From NICU mom to maternal mental health advocate:
A chat with Bre Reid
In today’s episode I chat with Bre Reid, a mom life coach and founder of Yes You Can, Mama. Bre shares her story of her daughter’s birth at 28 weeks, the 12 weeks of NICU care, and her resulting PPD and PTSD. We talk about the lack of mental health support that is offered and available to new moms, and especially new moms of preemies. You get launched into the world of motherhood with no real training, no experience, ALL the hormones and NONE of the sleep. It’s as though the system is set up to create postpartum challenges, especially in countries with limited maternity leave. Bre’s daughter wasn’t even home from the NICU when she had to return to work. Bre has become passionate about spreading awareness about maternal mental health and the importance of finding the joy in motherhood. We talk about how moms get caught up in the “shoulds,” which can lead to the cycle of overwhelm and exhaustion. She now works with moms to help them push through those shoulds and create a life they love.
Bre’s bio:
Bre Reid is a wife, a mother, and a life coach for moms. Her mission is to empower moms to reclaim their personal identity and develop action plans to live a balanced life so they can be the happiest version of themselves and find joy in their motherhood journey. She is passionate to show moms that they don’t have to feel like they are only a mom. Every mom is a passionate woman who not only loves her child(ren), but also has other passions and dreams she wants to fulfill. And Bre wants to make sure moms know it’s OKAY to want to serve herself and her family. Bre started her #MomLife coaching business in 2019, at first reaching out to NICU and traumatic birth moms. Her own daughter, Annie, was born at 28 weeks gestation and spent 12 weeks in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). In working with this specific demographic, Bre realized many moms who had not had these experiences were having the same problem of feeling stuck in a vicious cycle of overwhelm and exhaustion. Now Bre helps moms with a variety of experiences through her coaching business to stop living life how they feel they “should, and start living how they WANT and create a life they love. Bre’s other passion is spreading awareness about maternal mental health by speaking often about her own experiences with Postpartum Depression, Postpartum Anxiety, and NICU Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Bre believes that by being open and honest about her own experiences, she can de-stigmatize these mental health conditions and help other women find strength to face their own.
https://yesyoucanmamacoaching.com/
https://www.instagram.com/yesyoucanmama/
