The Science of Motherhood

You've packed the hospital bag, set up the nursery, and read all the baby books. But there's one family member who's easy to forget until your newborn actually comes home, and that's your dog. The shift from being the centre of your world to sharing space with a brand new tiny human can be a lot for them to process too.

If you've caught yourself wondering how your dog is going to cope, that instinct is worth listening to. Getting it right comes down to preparation you can start well before your due date, and a few...

Somewhere between announcing baby number two or three and the baby actually arriving, there's a question nearly every mother asks, how do you stop your toddler from resenting the baby. Underneath it sits a quieter fear, that loving a second child might mean taking something away from the first.

Decades of research on sibling adjustment paint a far gentler picture than we once assumed. This transition responds beautifully to preparation, the same way baby's arrival does.

In this episode of The Science of Motherhood, Dr Renee White unpacks how to prepare your toddler for a...

You're sent home with a breast pump after birth and left to work out the rest of your pumping and breastfeeding journey on your own. No one mentions flange size, settings or the fact you might not need to sterilise a single part.

Pumping comes with more variables than most mums are ever told about, and working them out alone in the middle of exhausted, hormonal days makes everything harder than it needs to be. Understanding what actually matters can take a lot of that pressure off.

In this episode of The Science of Motherhood...

You might wonder what a doula actually does, or whether having one is worth it when you've already got a partner and a midwife by your side. There's a lot of noise out there about what the role really involves, and most of it doesn't reflect what a doula is actually there to do. A doula's real job is to be a steady, judgement-free presence, there for exactly what you need and out of the way for the rest.

There's a lot to untangle about where a doula fits, what they actually do in the room, and...

Someone in your life has probably already told you what pregnancy is "supposed" to feel like, whether you asked or not. When what you're going through doesn't line up with that, it's easy to wonder what's wrong with you instead of questioning where that advice even came from.

These are the myths mums are told to accept without question, pulled apart to show what happens to your confidence when you stop challenging them.

In this episode of The Science of Motherhood, Dr Renee White sits down with Dr Emma Black, Clinical and Perinatal Psychologist, to...

Maybe your birth went exactly how everyone told you it should, and you still can't shake the way it made you feel. Maybe it didn't go anywhere near the plan, and somehow you came out the other side feeling strong. Whatever your birth looked like on paper, if it left something behind that you're still carrying, that's worth taking seriously.

This is for you if you've never quite known what to call what happened to you. It's for you if you're getting ready to give birth and want to understand what actually helps when things don't go...

For generations, birth belonged to community, culture and country. That belonging is being reclaimed inside hospital rooms across Australia today, one birth at a time.

That's the belief driving birthing on country, a way of caring for mothers built on trust, culture and community.

In this episode of The Science of Motherhood, Dr Renee White sits down with Melanie Briggs, a proud Dharawal and Gumbaynggirr woman and endorsed midwife who manages the Birthing on Country program at Waminda, to explore what birthing on country truly means. Together they unpack the model's remarkable outcomes, the systemic...

Most mamas picture birth happening in a hospital room, because that's the only version most of us have ever seen. There's another path many don't even know exists.

Hospital can feel like the only option on the table, but there's a wider spectrum of care available than most mums realise.

In this episode of The Science of Motherhood, Dr Renee White sits down with Jaimee Smith, endorsed private midwife and manager of the Launceston Birth Centre. Jaimee shares how relationship based care shapes calmer births and why continuity with the same midwife changes the experience...

You've probably never been told that a private midwife is even an option, not just the hospital care you default to. That gap in information can shape how safe, informed and supported you feel through pregnancy and birth.

This conversation gives you a real look at what private midwifery care involves in practice, from early pregnancy through labour, and why having the same trusted person by your side changes the experience.

This is part one of our six-part Pregnancy and Birth series.

In this episode of The Science of Motherhood, Dr Renee White...

That feeling of not quite recognising yourself after your baby arrives has a biological explanation. Pregnancy reshapes the structure of the brain, and those changes can still be measured years down the track. What you're experiencing is your brain doing exactly what it's built to do.

If you've ever said out loud that you feel like a different person since becoming a mum, you're describing something researchers can now see on a scan. Understanding what's happening in there changes how the whole experience feels.

In this episode of The Science of Motherhood, Dr Renee White...

Your child is banging on the wall, sobbing, and won't let you near them. In that moment, staying calm isn't about having the right words, it's about understanding what's happening in their brain and yours.

This conversation gets into what's happening in your child's brain during a meltdown, and how you can stay regulated enough to help them find their way back.

In this episode of The Science of Motherhood, Dr Renee White sits down with Dr Tina Payne Bryson, New York Times bestselling author of The Whole-Brain Child and founder of The Center for...

Have you ever seen a headline claiming a certain food can boost your fertility and rolled your eyes? You're not wrong to be sceptical, and most of what circulates online about diet and conception is wellness noise dressed up as science.

This time, the science actually holds up. A new 2026 study traces a real, step by step mechanism from what's on your plate to whether an embryo implants.

In this episode of The Science of Motherhood, Dr Renee White breaks down a new mouse study linking dietary fibre, gut bacteria and the uterine immune system...

You've sat through an antenatal appointment focused on blood pressure and bump measurements, wishing there'd been room to talk about how you were actually feeling. Midwives want that room too, working inside appointments measured in minutes. There's real momentum building to bring emotional wellbeing further into that time together.

Two researchers went looking at exactly what that momentum looks like in practice, and how to act on it without asking midwives to find time they don't have.

In this episode of The Science of Motherhood, Dr Renee White sits down with Lesley Pascuzzi, childbirth educator...

Your parents or your in-laws are going to tell you they did things differently and you turned out fine, right in the middle of a conversation about sleep safety or feeding choices, and you can feel the eye roll building before they've even finished the sentence. Their love is real, and you don't have to brace for it each time they visit.

In this episode of The Science of Motherhood, Dr Renee White unpacks what grandparents and in-laws genuinely need to know before the baby arrives, cutting through outdated advice to share what the current evidence actually...

The mental and emotional weight of trying to conceive doesn't disappear once you're pregnant, or once the baby arrives. For many women, it quietly shapes everything that comes after.

Sometimes the hardest part isn't the fertility treatment itself. It's carrying the aftermath of it into motherhood without anyone acknowledging that you went through something significant to get there.

In this episode of The Science of Motherhood, Dr Renee White sits down with Dr Edna Lekgabe, certified perinatal and reproductive psychiatrist practising in Melbourne, to explore the mental health dimensions of the trying to conceive journey...

The emotional side of a fertility journey is real, and it's the part that often goes unspoken. You can walk into treatment prepared with every medical question imaginable and still feel blindsided by the weight of the waiting, the uncertainty, and the grief that can come when things don't go to plan.

That gap deserves more airtime than it gets.

In this episode of The Science of Motherhood, Dr Renee White sits down with Dr Giselle Crawford, fertility specialist and gynaecologist with more than ten years of experience in obstetrics, gynaecology, and infertility care, to...

If you've been trying to conceive for a while, you've probably found yourself down a research rabbit hole at some point, reading forum threads at midnight and trying to decode acronyms you barely know. IVF, IUI, FSH, ICSI. The information is out there, but it doesn't always feel like it was written for you.

Understanding the difference between your options, and knowing the right questions to ask, can make a conversation with a fertility specialist feel far less overwhelming.

In this episode of The Science of Motherhood, Dr Renee White sits down with Dr Denise...

You've probably been told to "just relax" at some point on your fertility journey. Maybe by a friend, a family member, or even a health professional. And if you're anything like most people trying to conceive, you probably wanted to throw something at them.

That advice isn't just unhelpful. It's both slightly right and completely missing the point.

In this episode, Dr Renee White unpacks the real science behind stress, mindfulness, and fertility, cutting through the noise to tell you what the evidence actually supports, what it doesn't, and what's genuinely worth trying.

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Most of us weren't taught that what happens before conception matters. You were told to take a folate supplement, book in when you got a positive test, and go from there. But there's a window of time before you even start trying that can shape not just your pregnancy, but your child's long-term health.

The science on preconception care has moved significantly, and most people still aren't hearing about it.

This is Part 2 of our six-part Trying to Conceive series.

In this episode of The Science of Motherhood, Dr Renee White sits down...

Fertility preparation begins months, sometimes years, before you start trying to conceive. Knowing what to look for, and when, could change the entire shape of your conception journey.

If you've ever wondered whether your body is actually ready for pregnancy, or whether there's something your results aren't telling you, this conversation will change how you think about your health.

In this episode, Dr Renee White sits down with Megan Haralampou, degree-qualified Naturopath, Nutritionist, and Biomedical Science graduate, to unpack what a truly comprehensive pre-conception blood panel looks like and why the standard tests often aren't...

Have you ever been so sick in pregnancy that you couldn't keep water down, lost weight, or ended up in hospital wondering how your body was supposed to sustain a baby when it couldn't sustain itself? If that's your story, or the story of someone you love, you've probably also been told at some point that it was stress, anxiety, or something you just needed to push through.

It wasn't. And the science has finally caught up with what HG patients have been saying for decades.

In this episode, Dr Renee White unpacks the genetic...

⚠️ Content note: This episode contains discussions of sexual assault, suicide, and depression.

If you've been through fertility treatment, you already know it's more than a medical process. It's months, sometimes years, of appointments and numbers and waiting, with very little space given to how you're actually doing.

There's research showing that nearly 50% of people in fertility treatment develop PTSD, regardless of whether they get pregnant. Not because they're fragile. Because the system they're moving through wasn't built with their nervous system in mind.

In this episode of The Science of Motherhood, Dr Renee Whit...

Does it feel like your body hasn't quite come back together yet after you've had your baby? That clicking, that instability, that sense that your hips or knees might give way. It's not in your head, and it's not a sign that something is wrong.

So many mums are told that by six weeks, things should be settling. But if you're still breastfeeding and still feeling like your body doesn't quite belong to you yet, that timeline was never based on what your hormones are actually doing.

In this episode, Dr Renee White unpacks why...

If you're neurodivergent, the maternity system wasn't built with your brain in mind. The appointments, the environments, the cognitive load of it all. Nobody tells you that's why it feels harder than it should. They just hand you the same pamphlet and send you on your way.

That gap matters even more when you're navigating pregnancy, birth and early parenting. It's not just your body being stretched. It's every system you've built to keep yourself functioning.

In this episode of The Science of Motherhood, Dr Renee White sits down with Jennifer Curtis, registered occupational therapist...

Nobody tells you that the struggles so many neurodivergent women experience during pregnancy, birth, and early motherhood might be connected to how their brain is wired. Because so often, nobody knows. Not the healthcare providers, and not the mothers themselves.

That missing language doesn't just delay a diagnosis. It delays understanding, support, and the ability to make sense of your own experience.

In this episode of The Science of Motherhood, Dr Renee White chats with Linda Hollenberg, Autistic mother, research advisor, and learning coordinator and parent educator for Reframing Autism, to explore what pregnancy, birth...

Most women who are autistic don't find out until they're sitting in a room watching their child get diagnosed. And then everything clicks.

And yet most of them navigated pregnancy and early parenthood without any evidence-based support specific to their experience, often without even knowing why things felt so much harder.

In this episode of The Science of Motherhood, Dr Renee White sits down with Dr Abbey Love, Educational Psychologist and Research Fellow at Autism Spectrum Australia, to explore the lived experiences of autistic parents through the perinatal period and the research that led to...

You survived birth, the sleepless nights and the newborn haze. And then somewhere around three or four months in, you reach up to wash your hair and pull your hand away covered in it.

It's alarming, and for most of us, nobody warned us it was coming.

This episode is for every mum who has stood over the shower drain wondering if something is seriously wrong. It isn't. But understanding the biology behind what's happening makes it so much easier to move through.

This is part of The Science Behind series, where Dr...

We've known for decades that breastfeeding is associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer. What we've never fully understood is why.

That question is what makes this research so significant.

In this episode of The Science of Motherhood, Dr Renee White sits down with Professor Sherene Loi, Medical Oncologist and Group Leader at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, to discuss a landmark paper published in Nature that identifies the immune mechanism behind that long-observed link. Together they explore how pregnancy and breastfeeding appear to reprogram the breast's immune environment in ways that...

If you've ever been nap trapped and spent the whole time quietly worrying that you're creating a dependency your baby will never grow out of, this one's for you. What's actually happening in your baby's brain while they sleep on your chest is one of the most compelling pieces of science in early infancy, and you deserve to know it.

This episode is for every mum who has sat there convinced she should be doing something more productive, or that the way her baby sleeps is somehow a problem she created. Understanding the biology behind contact napping...

Most conversations about maternal mental health start in the same place: the one in five women who experience postnatal depression or anxiety. But what about the other four in five? What are we doing to help them thrive?

It is a question that stops you in your tracks, because most of us have never thought to ask it.

In this episode Dr Renee White sits down with Lesley Pascuzzi, an Applied Psychologist and PhD candidate at Curtin University whose research focuses on optimising the mental health and emotional wellbeing of women on their journey to...

If you've just had your baby and your milk hasn't arrived yet, the first thing to know is that your body is not failing you. It's actually doing something remarkably complex behind the scenes, and most people, including most healthcare providers, never take the time to explain what that actually looks like.

This episode is for every mum who has found herself Googling this question at 2am, wondering if something has gone wrong. It hasn't. But understanding the biology of what's happening can make all the difference in how you feel about it.

This is...

Have you been to your six-week checkup and walked out with only a script for the pill? Or found yourself wondering what your actual options are now that you've had a baby?

This week, Dr Renee White sits down with Dr Natasha Vavrek, women's health GP and clinical director at The Bubble, to break down all the contraceptive options available after birth. Not just the pill. Everything.

This conversation started from a real question from a listener who felt her options weren't fully discussed at her six-week check. So Natasha walks through what's actually available...

Have you ever wondered why some Australian families travel overseas for surrogacy? Or been confused by headlines about proposed payments for surrogates and whether that crosses a line?

Australia's surrogacy laws have been called "confusing, restrictive, and not fit for purpose." Now there's talk of reform, including monthly payments to surrogates. But it raises questions about whether we're finally acknowledging the labour involved, or creating new problems.

In this episode, Dr Renee White explores Australia's proposed surrogacy law reforms and sits with some uncomfortable questions that don't have simple answers. Like whether it's more exploitative...

You've heard breastfeeding protects against allergies and asthma. But have you ever wondered what's actually happening inside your baby's body to make that possible?

It's one of those things people say all the time, but rarely explain. And when you're in the thick of feeding, you deserve more than soundbites.

In this episode, Dr Renee White sits down with Dr Toby Mansell, a researcher from the Murdoch Children's Research Institute here in Australia. His team studied nearly 900 babies from pregnancy through childhood, and what they found is genuinely fascinating.

Together they talk about...

If you’re staring at a breast pump late at night and wondering how this is meant to work once you’re back at work, you’re not alone.

Returning to work while breastfeeding is one of the most common and least supported transitions in early motherhood. It’s practical, emotional and deeply personal. Many mums feel caught between feeding their baby, returning to their role at work and trying to hold onto a sense of themselves in the process.

In this episode of The Science of Motherhood, Dr Renee White offers a calm, evidence-informed conversa...

Breastfeeding is often spoken about as something that should feel natural, intuitive, and just click. But for many mums, the reality looks very different.

Pain that doesn’t settle. A baby who feels tense, sleepy, or unsettled at the breast. And a quiet question running in the background, why is this so hard for us?

In this episode of The Science of Motherhood, Dr Renee White sits down with Emily Jones, an Advanced Paediatric Osteopath, IBCLC Lactation Consultant, mother, and founder of Align & Nurture, to unpack what’s happening beneath the surface when feeding feels chal...

Have you ever wondered why you’re still so hungry after having a baby, or why postpartum recovery feels heavier than you expected?

For many mums, the early months after birth are a mix of healing, feeding, broken sleep and trying to make sense of advice that often feels confusing or contradictory. Especially when food and blood sugar have already felt closely monitored during pregnancy.

This episode is part of The Science of Motherhood Summer Series, where Dr Renee White revisits some of your most listened to conversations, the ones that help you feel calmer, mo...

Have you ever wondered if you’re doing something wrong because your baby won’t sleep the way you were told they “should”?

Because it’s not just the broken sleep.

It’s the pressure. The timelines. The numbers. The feeling that everyone else has it figured out, and you somehow missed the memo.

This episode is part of The Science of Motherhood Summer Series, where Dr Renee White revisits some of your favourite conversations, the ones that made you feel calmer, more informed, and less alone.

In this replay, Renee is joined by...

Have you ever googled something at 2am and walked away feeling more confused than before?

Feeding and sleep advice can be loud, conflicting, and often loaded with unnecessary pressure, especially in the early weeks when you’re already tired and trying to figure everything out as you go.

This episode is part of The Science of Motherhood Summer Series, where Dr Renee White revisits some of your favourite conversations, the ones that made you feel calmer, more informed, and less alone.

In this replay, Renee chats with Melissa Hays, international board certified lactation co...

Have you ever felt like becoming a mum changed more than your daily routine? Like it changed you?

If you’ve felt a shift in your identity, confidence, or sense of self since having a baby, this episode will put words to it.

This episode opens The Science of Motherhood Summer Series, where Dr Renee White revisits some of your favourite episodes, the ones that made you feel seen, understood, and less alone in your motherhood journey.

In this replay, Renee sits down with Lucy Jones, science writer and author of Matrescence: On th...