In this episode, we explore how doulas or birthkeepers can be so powerful and helpful during the birthing and postpartum experience with Leonora Ilovea Willis.

Leonora is a native-born Samoan, born on the island of Tutuila in the great Pacific ocean, but who is practicing and working in diaspora as a Birthkeeper, childbirth educator, lactation education specialist, perinatal yoga teacher and bodyworker, serving her community in Oakland and the greater Bay Area. She owns and operates her own birthwork business called Daughter of Samoa, which is part of the title of a book that an ancestor wrote and published in 1889, The Story of Lauli’i, A Daughter of Samoa.

We talk to Leonora about:

• The importance of having a postpartum plan and community
• Generational trauma to be addressed before motherhood
• Why it is important to have cultural congruency in birth work
• Where the word "doula" comes from and the importance of language to describe birthkeepers
• What the difference between a doula/birthkeeper is versus a midwife
• What kind of systemic level changes would be ideal

Leonora humbly and graciously imparts her wisdom and experience of the birthkeeping world with us and we hope this episode can help others learn more about the power and importance of working with a birthworker or building a postpartum team with intention.

Find more of Leonora at:
Website: https://leonorawillis.life/
IG: @daughter_of_samoa
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/daughterofsamoa/

Resources:
Leonora's ancestor's book: The Story of Lauli'i, A Daughter of Samoa
Tema Mercado, midwife from San Diego
Healing the Tigress Episode 32-- Expecting the Unexpected: A Realistic Look at Ways to Prepare for Postpartum

Note: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. If you need more support or advice, please reach out to your own medical professional who can answer your questions with your individual medical history and background in context.

Please take a moment to RATE and REVIEW our show if you enjoy the episodes we bring to you! It helps others to find our show when you do. Thanks so much! =)

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May is AAPI Heritage Month and also Maternal Mental Health month, and what better cross section to represent these things than our podcast! For this special month, we have the absolute pleasure and honor of interviewing Dr. Jenny T. Wang, PhD. Many of you may know of Dr. Jenny, but for those who do not, she is a Taiwanese American clinical psychologist speaker, and author on the intersections of Asian American identity, mental health, and intergenerational trauma.

We were able to talk to Dr. Jenny about her own experiences with her mental health during her postpartum periods, as well other topics on parenting and breaking generational cycles. In this episode, we also discuss:

• How to start doing the inner work to heal your inner child before one can break generational cycles
• What is the inner child?
• How to stop self-sacrificing 100% so you can balance valuing your children AND your hobbies, career, and other relationships
• How to preserve some of our AAPI cultural values while parenting in a way that feels better to us
• How to resist the "tiger mom" impulses to criticize and judge our children
• How to have the self-compassion and wisdom to prioritize our mental health as children of immigrants who did not have this modeled to us
• What we can be doing to help our AAPI youth in their mental health as according to CDC data from 2018–2022, "suicide was the leading cause of death among Asian Americans aged 15–24, and the second leading cause of death among Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders"

Dr. Jenny's answers are thought-provoking, profound, and wise, and we hope that you will enjoy this conversation as much as we found it healing too. This is one to bookmark to come back to over and over again!

Find more of Dr. Jenny Wang:

Instagram: @asiansformentalhealth
Website: www.jennywangphd.com
Book: Permission to Come Home: Reclaiming Mental Health as Asian Americans

Dr. Jenny founded the Instagram community Asians for Mental Health (@asiansformentalhealth), spearheaded several mental health directories like Asians for Mental Health therapist directory, and wrote a best selling book in 2022 titled Permission to Come Home: Reclaiming Mental Health as Asian Americans. Dr. Jenny is also an advisor on the mental health advocacy board of Wondermind, a mental health media company co-founded by Selena Gomez, Mandy Teefey, and Daniella Pierson. She is also an advisory member of the Mental Health Coalition created by Kenneth Cole and on the academic advisory board for the Asian American Foundation focusing on AAPI youth mental health. She has been seen on Good Morning America, New York Times, the Today Show, NBC, NPR, and more.

Resources:

• Asians for Mental Health Therapist Directory
• Beyond the Surface: Understanding Mental Health Among Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Youth (new 2024 research)
  
  

Note: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or profession

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In this heartfelt episode, our guest Elise Ruiz-Hom, a Portland-based new mom, shares the powerful story of her and her wife Lydia’s years-long journey to parenthood. Raised in a multicultural, biracial family in Hawai'i, Elise reflects on how her identity has shaped her worldview—especially as a white-passing Asian woman navigating life on the mainland.

She takes us through their emotional fertility journey: from Lydia’s eight failed IUIs and three rounds of IVF—including traumatic procedures and heartbreaking losses—to Elise’s smoother journey to pregnancy after just two IUIs. With raw honesty, Elise opens up about grief, guilt, and healing, the importance of cultural roots in building their family, and how their son Chaves finally brought their dream to life. This is a story about building a family with intention, love, and deep resilience, navigating both the healthcare system and cultural roots as two LGBTQ mothers.

Resources:

Postpartum Support International Queer & Trans Parent Support Group

Connect with Elise:

Instagram: @juxtapose53

Note: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. If you need more support or advice, please reach out to your own medical professional who can answer your questions with your individual medical history and background in context.

Please take a moment to RATE and REVIEW our show if you enjoy the episodes we bring to you! It helps others to find our show when you do. Thanks so much! =)

Lastly, check us out on Patreon for more exclusives and to support us more! patreon.com/healingthetigresspodcast

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Among our AAPI community, it can feel like not enough people talk about the neurodivergent population and how it can impact their families and communities because of a heavy stigma–a stigma that echoes the one around talking about mental health. Our guest for this episode is Clarissa Chui, LCSW, a second generation Chinese American therapist, who works as care coordinator with families who have children diagnosed on the spectrum--specifically autism spectrum.

We talk about how her own postpartum journey led her to work with other parents who need more support with their children. Clarissa breaks down what it means to be neurodivergent and something she says is, "Neurodivergence is a description not a diagnosis." We explore how AAPI folks might potentially receive the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) with more resistance. We discuss what is needed on a macro level to support parents of neurodivergent children and Clariassa shares a few resources that parents can look into now too. We also talk about how people can support friends with kids of neurodivergent children.

Overall, we hope this episode can be a resource for parents of neurodivergent kids or people who want to support their friends who may be parents of neurodivergent children. We know it can feel lonely in this journey, but you are deserving of support and you are never alone.

Resources (CA):

• Regional Center
• UC Davis Mind Institute
• UCLA Center for Autism Research and Treatment (CART)
• Disability Rights California

Nationwide Resources:

• Autism Speaks
• National Autism Center
• National Autism Resources
• Book: The Science of Making Friends
• Central Reach Podcast:
• How to Tell Your Child About Their Autism Diagnosis - Child Mind Institute
• Parents Helping Parents

Find More of Clarissa:
Psychology Today profile

Note: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. If you need more support or advice, please reach out to your own medical professional who can answer your questions with your individual medical history and background in context.

Please take a moment to RATE and REVIEW our show if you enjoy the episodes we bring to you! It helps others to find our show when you do. Thanks so much! =)

Lastly, check us out on Patreon for more exclusives and to support us more! patreon.com/healingthetigresspodcast

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Of all the perinatal mental health disorders, postpartum psychosis is considered a medical emergency and absolutely requires treatment. It affects 1 to 2 in 1000 mothers and is often misunderstood.

On this episode, our guest is Jigyna Patel, a South Asian mom of 3 girls from Houston, Texas. Her perinatal story spans over 10 years, including many different layers: the cultural stigma South Asians mom feel, the struggles of having a surprise twin pregnancy, being undiagnosed with postpartum psychosis, and having fertility issues while having PCOS.

After her severe experience with 3 different perinatal mental health disorders (PMHDs), it has become her passion to spread awareness and knowledge of maternal mental health. Jigyna developed postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety, and postpartum psychosis in 2014 and then postpartum depression and anxiety again in 2019 with her twins.

We talk with Jigyna about how her traumatic birth and lack of sleep may have contributed to her PMHDs the first time around. She shares how she started to lose speech, stop seeing color, and hallucinate but she never knew these were symptoms of psychosis. Jigyna didn't know how to explain these symptoms to providers out of fear and the stigma in South Asian culture around mental health struggles.

This episode dives into how Jigyna finally learned she had postpartum psychosis (years later) and how she recovered and received treatment. We discuss cultural barriers that she had to overcome and what work still needs to be done to support moms with postpartum psychosis, especially being a person of color. We hope this episode will help others feel seen if this experience resonates with you or for providers to learn more about the experience of postpartum psychosis, especially from the perspective of an AAPI mom.

Find more of Jigyna:
Instagram: instagram.com/jigyna525
Email: jpatelpsihouston@gmail.com

Jigyna has a degree from the University of Houston with a bachelors in Communications. Her career background is in Public Relations and Event Planning. She holds several different volunteer roles within in PSI such as the Houston & Hindu support coordinator, a peer in the peer mentor program, and a member of the postpartum psychosis taskforce. Recently, she joined the Texas Chapter as a board member for 2025 as well became a project manager for The Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health. Jigyna is also sharing her story through digital platforms such as The Moth and Storycenter and has been a speaker at the annual PSI conference in 2023 and 2024 on her lived experience with postpartum psychosis.

Note: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. If you need more support or advice, please reach out to your own medical professional who can answer your questions with your individual medical history and background in context.

Please take a moment to RATE and REVIEW our show if you enjoy the episodes we bring to you! It helps others to find our show when you do. Thanks so much! =)

Lastly, check us out on Patreon for more exclusives and to support us more! patreon.com/healingthetigresspodcast

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

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On today's episode, we sit down and talk about breastfeeding and mental health with Anhoni Patel, the founder of the popular Mrs. Patel's Ayurvedic Treats and Teas for lactation and pregnancy support. Anhoni started her small business in 2012 while 4 months postpartum with her second child to make Ayurvedic inspired treats and teas to support pregnancy, lactation, and women's health. She shares with us how these time-tested Ayurvedic recipes have been passed down for generations in her family and how the company is named after her mother.

We discuss how between her Indian mother and Korean mother-in-law, she was able to take advantage of their postpartum traditions that were instrumental to helping her through her postpartum periods. It's possible that the postpartum support provided by her mother and mother-in-law were helpful to preventing postpartum mental health disorders for her. And now Anhoni wants to pass on some of her family's traditions to support other mothers who could benefit from the same kind of generational nurturing she so appreciated from her own mother.

Through working with many families over the years, Anhoni has heard about many breastfeeding journeys. Her biggest message is that your breastfeeding journey is truly a very individual choice and that every mom needs to do what's right for her family. She believes maternal mental health is quintessential above all and that no drop of breastmilk is more important than having mom be well enough to be the captain of her ship.

We all firmly believe in "fed is best" and "support is best" to help women on their feeding journeys, whatever that looks like for each individual. So hopefully this episode can validate your choices in your feeding journey and potentially give some ideas for holistic support too, as Mrs. Patel's is based on the idea that food is medicine.

Find more of Anhoni at:
Website: https://www.mrsmilk.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrspatels/

Note: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. If you need more support or advice, please reach out to your own medical professional who can answer your questions with your individual medical history and background in context.

Please take a moment to RATE and REVIEW our show if you enjoy the episodes we bring to you! It helps others to find our show when you do. Thanks so much! =)

Lastly, check us out on Patreon for more exclusives and to support us more! patreon.com/healingthetigresspodcast

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

Support the show

Today's guest is someone Peggy and Jasmine have grown up with in their college years through early adulthood and motherhood, and we were so excited and honored to interview her. You may know her too as one of the OG YouTube content creators, FrmHeadtoToe!

Jen Chae is a Korean American beauty and lifestyle content creator. Over the last 16 years she has cultivated a following of over 2 million followers on her social platforms, sharing everything from makeup tutorials to candid conversations about relationships and motherhood. As one of the first artists to create monolid tutorials for Youtube, she continues to empower others to embrace their own definition of beauty, both inside and out.

On our episode today, Jen shares about the traumatic postpartum period she experienced shortly after giving birth due to tearing, as well as a painful infection that was dismissed at first by their pediatrician. Jen describes how it was hard to ask for help but the moment she tried to advocate for herself, she seemed to be shut down.

We talk about how to protect your mental health during the postpartum period and what kind of support we wish new moms could receive. We talk about how helpful it can be to talk about our experiences to relieve the loneliness of new motherhood. And we also dive into Jen's experience with panic and anxiety attacks that stem back to her early adulthood years when she didn't even have a name for the symptoms.

Finally, we discuss how Jen approaches parenthood now with her kids and honoring their mental health as well as her own. Jen ends this episode with some great words of wisdom about self-compassion and healing in postpartum. We hope you'll love this raw and candid conversation as much as we did; it was such an honor to speak with Jen!

Find more of Jen at:
@frmheadtotoe
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/frmheadtotoe/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frmheadtotoe/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/frmheadtotoe/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jen.chae

Note: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. If you need more support or advice, please reach out to your own medical professional who can answer your questions with your individual medical history and background in context.

Please take a moment to RATE and REVIEW our show if you enjoy the episodes we bring to you! It helps others to find our show when you do. Thanks so much! =)

Lastly, check us out on Patreon for more exclusives and to support us more! patreon.com/healingthetigresspodcast

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

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Last year, a Patreon member suggested that we should have an episode for the expectant new mom that they can refer friends to as a resource, not necessarily focused on just perinatal mental health disorders but how to better prepare for new motherhood in general. We know it can be kind of scary to hear about all the things that could happen and in turn maybe it induces more anxiety instead.

So we made this episode to talk about what we wish we could have done to prepare better for postpartum and what we thought we did that actually helped. But we also wanted to share what joys there are to look forward to because it can be such an overwhelming time trying to prepare for everything.

In this episode we go over:

• The power of having a doula https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10292163/
• Preparing for childbirth
• Tips for preparing for breastfeeding if you want to do it
• Postpartum planning (NESTS)
  • Nutrition
  • Exercise
  • Sleep
  • Time for Self
  • Support
• Setting up boundaries beforehand
• Finding a therapist beforehand (see below)
• The joys of motherhood

Resources:

• Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin
• Mindful Birthing by Nancy Bardacke
• Spinning Babies
• PSI's FREE Postpartum planning class
• PSI's Postpartum Plan Document
• PSI Directory to find a therapist

We aspire for this episode to be helpful and hopeful, and we also hope that it is one you can share with expectant mom friends!

Find more of us:
Instagram:
Podcast: @healingthetigress
Jasmine: @pearlsofjasmine
Peggy: @healingwithpeggy

Note: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. If you need more support or advice, please reach out to your own medical professional who can answer your questions with your individual medical history and background in context.

Please take a moment to RATE and REVIEW our show if you enjoy the episodes we bring to you! It helps others to find our show when you do. Thanks so much! =)

Lastly, check us out on Patreon for more exclusives and to support us more! patreon.com/healingthetigresspodcast

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

Support the show