The Motherhood Journals

Whether you're a partner, husband, wife, family member, friend or doula, being chosen as someone's birth support person is both a privilege and an important responsibility.

Raising Fathers offers educational courses, community events and mentoring for men moving through that transition, working from a simple premise: better dads lead to better families, and better families shape a better world. When fathers fully show up, families and culture thrive.

In this final edition of The Support Edit, we're introducing three Australian businesses helping families prepare before they need to. Their work empowers parents, grandparents and caregivers with practical knowledge that makes a real difference when it matters most.

In this edition of The Support Edit, we're introducing four Australian businesses helping families feel held through pregnancy, birth and the postpartum period. Whether through practical help, emotional support or specialised postpartum care, they're rebuilding the village one family at a time.

In this edition of The Support Edit, we're highlighting five Australian practices supporting mothers and families through the emotional realities of pregnancy, birth and early parenthood.

This edition of The Support Edit shines a light on five Australian businesses helping mothers feel more supported physically through pregnancy, birth and postpartum.

These conversations can help you understand each other's expectations, worries, hopes and plans before life becomes beautifully busy with a newborn. From sleep and support to finances, family boundaries, communication and the mental load, these are the conversations many couples don't have until they're already navigating postpartum.

This beautiful guided meditation was created by Nicola Unite,  someone who truly understands what it takes to restore a tired, overstretched nervous system and she made it especially for the NAO mamas.

A doula is a trained support person who provides continuous emotional, physical, and informational support during pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period. Doulas offer continuity of relationship-based care throughout your entire journey into motherhood. Doulas don’t drop in and out. Your doula walks alongside you, providing a steady, grounded presence as you prepare for one of life’s most transformative rites of passage.

Matrescence is the ongoing process of becoming a mother. It’s not limited to pregnancy or the early postpartum period. It continues through every stage of motherhood, shaping identity, relationships, emotional wellbeing, and the way a woman experiences herself in the world.

I wasn’t prepared for how hard breastfeeding would be. Because it’s “natural”, I assumed it would be easy. And I knew the health benefits, so I set really high expectations for myself. But I struggled - with all of my 4 children. I remember thinking: If breastfeeding is so important for mums and babies, why isn’t there more support?

Postpartum recovery is often overlooked, yet it shapes a mother’s long-term health. In this interview, a Melbourne founder shares how traditional care, nourishment and support can help mothers heal, rebuild, and feel held through the fourth trimester.