what's challenging them. I learned so much that I will apply to my own children and I know that you will to.

What a special chat. I hope you love it as much as I loved talking to them.

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Shop the Ready or Not Go To Guides now, for $29 each or $69 for the trio and 10% off with code READY10:

• Breastfeeding and Returning to Work
• Childcare 101
• Postpartum and Return to Work Planning

---

Thanks for listening to Witching Hour! If you liked the show, please tell your friends, subscribe or write a review. You can also find us on Instagram at readyornot.pod

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Boon Wurong people of the Kulin Nation. The land on which we're lucky enough to raise our sons and daughters always was and always will be Aboriginal land.

We Pay The Rent and you can too here.

When I sat down to record this chat with my friend and the founder of Emeldo Emily Dornbusch, I warned her that I might sound a little bit more professional and a little less like me. But on listening back, it's actually the listeners that I need to warn, because this conversation is probably about as honest a depiction of making work, work alongside motherhood as you'll get. We have a baby that magically discovered a cough just as the mother of two who's pregnant with her third sat down to join us and you can only imagine the anxiety that gave me. We have a tech failure that means we're very cosily sharing the same mic, and at the start of the interview, you can hear Posie feeding.

So, it's a little chaotic. There's background noise and a lot more chatter than you might be used to here, but I hope that it mirrors the sort of conversations we all have with the friends that we make through motherhood. There was so much of Emily's story that I've never heard and it was really fun to get to know the version of her that existed before kids.

She founded her jewellery brand during the glory days of Instagram and has had incredible success. But, as money pressures have mounted as her family has grown, she's recently taken on another paid role on top of running her business, raising two children, and navigating her third pregnancy.

Here, we talk about the sometimes harsh realities of small business, how she made the decision to seek employment outside of Emeldo, and what she's looking forward to as she gets ready to welcome her third baby.

And she's actually giving our listeners 20% off her incredible collection - all you have to do is use code READY20 at emeldo.com.

EMELDO DISCOUNT CODE

Listeners of Ready or Not can use code READY20 for 20% off Em's incredible collection of colourful jewellery and accessories, until 19th September at emeldo.com.

And head to our Instagram to enter a cheeky giveaway!

Shop the Ready or Not Go To Guides now, for $29 each or $69 for the trio:

• Breastfeeding and Returning to Work
• Childcare 101
• Postpartum and Return to Work Planning

---

Thanks for listening to Witching Hour! If you liked the show, please tell your friends, subscribe or write a review. You can also find us on Instagram at readyornot.pod

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Boon Wurong people of the Kulin Nation. The land on which we're lucky enough to raise our sons and daughters always was and always will be Aboriginal land.

We Pay The Rent and you can too here.