bio
About Jessamin
Welcome mama, I’m so glad you’re here! I’m Jessamin, Postpartum Education and Care Professional. I’m really looking forward to working with you all and being that warm, safe and capable support person for you that you deserve. Postpartum care in our modern Western culture is terribly insufficient and this has become normalised over past decades, but the tide is changing. The developmental transition called matrescence is now more widely known. The postpartum period is such a wild time and most of us are unprepared for the raw emotions and overwhelm that come along with the beauty and the love. Trust me, I’ve been there, I’ve felt it, I’ve witnessed it. Struggle, complexity, rage, frustration, grief, exhaustion, boredom- these are common motherhood experiences that we don’t acknowledge in this society and they should not define our worth. I’m here for you, and I’m here to protect and nurture your experience of motherhood and in turn your developing parenting identity and sense of self. You don’t have to do it alone.
Living in Northland, New Zealand, I’ve been working with children and their families my entire career as a teacher and have a deep love for our community. After having my own children in 2017 and 2019, and spending 5 years full-time at home, I felt even more empathy for mothers and their experience of matrescence. As an early childhood teacher myself, experienced in caring for babies as young as 3 months old, I expected I would ‘know’ what I was doing to care for this little being. The enduring quote was ‘you’ll be so tired, but so in love’. Five days in, walking a screaming newborn around the lounge at 2 am for 4 hours straight, I begged to differ. It wasn’t a tiredness I knew, it was pure exhaustion. Nothing I’d studied, read, listened to truly prepared me for the deep overwhelm, confusion and utter disappointment I felt in myself, despite everything externally ‘going well’. I deeply respected and felt a sense of love and intense protectiveness for my baby, but I didn’t understand the neurological process of matrescence, the requirement for consistent support, the intensity of emotion that would arise, or the importance of flexibility and self-care. Thanks to my beautiful mum, sister and husband I was protected from the worst, but true exhaustion, loneliness, extremely low sleep levels, a distressed baby and high expectations of myself contributed to a really rough year.
This was the beginning for me, an almost decade long deep dive into matrescence, sharing many real and vulnerable stories with many mothers in my life. I realized that it wasn’t just me, but that this experience was common and overarching. Motherhood guilt is too prevalent. I knew I wanted to do something about it, and found the beautiful Julia Jones from Newborn Mothers where I trained as a Postpartum Professional.
You’ll find me warm, non-judgemental, practical, open minded and efficient. I love a clean bench, good music, fresh laundry, and the satisfaction of creating a meal from scratch. I studied through an incredible organisation and highly recommend the book and podcast, Newborn Mothers. I’ve also been deeply inspired by Dr. Oscar Serallach and Dr. Libby Weaver whose expertise is postpartum health and wellbeing. Over the years I’ve attended 5 births, read many articles and podcasts, supported friends and family in their individual parenting and breastfeeding journeys and maintained my dream of starting my own business.
Credentials
Postpartum Education and Care Professional (Newborn Mothers)
Bachelor of Education in Early Childhood
Current First Aid Certificate
Mother of 2, Aunty, Teacher, Wife
