NEW SEASON ALERT: OUR FIRST EXPERT EPISODES DROP FROM 22 SEPTEMBER — THIS WEEK, THOUGH, IT'S JUST US.
This week we're doing something a little different. Instead of an expert, our host Olivia sits down with Paula — the founder of The Tiny Big Joys — to go right back to the beginning.
Paula spent years travelling and building a career, and had just told her partner they weren't ready for a baby. Two weeks later she was pregnant. What followed was a pregnancy full of questions nobody was answering: bleeding, cramps, and a health service that could only say \"wait and see.\" The only reassurance she could find was other mothers chatting online at two in the morning.
She also carried a real fear of birth — the kind that made her cry at a friend's pregnancy four years earlier. In this episode she shares the single private birth class that changed all of it, and why understanding what actually happens in your body turned fear into trust.
That gap in information became a podcast. It went to number one in the parenting category in Finland, was recommended by public health services, and five years after the last episode thousands of mothers were still listening. This is the story of why it's now in English.
We also talk about something every new parent needs to hear: in a world of extremes and AI-generated answers, all you really want to know is what's normal. And as Paula puts it — if everything is average with your baby, everything is really good.
In this episode:
– The night that changed everything, and getting pregnant when nobody expected it (01:39)
– Where a fear of birth really comes from (03:28)
– The class that replaced fear with trust in her own body (06:57)
– The pregnancy symptoms nobody talks about (08:11)
– Why every mother should have access to this information (11:13)
– What AI can never give a new mum (14:42)
– \"Average is really good\" (15:50)
– The good enough mum: you don't have to do everything (19:50)
– Why you shouldn't compare yourself to anybody else (22:41)
– The one thing to take away if you're pregnant right now (24:48)
– Paula's tiny big joy (25:36)
Full show notes at www.thetinybigjoys.com, where you'll also find Paula's book, The Tiny Big Joys: Pregnancy and Birth — Questions from New Parents Like You.
Follow @thetinybigjoys on Instagram, and a brand new season is coming in September covering everything you need to know about the first year with your baby.
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