Hi Reader,

I can remember when I had my daughter Ruby. She came after a pretty horrific bout of losses and pregnancy issues and just pure panic. So when she arrived—beautiful, feisty, and most important, healthy—I was positively gleeful.

And I remained gleeful. All through that first night. And the second. On the car ride home from the hospital. Changing her itty bitty diapers. Introducing her to her big brother. Pacing through my house to calm her colic.

Grateful grateful grateful.

Of course I was! I had the baby I so desperately wanted. And to this day, I remain so incredibly grateful to have my daughter (and my son, but this is not that story).

But lemme let you in on a not so little secret we moms all have—it also sucked.

I was tired. SO FREAKING TIRED.
I was hungry and not eating dairy because I thought it made her colicky and did everything have milk in it?
I was achy in all my parts. I felt bad I wasn’t playing with my toddler. I couldn’t get the baby to sleep. My breasts were engorged. I didn’t fit in my clothes. Did I mention that I was so tired that almost 17 years later I could weep just thinking about it?

New moms try so hard not to focus on those parts. Because we’re grateful.

But birthing babies is actually a big freaking deal. And as magical and miraculous and wonderful the end result can be, it is also traumatic on our bodies. And sometimes? There’s damage that we couldn’t have seen coming.

And let’s be honest: no one wants to think about that stuff. I know I didn’t! Not because it isn’t universal, but because it’s scary. And uncomfortable. We want to focus on things like the nursery and the coming home outfits and whether or not our baby will take a pacifier.

But the truth is that birth changes us. Sometimes temporarily. Sometimes not.

This week’s guest on Roar, Stephanie Thompson, learned this after having that baby she’d dreamed about. After a traumatic childbirth injury left her with lifelong complications, she decided to stop pretending everything was fine—and to start talking about what really happened to her body.

She wrote the book she wished she’d had (The Day My Vagina Broke), and built Bravemumma, a space where women can tell the truth about recovery, resilience, and the weird, funny, hard parts of healing.

In this episode, we talk about:
💬 What happens when you tell the truth about women’s health, especially after being told everything is ‘just fine.’
⚡ The hidden trauma of birth injuries, and why so many women never get help.
💪 How laughter and honesty can coexist with pain.
❤ Why sharing your story might be the most radical kind of self-care.

Stephanie’s story isn’t comfortable—but that’s the point.
Because the more we talk about what hurts, the less it owns us.

🎧 Listen to Episode 303 → [link to episode]

XO,

Danielle

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