When you’re caring for everyone, who’s looking after you?

You’re raising kids. Your parents are getting older. Work hasn’t slowed down. The washing still needs doing, dinner still needs making, appointments need organising, someone needs a lift somewhere and somehow you’re meant to look after yourself too.

Welcome to the sandwich generation.

In this episode of The Parts We Hide, Victoria Braithwaite and Dr Pennie Taylor APD talk about what it really feels like to be squeezed between competing responsibilities and why so many people, particularly women, quietly carry an enormous physical and emotional load.

As mothers, business owners and women navigating the competing demands of children, careers and ageing parents, Victoria and Pennie know what it feels like to be caught in the middle. Drawing on their own experience; Victoria supporting families through The Family Cook, and Pennie’s extensive work across health and wellbeing, they unpack the guilt, exhaustion, caring responsibilities and invisible logistics that keep families functioning.

Because sometimes life really is a sh*t sandwich and pretending we’re coping perfectly doesn’t make it any easier.

This is the part we don’t always talk about: what happens when everybody needs something from you at once.

What happens when you're qualified to be in the room, but you're still trying to convince yourself you belong there?

In this episode, Victoria Braithwaite and Dr Pennie Taylor APD are joined by sisters Christina Bruno and Sarah Bettcher, two engineers who have built successful careers in traditionally male-dominated fields.

They take us back to where that sense of belonging can begin, long before the workplace. From growing up playing with Barbies while their brothers built with Lego and Meccano, to arriving at university feeling as though everyone else already knew more, Christina and Sarah reflect on confidence, finding their voices and the pressure to prove themselves.

They share the moments they weren't heard, the meetings where speaking up felt impossible, the interview where Sarah's mind went completely blank and how those experiences have shaped the women and leaders they are today.

But this conversation isn't only about careers.

Christina joins us just two weeks after giving birth, rocking baby Harvey as we talk about motherhood, sleep deprivation, workplace flexibility, supportive partners, mental load, guilt, burnout and the invisible work that continues long after the working day ends.

We also ask what needs to change for the girls coming behind them. How do we encourage girls who love maths, science, building and problem-solving to back themselves? How do leaders create workplaces where quieter voices aren't simply invited into the room, but are actually given the space to be heard?

It's an honest, funny and very real conversation about confidence, careers, motherhood, leadership and learning that sometimes you don't need to become the loudest person in the room.

You just need to know that your voice belongs there.

The Parts We Hide. Because the parts we hide are often the parts that connect us.

Few things attract more judgement than how a mother feeds her baby.

Breast is best. Fed is best. Breastfeeding, formula feeding, combination feeding; behind those simple phrases are women trying to make deeply personal decisions at one of the most vulnerable times of their lives, often without access to all the information they need.

In Fearless Feeding, Charlotte Chambers, part of the first female-owned and operated infant formula company in Australia joins Victoria Braithwaite and Dr Pennie Taylor for an open conversation about infant feeding, motherhood and the judgement that can come with both.

Charlotte shares her own experience of trying to feed a newborn, the challenges that followed and how that lived experience ultimately became the beginning of a business.

Together, they explore the messaging around “breast is best” and “fed is best”, the laws and restrictions surrounding infant formula information and marketing, and an important question: what happens when parents don’t have all the information they need at one of the most vulnerable times of their lives?

How do we make reliable infant-feeding information and support more accessible to new mums? How do we better support women when breastfeeding doesn’t go to plan? And can we have more honest conversations about feeding our babies without judgement, guilt or shame?

Because fearless feeding isn’t about choosing one side or another. It’s about giving women the information, support and confidence they need to make the decision that is right for them and their baby.