Meet Me Downstairs

We have made it to the end of another season at Meet Me Downstairs, and to close it out, we’ve got a super special guest…Chloe Fisher! Chloe is the host of her own podcast called Darling Shine, which she co-hosts with her best friend Ellidy Pullin, a podcast that I have listened to and love dearly. She shares with us today her journey through fertility, miscarriages, IVF, IUI’s, ultimately leading her to a place of peace as she takes a break on her route to motherhood. Her vulnerability and honesty is something that I find so wonderfully comforting. She is a ball of life, and a guest I’ll never forget. Chlo…thank you soooo much for sharing your story with us!

On today’s episode we are getting into a controversial topic, toddler and infant sleep, and in particular the way that the sleep industry has impacted natural and intuitive parenting. Our guest Kaitlin Klimmer has made waves on social media talking all about sleep. She’s got a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology, a Diploma in Forest School Education, a Baby-Led Sleep and Well Being Specialization, and most recently, a certification in Breastfeeding Education. Her goal and mission is to help educate parents trust their own nurturing intuition and parent from there. This was such an important conversation to have. As Kaitlin states in the episode, the judgements and issues we raise are with the sleep industry only, and not the parents who choose to implement certain methods. We all have to do what is best for our family, so as you listen to our episode today, embrace what feels right and leave what doesn’t. Love always!

Today we are talking about one of my favourite topics every…the pelvic floor! The pelvic floor is such an important part of our bodies, and responsible for so many functions, and it’s only usually through pregnancy or childbirth that we become aware of it! It’s time to get to know this part of our body, and truly forge a connection with it. Thankfully we have a Pelvic Floor guru to help us today!

Allison Oswald, board certified women’s health Doctor of Physical Therapy has such a wealth of knowledge! This episode is packed full of incredibly vital information for all women, especially if you’re a mother or want to have children someday. I can’t wait for you to listen and be like…oh wow I did not know that!

Don’t wait any longer, press play…

Today we have Attia Taylor on the podcast to help us chat about making health education accessible for all! Attia is a NYC based musician and creative producer. She is the founder of Womanly Magazine. A publication providing accessible health information to women and non-binary people through visual and literary art. Her work is rooted in social justice, art, and design, to bring inclusive and culturally relevant content to sound, print and digital realms, and that is exactly what we are talking about today. Her work is amazing, and the inspiration behind it is inspiring. Please enjoy and get involved with her work below:

This incredible birth story is brought to us today by Louise de Menthon. She shares with us her experience of having an unmedicated, vaginal twin birth. She takes us down her very non-traditional path when it comes to giving birth to twins, and the amount of strength and bravery it required to stand in her power and have the birth that she dreamed of. This episode is an incredible reminder of the power that the medical system has on us women when we're in labor, and just how far we've removed ourselves from natural birth. It reminds us how important it is to educated ourselves on childbirth and the options available to us. On top of sharing her wonderfully positive and inspiring twin birth story, Louise and I have some empowering conversations surrounding birth itself. This episode is one I recommend listening to if having children (one, two or four), is in your future. It's thought provoking, and incredibly important. 

Louise thank you for sharing this with us. It will be deeply treasured. 

Today we are talking about the practice of Natural parenting. Kind of stepping away from all of the should’s and expectations of what parent has looked like in the past and moving in to a more conscious and understanding way of communicating with our children. Before I get into things I want to just say that this community and podcast is not here to judge the way parents do things currently. I’m a mom who is excited by expanding her knowledge base and this is a way of sharing different points of view. So embrace what feels right and leave what doesn’t.

Our guest of honour today is the amazing Tracy Gillett. She is the founder, writer and advocate behind the award-winning blog, Raised Good - a guide to natural parenting in the modern world. Her instagram is like a parenting bible with some pure gold excerpts that I find deep comfort in. She has reached millions of women worldwide and has some amazing offerings on her website and social media, so be sure to follow and engage with her, you can find her details in the episode notes.

I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I enjoyed recording it!

Who else gets anxious about sex?! Am I doing it right, is my partner feeling pleasure, is this thing I like weird, should I be performing a certain way...the list is endless. Sex is a topic that is wrapped up in lots of different values, feelings, and experiences that can leave our own personal relationship with it feeling strained. That's what we're talking about today. We are joined by the charismatic Portia Brown from Froetic Sexology to help us to understand why we may feel a certain way about sex, get up front with our anxieties, heal and hopefully work towards experiencing unencumbered and freeing sexual experiences. 

This episode is all about the transition from woman to mother. From maiden to matriarch. Ultimately being defined as Matrescence. It's a topic that is not widely known, yet it should be, and this conversation is in service of that. Those early years of motherhood are often experienced in silence and leave women feeling as though the things they're experiencing are meant to be dealt with alone, or that they aren't doing a good enough job, or experiencing perhaps things that are considered 'normal' and actually shouldn't be. That's what this episode is in service of. The mother, making space for her to feel understood as she moves through this epic transition.  Please enjoy this amazing and deeply comforting breakdown of Matrescence with our guest Amy Taylor-Kabbaz. 

Amy is a Best-Selling Author, Speaker, Journalist, Matrescence Activist and Mama of three. She is the author of Mama Rising, the host of the ‘The Happy Mama Movement’ podcast and creator of the #1 iTunes meditations for children with more than 12 million downloads - ‘Bedtime Explorers’. In 2019, she launched her world first Matrescence Facilitator Training - Mama Rising - sharing her unique formula of coaching and support into mother’s transition through matrescence. 

Today's episode is a loving conversation on co-parenting and how couple's can enter this new space with love, and understanding of each other and the process. I'm joined by the impeccable Dr. Alexandra Solomon, who is a clinical psychologist that specialises in relationships. We start our conversation with a peek into relationships in general, and how our childhood and upbringing affects the way we love, and then we enter into such a powerful conversation on co-parenting, how we can still create unity as a family living in two different homes, how we can shift this awful narrative that ending relationships is a failure, and how to prepare the new family for external love to come in. 

This was a particularly special conversation for me, because I’ve recently entered a loving co-parenting relationship and to help myself and my ex navigate through it in the best way we can, I was outsourcing for any insight possible and the field was slim. I saw it as a beautiful opportunity to not only share with you all, something going on in my life, but also create a resource for anyone going through co-parenting, divorce, or perhaps approaching it in in some way.

More about Dr. Solomon? She is a clinical assistant professor at Northwestern University where she teaches the internationally renowned course, Building Loving and Lasting Relationships: Marriage 101, and she’s a licensed clinical psychologist at The Family Institute at Northwestern University.

She is the author of Taking Sexy Back: How to Own Your Sexuality and Create the Relationships You Want (New Harbinger, 2020) and Loving Bravely: Twenty Lessons of Self-Discovery to Help You Get the Love You Want (New Harbinger, 2017).  She also writes a column for Psychology Today and is frequently asked to talk about love, sex, and marriage with media outlets including The Today Show, O Magazine, The Atlantic, Vogue, and Scientific American.

We are welcoming the Rebel Mama’s to the podcast today! They are the queens of real motherhood, and being cool as fuck while doin’ it. They are also my new favourite gurus when it comes to feeling financially empowered as a woman and as a mother. Today we break down a topic that is quite feared, and not very welcoming for women, but one that is sooooo damn needed, and I thnk women are ready to take control of it, and that's moneyyyy honeyyy. These gals help to just put things in simple terms, and guide you through it, not making you feel like you’re sitting in front of some white man in a suit mansplaining money to you! 

The Rebel Mama is a multimedia platform and community - founded by Nikita Stanley and Aleks Jassem - that is rebranding motherhood for a new generation. It has evolved over the last 6 years into two best-selling books, a blog, a podcast, a 10,000-member private forum and popular social channels. Aleks and Nikita are moms They’re entrepreneurs. They’re thought leaders. They’re community builders. And they’re here for a good time. They have a new book out now called: GET YOUR $HIT TOGETHER: The Rebel Mama’s Handbook for Financially Empowered Moms, which was a follow up to the 2020 re-release of their originally self-published “Handbook for (Cool) Moms”

The ladies also just launched a new podcast called THE REBEL MAMA HOTLINE where they discuss hot parenting topics, dismantle taboos, chat with their audience, and laugh their way through the chaos. You can find it on Apple Podcasts, Google, Spotify or wherever you stream yours.

Get your notebooks, and enjoy this amazing episode!

Meet Me Downstairs, a podcast born out of deep love for the feminine and as a way to honor the woman within the mother and the woman within herself (mother or not). This episode is a reconnect. A reminder of why we exist, what we hope to achieve, and how we as women can liberate ourselves in sex, in feminine existence, and in motherhood. We are pushing past stereotypes, beyond societal bounds, and into an opening that radiates freedom and love for the skin we are in. Understanding how this body of ours works, taking the things that may have made us to feel dirty or shameful and turning them into pillars of confidence, that we stand on, proud. I want all of us to be able to look at the world around us that sometimes holds us down and makes us feel small, and say, ‘this is my time’. I hope this episode inspires you to embrace your womanhood fully. Love always, Brit

The human body ~ a literal marvel, and so often we forget to marvel in it! Today we are talking about moving with intention and building a deeper connection to our physical body. We are joined by the magnetic Celest Pereira who is a yoga teacher, anatomy teacher, and a physiotherapist who has spent her life dedicated to the human body and helping people to understand that part of themselves better. We talk about beauty standards, how to love ourselves better, and how to implement intentional movement into our lives no matter what fitness background we have. It's a good one ya'll, enjoy it and go out today and move your body!

Welcome to the Meet Me Downstairs podcast. We are here to chat with moms + women from all walks of life about the different dimensions to mother + womanhood. Our resounding reason for being is to make sure that we are always honouring the woman in the mother. It’s no doubt that becoming a mother is one of the greatest things in the world and most of the time we are so focused on being the best mom we can be, that sometimes we forget the woman that lives inside.

It’s so important to give that woman within the mother a space to be free. To talk about what’s going on with her, to share the struggles, and celebrate the triumphs. We are here to discuss it all with you. I will be joined by moms and experts from all over the world to give my fellow sisters a widespread landscape of motherhood and feminine existence. We will touch on everything from the physical, emotional and mental changes in your body, to reawakening intimacy with your partner and yourself. We’ll navigate together the immense identity shift that goes with becoming a mother, and everything else in-between. This is a completely comprehensive space to give women support and most of all company in the journey we call motherhood.