everymum

This week on the podcast, my guest is Heather Condren, founder of Flowerpop, a brilliant, creative and unique flower business based in Dublin (and delivering everywhere). Heather and I cover a lot of ground: what it’s like to start a business with a tiny baby, the realities of parenting while running your own company, and the constant juggle of entrepreneurial life. But one of the most fascinating parts of our chat was Heather’s experience working with both a pregnancy doula and a postpartum doula. She speaks so passionately about the incredible support doulas provide, what they actually do, how their roles differ, and why that kind of care can be life-changing. Our conversation also opened up into the bigger picture: how much support for new mothers has disappeared, and how isolating it can feel without the “village” previous generations could rely on. Heather is inspiring as a mother, a founder, and a person who is willing to share her journey so honestly. I think you’ll find this episode as thought-provoking as it is encouraging. Thanks so much for listening and I'll be back next week with more.

Welcome back to Season 18 of Everymum, the podcast, the place for people who love their kids deeply but also occasionally fantasize about running away to a quiet hotel room with room service and no one saying “Maaaam” for three to five business days. Today’s guests are two women who understand that impulse all too well, and have somehow turned it into content: Rebecca and Fiona Ryan. They’re Irish sisters, actors, and online creators who grew up just outside Meath, trained together at the Gaiety School of Acting, and have spent most of their adult lives toggling between their passion for acting, and both are now mothers of two. Rebecca is best known for her hilarious and painfully relatable videos on motherhood and modern life — the kind that make you laugh and then wince at how real it is, and then send to your group chat. Fiona, meanwhile, spent years acting and producing in London before returning home, where together, they’ve created Motherhustle. It's a new mini-series about the grind of parenting. It’s funny, sharp, and occasionally too on the nose for comfort. What I love about these two is that they’re not just making jokes about motherhood — they’re exploring how to stay ambitious when someone around you always has sticky hands and needs another snack. How do you make art out of chaos without losing your mind or your sense of humour? We get into all of that in this episode: the creative process, the sister dynamic, the limits of sharing online, and what the future holds for them and their families. So, make yourself a coffee or something stronger, depending on the hour and join us as we talk about turning the mess of modern motherhood into something you can actually laugh about. I;ll be back next week with more.

Today’s guest is someone who knows that play is far more than just fun, it’s one of the most powerful tools we have for helping children learn, connect, and thrive. Sarah Kelly is a Speech and Language Therapist, a Montessori teacher, a mum of boys, and the founder of PlayEasy, an educational toy store. Working in her own private speech and language private practice in Churchtown, Sarah saw that parents were often unsure which toys could truly support their child’s speech, language, and overall development. So she began hand-selecting toys that don’t just entertain, but actively build skills, spark imagination, and meet children right where they are in their growth. In our conversation today, Sarah shares how her work as both a clinician and a mother shapes her approach, the signs parents can look for in a truly educational toy, and why the best play is often the simplest. She offers practical tips for weaving language development into everyday routines, busts some persistent myths about late talking, and reminds us that the most important thing we can give our children during playtime is ourselves. Whether you’re a new parent, or one who is time pressed but still wants to do the very best for their kids, or just someone who wants to understand how children learn through play, you’re going to love Sarah’s warmth, expertise, and advice. Thanks for listening as always, back next week with more.

My guest this week is entrepreneur Nicky Wake. Nicky's story of grief and love and parenting is one that I was immediately inspired by when I first heard it. After meeting her soulmate Andy Wake back in 2002, Nicky went on to live her best life, and after a long journey to conceive, welcomed a baby boy called Finn. When Finn was just 9 years old, his dad, Nicky's soulmate Andy, had a heart attack that would leave him in a coma and then in round-the-clock care until he eventually passed away back in 2020, when Finn was just about to enter his teenage years. Parenting is challenging enough, but with her own grief and her son's to deal with, Nicky faced a period of intense darkness which resulted in struggling with alcoholism and going into rehab. Her son, just on the cusp of his 17th birthday, told her that getting sober would be the best gift she could give him. So that's what she did. Nicky is now sober, running multiple businesses, and channeling her grief and her pain into positivity by uniting other widows and widowers to help them bond and find love again, moving forward – but not moving on – through it all. This is a captivating story and Nicky's positivity throughout is really something to behold. I'll be back next week with more.

This week, I wanted to do something slightly different, in the sense that – most of the guests I have on are parents themselves. This week though, I wanted to explore a motherhood choice of a different kind: Choosing not to become a parent. And when I polled listeners to see who to speak to on this, hundreds of you suggested the brilliant Vicki Notaro. I've known Vicki for a long time as we both came up in the magazine industry at the same time, and I've known she was child-free by choice for a long time too. I firmly believe that some of the best mothering I've ever witnessed has some from people who haven't got a child of their own, but aside from that, I really wanted to know Vicki's take on choosing a child-free life, and to talk to her about how that choice is as valid a motherhood decision as any. We were both very sensitive to the fact that becoming a mother is a choice denied to many, but we also explore the societal norms and pressures that child-bearing can place on women, and how Vicki's relationships have been affected by her stance on the issue of having or not having kids. So yes, this isn't the typical everymum episode, but it is absolutely brilliant and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it. Back next week with more!

My guest today is someone who’s lived through more than most of us can imagine, and yet meets the world with such calm, strength, and self-awareness, you’d never know it at first glance. Rachel Purcell might be best known to some as Roz Purcell’s sister, but she is very much her own person. A thoughtful, creative soul who’s been sharing her life online with quiet honesty for years. In 2016, Rachel was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia. She was just 27. And in the years since, she’s gone through a full reshaping - of her health, her relationship to her body, her identity, and her priorities. Now, she’s entering a totally new chapter: pregnancy. Rachel is currently expecting her first child, a little boy, and in this conversation, we talk about what it’s been like to move from illness to new life. She opens up about the fear and wonder of early pregnancy, the unexpected time it took to conceive, how her illness determined how long things would take, and how she imagines she might be as a mother. We chat about whether she plans to share her child online, how excited she and her husband Kev are about their new arrival, and how sleep is the thing she's most nervous about when baby arrives. Whether you’re a parent yourself or not, Rachel’s way of thinking about life and how to move through it with such positivity, is something we can all learn from. I'll be back next week with more.

If you've ever found yourself standing in the dark at 3am, gently rocking a baby who absolutely refuses to sleep, or you’ve spent hours negotiating with a toddler who suddenly needs water, a story, and three extra hugs, you are definitely not alone. Sleep deprivation is one of the hardest parts of early parenthood, and despite all the books, blogs and unsolicited advice, it can feel like no one really has the answer. That’s why I’m so excited about today’s guest: Ursula Quinn is a certified sleep consultant and a mam of three who works with families to restore something many of us take for granted, our all-important rest. Ursula didn’t start out in this line of work. In fact, like so many of us, she found herself utterly overwhelmed when her own children weren’t sleeping, and traditional advice just wasn’t cutting it. That frustration, and the fog of exhaustion, eventually led her to retrain, diving deep into the science of sleep and the emotional realities of family life. What sets Ursula apart is her incredibly compassionate, baby-led approach. She understands that there’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to sleep, which is why I didn't ask her specific, practical advice in this episode – what works for one won't work for another. But whether she’s helping with gentle sleep shaping for newborns, tackling toddler bedtime battles, or supporting parents who are just done, she brings evidence-based tools, empathy, and zero judgment to every conversation. So whether you're just trying to survive the newborn blur or you're ready to make some gentle changes that work for your family, we’ve got you covered in this episode. I'll be back next week with more.

My brilliant guest this week is Dr Afif El-Khuffash, a neonatologist and professor of paediatrics who has also just completed a degree in Cyberpsychology too. Afif is also a fellow podcast host, and has a huge interest in how we all interact and engage online. Even though my little girl is only four, I'm already worrying about the inevitability of her being online eventually, whether that's on an iPad in the short term or longer term on a smartphone when she's older. So my conversation with Afif was around that topic – what is the best way to help your child stay safe and happy online. We talk about misinformation, explaining to your children that everything they see online is not necessarily real, and the most important thing – how to ensure the lines of safe communication are open between you and your child. No matter what age your child is there are challenges online, from bullying to harassment to accessing content that's not appropriate for their age – it's actually so scary what young children can be exposed to sometimes – so this conversation made me feel so much better and I hope you'll get some comfort from it. Enjoy the episode and talk to you again next week!