Pregnancy is just the beginning of an amazing journey, but it is not without its fears and uncertainties. With the focus often being on preparing for the practicalities of looking after a baby, it’s so important to consider the physical, emotional and mental effects of this transformation on the mother. Reviving Motherhood was started by Laura Coote to provide insights, the latest research and practical tools to help with this incredible transformation from a woman to a mother. Here she talks about the inspiration behind her business and her hopes and dreams for the future.
The passion: What inspired you to set up your business?
Finding out I was pregnant for the first time was actually pretty scary. I hadn’t ever given a lot of thought to being a mother. In fact, it wasn’t even something I was sure I wanted to do…
And when those little blue lines appeared on the test, I felt a combination of intense joy and fear.
Not long after that, the thoughts started to creep in… A voice that said, “ooh, you shouldn’t do that …don’t eat that …don’t drink that…” Until eventually it screamed: “You’re getting it wrong, Laura!”
I was deeply afraid of failing my baby, my partner, and myself.
“What if I can’t carry this baby to full term?”
“What if I can’t labour naturally?”
“What if I can’t breastfeed? Can’t get my baby to sleep? Don’t connect with my baby…?”
If that’s not enough, I was afraid of changing and worried my partner wouldn’t love the new ‘me’.
Right through my core (I felt it sitting deep in my chest), I was worried I’d mess it all up.
What I now know is this feeling is NORMAL.
I was going through one of the biggest, unacknowledged changes in my life. Although I was rightfully scared, pregnancy was just the starting line in my lifetime of being a mother.
I also spent most of my pregnancy focusing on my body and the baby. We are looking for some certainty in this scary time so we focus on the things we can ‘keep an eye on’ or control. We focus on eating the right foods, on doing our pelvic floor exercises, on buying the ‘right’ pram. You name it, we have it sorted!
But what we often skip over – maybe because we’re afraid of the answer – is “what is happening to ME?” At a DEEP CORE LEVEL.
Who am I now? Who am I becoming?
Because no one tells you about this feeling. It’s not in the books. The doctors don’t mention it. Your girlfriends/sisters/mums probably haven’t said anything to you either.
After participating in several programs to help figure out this thing called ‘motherhood’ for myself and looking for answers as to why I felt the way I did – I felt my purpose rising that someone needs to help ease that fear and better prepare first-time pregnant mamas beyond the physical, so they can thrive in their motherhood journey.
And this is why I started Reviving Motherhood and my half-day Becoming A Mother Immersion Program, because I don’t want those women, like myself, to WAIT until they don’t recognise themselves anymore and they feel like they’re barely surviving this thing called motherhood.
I want her to feel like she’s got this.
I’ve taken everything I’ve learned from multiple experts who’ve spent years researching and unpacking the modern motherhood journey and packaged it up as a divine three-and-a-half-hour program.
I want to help her walk confidently into motherhood, prepared – not scared – of what’s to come.
I want her to know that it’s safe and important to focus on what’s going on for her as a woman – not just the baby and the changes to her body.
Because…
“On becoming a Mother we step into the line of mothers that extends through the generations behind us… we begin a process of transformation that reveals WHO WE ARE and WHO WE WILL become.” Tami Lynn Kent
The launch: How did you start out in the beginning?
With a big mission to help women with their unique transition into motherhood so it is a smoother transformation with less doubt, fear, anger, sadness and confusion, but with more trust, confidence and joy, I developed a divine workshop so she could learn about this profound transformation and leave feeling confident and empowered.
Reviving Motherhood is not about the function of mothering: sleep, feeding, routines, but is here for the mama-to-be, the woman, to give her the insights, latest research and practical tools to help her transform into a mother and be her best new ‘self’.
One of my best friends was pregnant and I didn’t want her to miss out on this profound information so I dived in and launched in January and held my first Immersion Program February 9th.
And with the motherhood journey of 5 beautiful women in my hands that day, Reviving Motherhood was born. I was blessed to make a huge impact on each of their journeys into motherhood and for many pregnant first-time mamas since.
