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Caring for You


  • Things to know about your brain's thinking processes after you've had a baby
  • Very Big Things (like caring for a baby or toddler) often come with surprising amounts of painful feelings
  • Knowing a few science-based (+ heart-centred) ways of looking after your mental health and emotions can be life-changing when you're caring for a baby or toddler
  • How can you become a self-compassion ninja when you have a baby or toddler?
  • Our self-talk can become very unkind when we face a Very Big Thing (like caring for a baby)
  • Why are mothers of babies and toddlers often judged unkindly, and how can you protect yourself?
  • Five big things which affect emotional and mental wellbeing when you have a baby or toddler
  • Step into your power, find your joy
  • Recommended resources, acknowledgements and references for the 'Caring for you' collection in The Possums Sleep Program

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  • Caring for You
  • S1: Care of you essentials

Step into your power, find your joy

Dr Pamela Douglas30th of Dec 202323rd of May 2024

mother and child playing by ocean water's edge

How to step into your power, find your joy

How can you step into your power, and find your joy as you care for your baby or toddler? In this recorded talk, I offer some ideas to get you started.

I delivered this 8-minute talk at the NDC Rural Online Launch in 2021. I discuss some of the broader social contexts in which women or parents are caring for babies and toddlers, including

  • Market forces

  • Social media

  • Historical devaluing of maternity.

This talk doesn't aim to foreground the context of trauma, in the midst of which many women, or parents and carers, find themselves raising their babies and toddlers.

In Australia, the impact of colonisation remains a devastating and dominant source of intergenerational trauma amongst First Nations Peoples, which I haven't aimed to address in this talk, but would like to acknowledge.

Acknowledgement of Country

I and my team at The NDC Institute, home of the Possums programs, acknowledge and pay respect to the Australian First Peoples, and in particular the traditional custodians of the land upon which The Possums Sleep Program was made, the Yuggera and Turrbal Nations.

Australian First Nations nurtured and slept beside their babies and toddlers on this continent for perhaps 65,000 years, teaching their children how to care for other humans, for the land, and for the waters so effectively that they became the longest continuous culture on our planet. You can find out some of what I learnt from working with Australian First Nations Peoples here.

I acknowledge the unprecedented historical violence of the European settlement of Australia, which continues to affect many First Nation People's lives and families today, due to the well-documented intergenerational effects of trauma. I write more about this here.

first nations mother and child

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Recommended resources, acknowledgements and references for the 'Caring for you' collection in The Possums Sleep Program

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The information and suggestions in the Caring for you collections within The Possums Sleep Program are not a substitute for health professional support, though I'd still suggest you try them out! If you have concerns about your own mental health and wellbeing, please talk this over with your GP.

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Visit to learn more about the Possums project

Title and link Author
The discontented little baby book Associate Professor Adjunct Pamela Douglas
Raising an emotionally intelligent child: the heart of parenting. Professor John Gottman & Joan DeClair
The joy of parenting: an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy guide to effective parenting in the early years