Life Uncut - A Premature Baby, Living Away From Family and 'Bouncing Back' Culture. Uncut with Sheri!

Episode Date: January 8, 2025

Today's episode is a special bonus episode with Britt's sister Sheri!We put a call out a little while ago and Sheri was one of the most requested guests so we thought it was time to get a bit of a life update! Since we last had Sheri on the podcast, her and her husband have moved over to Scotland and had their first baby Maya. Maya was born 5-7 weeks premature. We asked Sheri: How are you going wearing hearing aids now? Do you feel stigma about being so young? How does Sheri feel about Britt's long distance relationship and pending marriage? What made you want to move overseas and did you feel guilty being so far away from family? Their pregnancy journey Maya's birth story What was the best gift you were given after birth? Have you lost much of your identity since becoming a mum? How did you navigate getting 'back' nutrition and exercise?    You can find Sheri's Instagram and Strive here. You can listen to Sheri's previous episodes with us:Talking Diet Culture and Nutrition with Sheri Hockley You can watch us on Youtube Find us on Instagram Join us on tiktok Or join the Facebook Discussion Group Tell your mum, tell your dad, tell your dog, tell your friend and share the love because WE LOVE LOVE! xxSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hi guys, and welcome back to another episode of Life Uncut. I'm Brittany, and today we have something a little bit different. There is no Laura on the podcast. So a couple of months ago, I put a call out on my Instagram and I said, Hey, who do you guys want us to interview and there were actually hundreds of responses but overwhelmingly my sister Sherry came through as one of the top people that you guys wanted to hear from. So just to set this up if you've been with Life Uncut a long time you'll know who Sherry is. Sherry has been a part of the Life Uncut family from the very beginning. She's been working behind the scenes, she's been in the Facebook group, everyone in the discussion group knows her. She's come on the podcast quite a few

times because she's a nutritionist. On Instagram she's Sherry Health and we have done an episode on nutrition with Sherry before. She's also popped into another episode to talk about hearing loss because Sherry wears hearing aids and is very slowly going deaf. So today I am very happy to be sitting directly across from Sherry in Romania recording this episode for you. Sherry, welcome to Life Uncut again. Thank you, Britt. Happy to be here in Romania. Yeah, I know, so random. We haven't seen each other for six months and in that time you've had a baby. You've had your first baby daughter, Maya, who is my new niece. I'm obsessed with her. I just met her a few days ago. So a lot of this podcast today is going to be talking about that life over here and your birth

story and what it's like being a new mum. But we're going to go back to the start and you are no exception to the rule we start every interview with an accidentally unfiltered and you know that oh no I do know that so you should have been prepared I know I can't escape it I think a few years ago what episode what accidentally unfiltered did you say I am just trying to think I think that I told the story sorry Jay about when we used coconut oil as lube which is fine which is fine it's great it's really nice and oily but it was kept in a Tupperware container in my bedroom and I didn't realize that mold like black mold had grown in the Tupperware container and then it's so disgusting because she was in the dark we were mid-deed and Jay's like baby really like

there's you're really bitty like there's bits all over you and we put the light on and in me on me all around me was chunks of black mold so he was like eating black mold off and out of you it's actually so disgusting like it's vomitous and he could probably get really sick from that i really try not to think about that time of my life well what is your new accidentally unfiltered my new accidentally unfiltered i've really had to think about this i don't think i've said this one on the podcast but it is an old accidentally unfiltered it was and you'll remember brit like i mean you'll never forget when you got a liver parasite in south america and then i got the same liver parasite and we were both so sick well for years like you were sick for years so was i

and it was like peak ibs territory for me i have ibs very well managed now but years and years ago when we first got back from south america it was it was horrific like we both couldn't leave the house without needing emergency toilet stops we were it was it was awful oh yeah we were we were proper sick but we didn't know there was a parasite living inside of us just having a field day liver parasite the egg sulfur burps if you remember okay we don't need to go there anyway i was camping and it was the middle of the night and I woke up pitch dark and something just it just didn't feel right you know when you get your period in the middle of the night and you wake up and you know because it's a little bit moist it's a bit yeah you feel it you can feel it I

don't know what possessed me in the middle of the night to think shit I've got my period but how do I know because in the tent yeah because you're in a sleeping bag I don't know what possessed me to do this so I kind of reached down to just have like a little feel what we're gonna do I don't I don't know what I was going to do. I don't know what I was going to do. I was in this tent and I pulled my hand out and I – I don't live up to telling this. I had pooed myself.

In my sleep without even knowing, this parasite slash IBS has just wreaked havoc on me. It was horrific. And now it's on your hand. And I have like one of my very best friends, Rachel, shout out for the real MVP of this story. I woke her up and I told her what had happened. And she said, I thought a baby in the next tent had shit itself.

Well, she could smell it. She, bless her, she unzipped the sleeping bag. She got me up. She put pants on me because I didn't have pants on. Sure, you're making it sound like you've been out in the drink all night. She got me up. Like, you just had shit on your hand. She got me dressed.

Get yourself up. And I made it to the toilet. We're in a campground. I should have clarified that. It was like the end of a four-day camping fest. So we'd been in the bush eating, like, you know, dried food and all that. and we're in a campground and I made it to the toilet and had a shower but that is by and large like the most embarrassing story and you've never told anyone until this day and then you've gone

full hog and you say I've gone full hog and I've told the world no I don't think I've told anybody I've never told anyone I was gonna take it to the grave and you pulled it out of me on podcast okay well lest we forget let's crack on to some of the questions so we did this a little bit different and we asked you guys to send in questions that you wanted to speak to Sherry about. And as I said, most of it is about her birth story, living overseas and coming into this new chapter of life away from your family. And you did come into this new chapter of life in a bit of a different way. It was very quick and it was far sooner than you thought. But there were some other questions that people sent in that we'll quickly get to before we get into the birth

story. Hit me. Okay. So a lot of people wanted you to expand a little bit on your hearing loss. so you wear hearing aids talk to us about how old you were for those that haven't listened to the episode we did a few years ago how old you were when you started to feel like something was wrong I'm actually trying to remember it was actually you and my now husband Jay that picked up on it so I think I must have been mid-20s when people started noticing it was more like you and he were saying like oh my god you are so deaf like I can't hear anything you're saying more of a joke yeah like a joke like can you turn your put your listening ears on ha ha ha yeah what are you deaf and and then you were like yeah it's like well actually I might be and so like you guys made

me go to the the hearing test place the hearing place and they did the hearing test and they said yeah you're like 45 if we had to put a number on it you're 45 percent deaf and that was mid-20s when I noticed and then they said like you can get hearing aids but you know like we kind of recommend wait until it's so bad that you really need them like you don't have to get them right now. You're still managing. I was still managing through my daily life. I was working at the hospital back then and I was still getting by. And then it was a few years later then I was struggling at work. We did so much theatre work and you'd have a mask on. Surgeons had masks on and I couldn't hear what anyone was telling me what to do. Yeah, we'd be in the operating theatres

because we were working as emergency radiographers. So we were in the theatres and you'd have to wear masks all the time. So when someone's trying to talk to you, you can't lip read because they have a mask on. Yeah, exactly. And I think I realized how much I was relying on, you know, social cues and body language and lip reading to figure it out. And so that's kind of when I went back and I said to them, like, I really need, I think I need hearing aids. Lol. I did not think I'd be saying that at, you know, my late twenties, 29, I think I was when I got my hearing aids. No, I was in the bachelor. So I remember I went into the bachelor mansion and you were fine slash didn't have hearing aids. And I came out three months later and you had hearing aids and I was

29 30 so you were like 27 wow yeah so you were quite young yeah and then what has it been like dealing with I guess the stigma attached to being so young and wearing hearing aids like did you experience different treatment from anyone did you feel like people looked at you differently was it more internal like a little a bit of an internal battle to be like wow I'm in my 20s and all of a sudden I'm wearing hearing aids I actually think I have a really good relationship with that. I expected to feel like that, but I actually don't. And I know a lot of people do because I have spoken about this on my Instagram and I have had so many young women message me saying like, thank you so much. I was so embarrassed or, you know, my daughter needs hearing aids and

they were so embarrassed. You know, I never forget this young girl and I actually think she's a lifer messaged me and said, I need hearing aids and I have not been wearing them to school because I was so embarrassed and she was struggling through her lessons and when she saw me post about it and how normal it was and how cute and rechargeable they are that she started wearing them to school and like that absolutely broke my heart that she felt like that I think that stigma is stigma that we put on ourselves I think realistically if you go out into the world people are not bullying grown adults for wearing hearing aids people don't even notice them they're so small and rechargeable the technology is insane these days I don't know unless I have my hair pulled back really tightly

you can't even see that they're there. You do have the Rolls Royce of hearing aids though. Like if you have your hair up, I can't see them. I can't see when you're wearing them. Yeah, they're amazing. They're insane. I can tell when you're not wearing them because everything's like, huh? Like even now you just said, can you hear Maya crying? And we're in the podcast room and I can't even hear my own child. I shouldn't laugh about that. Well, she is with Jay. She's with her dad. Don't worry guys. Yeah, she's fine. But she is crying. She has just stopped. But it's funny because obviously Sherry's wearing headphones now to do this episode, which means she takes the hearing aids out so that's interesting that you can't even hear her crying in the next room

has it gotten worse has your hearing loss gotten worse yes 100 it's definitely getting worse and I will never go completely deaf it will get to a point and sort of stop like I will never not be able to hear anything at all but it will get progressively worse and it has gotten progressively worse and it's more different it's different pitches and things that I can't hear so I can tell when someone's talking but I can't hear exactly what they've said or I will miss the beginning and the end of the word and you would know like it interprets for me all the time yeah I used to be well before you had the hearing aids as well and then at the start when you weren't sure you used to speak people would think that you were like rude overbear like an overbearing

sister like let you let her talk kind of thing because I know that when I haven't heard a question you would answer on my behalf to try and like seamlessly slide in like when someone says well what do you guys fancy for dinner and instead of me just being rude and ignoring the person you would say oh we would love to have pizza well yeah I could tell when Sheridan hadn't heard and I could sometimes the person would ask a few times and I could still tell you hadn't heard and sometimes you would look at them and just because how many times can you say like pardon before you know like a knob but then sometimes you would take a guess and you'd be like I'm gonna guess that they've just said something funny and then you just have a laugh you'd be like oh yes and

You'd laugh and you haven't answered their question. So I would answer on your behalf and I would always be able to interpret and follow these conversations for Sherry. But then I think people used to think that I was like just speaking for you because no one knew you were deaf. Well, we didn't even really know you were properly deaf then. We knew you were deaf unofficially. So that, yeah, that was a couple of tricky years

where people just thought I was a crazy overbearing sister. Yes. But I was like, I will ride for you at dawn. We ride at dawn. We march at dawn. We march at dawn. I will protect you. So our other brother, Mitch, he also has hearing aids.

he lost his hearing at the same time I don't even really know the answer to this question but have they told you that it is genetic because we can't surely we're not all I'm in the process of getting mine tested you are not far behind me yeah I'm going to geneticist because I'm also going deaf but mine isn't as bad as Mitch and Sherry so I can still hear a lot better than you can but it's definitely deteriorating so what have they said to you about it they have said that it is hereditary hearing loss and that it will gradually decline up until a point. So if they said that basically I have the hearing of, if I was to naturally decline, I have the hearing of a mid 60 year old person. So I can still hear, if I'm face to face, I can have a conversation with

you. But if you're standing behind me, I won't hear you. If there's loud music, I won't hear you. And it's happening to you. So three out of the four siblings, you know, are hard of hearing. And do you think that that can be passed on to Maya, your daughter? I don't actually know. She passed her hearing test with flying colours. They took all our details, but her hearing so far is great, but so was ours as a kid. So I guess that's across that bridge when we come to it,

if we come to it kind of thing. Well, if anyone has any other hearing questions, they can slide into your DMs and have a chat to you after. But now we're going to move on. There were some questions. I'm only going to give you one or two max because I don't want to talk about bed on this episode. But a lot of questions came through about Ben and my relationship.

So a lot of the questions were, Sherry, what are your thoughts on my long-distance relationship and pending marriage? Which is a funny question. Yeah. Well, first of all, I lulled because it was so on brand. I mean, you guys talk about this all the time on the podcast, but it's so on brand for you to get into a relationship with someone who doesn't live in the country. I know, I know.

Like pre-Ben, you were, and I can say it because I'm his sister, you were such a commitment and phobe that you would intentionally choose people and you wouldn't say this you would say like it just you know it's not for me it's the only person i can find but i think you're intentionally choosing people that were either emotionally or physically unavailable because then you didn't have to commit to them and so i thought initially i was like of course you would meet this guy have a bang fest and then decide to date him when he lives in a different country but then i met ben and i love him i want to preface this with like ben and i are besties like we are such good friends when you're not here we text about you we hang out probably more

than you guys have because ben lived in scotland for so long when i first met him my first impression was that he was so serious and i met ben without you you were in australia and you basically g'd us up to go to lunch together yeah so if you don't know sherry's been living in scotland with her husband jay who is scottish you've been here for a few years and coincidentally they live an hour away from Ben so when Ben and I started dating I was like hey I can't hang out with you but if you want to hang out with my siblings he's like you can have Sherry and her fiance and I didn't actually think you guys I knew you'd hit it off but I wasn't expecting you all to become best friends expecting us to have sleepovers yeah you would go and stay with them for days at a

time and have all these fun adventures together and I was like okay like now I've got FOMO I'm in the relationship and I'm the best friend and the sister and I'm like on the other side of the alone so you you thought he was okay he is very serious he is very serious but now I get his sense of humor it took a while it took a while for me to get like quote unquote to get Ben it's the German and the Europe the wedding how are you looking forward to the wedding I am so excited and I know that people are like just move and be with each other and it's definitely not it's not that easy there's so many things behind the scenes it's not that easy but also it's not forever like this is a just for now kind of situation and I think it suits you both have such busy lives and such

busy jobs and your careers are so important equally to both of you so I think it's really unfair when people are like Brooke just move to Europe like give up your career that you've worked so incredibly hard for it actually really grinds my gears that's just the question that you're supposed to just give up your career to go join Ben like or vice versa like neither of you should have to sacrifice what you worked really really hard for but it's not forever and there will be and inside. And I am so excited for your wedding. Like I'm, mama needs a break. I'm dying. I was about to say, you probably just want to palm me off. I do. I want to palm off my child to anyone who will have her. I want to drink the cocktail. No, you want to palm me off because I've been

single for so long. You've just had to look after me forever. Okay. Let's get into your story the last couple of years. You've been living over in Scotland for two years now. So what made you want to pack up Australia and move over here. So we actually lived here before you and I in Scotland many many years ago and that's where I met Jay my husband if those of you that don't know Jay is my husband he is Scottish. We have made and decided we made the executive decision together that Australia would be our home forever that we wanted to have children there our life would be in Australia. After COVID we really really missed his family and we realized that we didn't get to spend much time with them and that we were going to spend our entire lives back in Australia so

let's do one last one last hurrah because we do that we you know we've done that so many times one last hurrah before we settle down one last hurrah let's go to the UK spend some time with his family before we ultimately proper settle in Australia and that's why we left originally it's funny that we live like that isn't it like everything is oh my god this could be the last time before I have kids and we feel like our life is going to be over like you feel like once you've had a child that's it totally like the traveling doesn't come anymore everything's harder you need a stable position I think that you will be a little bit different maybe because Jay lives overseas I think you'll do a little bit more travel than normal but I feel exactly the same

I'm always like oh I don't think I'm ready for a kid yet like 37 I am I'm not done traveling I was like oh I haven't been to this country yet which is ridiculous because we've traveled for years a lot of people wanted to know about your pregnancy and falling pregnant was it planned did it just happen was it easy were you struggling for a while I actually haven't spoken about this because I I know that fertility and infertility is a really touchy subject for a lot of people and like obviously like the elephant in the room me is the elephant is you right frozen babies that were hard to get I know how difficult it has been and Jay and I decided that we were going to try for a baby this year the goal was to maybe fall pregnant this year 2024 and then go back to

Australia pregnant and have a baby there so Jay and I were actually really really lucky that we fell pregnant really quickly and it's hard to say that because so many people are like it's such an awful thing to talk about when people struggle right well it's not that it's awful it's just that you're hyper aware that it's not as easy for everyone else but you you feel a sense of guilt you feel guilty I felt guilty talking about it but it did happen so fast you were here for Christmas last year and so were mum and dad you know they flew over for two weeks over Christmas and they were staying in our flat which you've been to it is tiny we live in the smallest little flat the walls are thin for two weeks we didn't have sex and then the day they left Jay dropped them

at the airport got home and we went to pound town and that that is we conceived so you conceived you dropped mom and dad at the airport had sex once and then conceived correct I didn't and I actually looked in my app I had been tracking my ovulation the month prior and I think I was on a green day like it was clear like you're not ovulating you're clear for sex and that's when I felt pregnant so I was obviously off slightly because I'd only had you know two months of tracking I think that's interesting too I think so many people swear by tracking like the ovulation app and you're saying that you were not even in the window and still felt pregnant I think from memory I was like the day out like one like the day past ovulation where it's like the chance is

really low yeah and that's the day because we were we were going to wait like another six months to start really trying so I was off the pill which is obviously like you're not trying to not fall pregnant but I wasn't actively we weren't actively having sex during ovulation yeah I remember doing and you told me to I remember when you told me you were pregnant I was here you told me you were pregnant and then I was like man I've been tracking my ovulation and I can't and you were like get some ovulation sticks then I used the ovulation sticks and it did not match my ovulation tracker. Yeah because I said are you actually like doing the wee sticks and you said no I'm just going off the app but that's not that's just a prediction of when you're

ovulating. Yeah but I think that's really important for people to know because a lot of people might not know that I didn't know that I didn't know that the ovulation app could be so far off and that I should be doing those ovulation sticks so I think that that's really a good little life lesson there for someone that doesn't know I'm sure if there's anyone listening that's actively really trying they know you know but I wasn't I guess trying to that level I was more like oh we're in the window like let's go ham yeah and then what was your pregnancy like I also feel guilty about this you're like dream because I had such a unicorn pregnancy so we were we do you remember we were in Paris and I actually found out like we were both saying oh my god I'm so

bloated and I think I'm due to get my period like neither of us really tired we were so exhausted and we were bloated and we both said that we were due to get our period and then we went home and then I was due to go to a bottomless brunch with my friends and I hadn't got my period yet so I thought I better just in case like to rule it out so I can get smashed basically on mimosas and it came back positive and you know my first thought was fuck it's too soon this is not in the plan was my initial reaction and then I had to go tell Jay and he didn't believe me did he not he did not believe me why would he think you were joking because I actually don't know he thought I gave him like a prank pregnancy test I put the whole thing like put it in a little box and let

him open it and I had bought a tiny little onesie of his favorite football team Rangers for like months in advance thinking like one day in the future I might need to give this you know cute like surprise video not thinking I would need it three days three days later oh my god anyway he opened the box and he thought that I had given him a negative test from like months earlier like I done one like earlier at Christmas time so that I could you know drink at Christmas time blah blah blah and he's like it's too soon we've only done it once and I was like because I had told him like it could take us a really long time like you don't know how hard it is for some people like it could take us six months to a year and then it happened once so and then flash

forward seven and a half months you're not quite ready for the baby yet well not at all you haven't set up at all so things no I wasn't ready like I had stuff but the nursery wasn't we don't have a nursery but nothing was set up we don't have a nursery we live in a tiny flat she sleeps in our bedroom. We didn't have a nursery. Nothing was set up. I was still working. I still had five weeks left of work with my nutrition program, Strive, like running a nutrition program for women. I still had five weeks of clients to see. I had not wrapped up work. We were just not ready to have a baby. And then things changed on a dime. All of a sudden I started feeling so awful. And I even said to Jay, I think this baby is going to come early. I started feeling like what I imagine

because I've never made it that far but what I imagine you feel like in those last two weeks of pregnancy when you feel you just feel like shit like everything felt heavy my hips hurt I felt like she was about to fall out of me like I felt awful and I was texting my friends like did you feel like this like I had to stop going to the gym I had to stop everything I couldn't walk and they said yeah but not until like 39 40 weeks and I was only 34 weeks and I went out to the Festival, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, to a comedy show. And laughed so hard she slipped right up. And laughed so hard. I went to the toilet before a show and I had lost my mucus plug, which if you don't know, if you don't know, it's like a giant snot plug that comes out. And I was like, well,

that's not ideal because I was 34 weeks pregnant when that happened. And I called up, I called the triage line and they're like, oh, this happens sometimes. It doesn't mean that labour's on the way keep going as normal you'll grow another one like you'll grow a little bit more because it covers your cervix right so you just grow another plug you can grow a bit more yeah if it comes early doesn't mean that labor's coming so off I went went to the show Jay and I went for dinner and then that night I got up and my undies were a bit wet like not a gush it's not like the movies well it is for some people but it wasn't for me just like you laugh too hard yeah and I was like oh have I lost my it's like is this my ward is going because it was I mean this

might be a bit too much information there's no such no such thing it wasn't urine it didn't smell like wee and it was clear in my undies and I went to the toilet and I was like oh that's so weird anyway I went back to the couch couldn't sleep because I felt like I felt some pains really low in my hips and so that morning I said I'm just gonna call the hospital and tell them I think I've lost some fluid and they said it's probably just urine but like just pack a bag just in case and come in just to get checked and I remember texting texting you saying they think I've just it's wee that's like how embarrassing you were like hey I'm just going to the hospital they think I wet myself but I've got to go I was like how embarrassing if I've done I've gone to the

hospital because I've done a wee in my pants but I knew like I knew it wasn't wee which is annoying because you know if you've wet yourself like you know what urine looks like and smells like so I just knew. I was like, it's not weak. Yeah, for them to be like, come on, honey, you've pissed yourself. It's not. It's not. So I packed some stuff and I think deep down in my heart of hearts,

I knew she was coming. But I was in denial for sure. Like Jay and I were in the car and we had tickets to a show that night and he's like, so do you think we'll be out for like four so we can go to dinner with our friends? And I was like, yeah, I'll do a quick little test. Anyway, I got in there. I did a quick little test and she's like, so it turns out

that is amniotic fluid, like all positive. and she's like so you will be admitted and you're probably going to have this baby I was like oh my god it's too soon like she's got she's so small I was in shock for sure at the start I was in shock and they said she doesn't have to come now she might not be coming you know you can lose some of your waters and go for another four weeks but you need to stay in hospital because if you are going to have a baby after you lose your waters it's going to be statistically within the first 24 to 48 hours so they said you're not dilated you're not having any contractions we've got we'll give you some antibiotics because you've lost your fluid sit tight doesn't mean baby's

coming and then I stayed in hospital that night and then the next day I started getting contractions in the morning and I was telling them hey I'm you know I'm feeling this I'm feeling that and you know they were really unbothered they were really unconcerned oh these tightenings that you're having and I was like I'm pretty sure they're contractions so and what were they telling you they were I mean they could be Braxton Hicks or they could be little contractions but that doesn't necessarily mean that you're about to give birth and so by the end of that day it was 8 p.m and Jay said I'm gonna go home have some dinner get to bed I'll be back first thing and I said I just think I just think you should stay something is happening I've been having these contractions

consistently all day just like period it just feels like a period pain and everyone said that and it's exactly what it feels like that pain deep in your belly right before you're due to get your period and so they called the midwife and I said look I think like they're getting a bit stronger. Can someone just come, you know, check me out? So the obs reg came and she said, let's do an internal, you know, two fingers up, have a little feel. And she said, you're two centimeters dilated, but she is still, the baby is still in a partial sack. So I'd only lost a little bit of like a partial break. And so she said, we're not going to break that. We really want to, we really want to avoid breaking that sack. Sit tight. You're not leaving this hospital

without a baby. Anyway, five minutes after she did the internal, I stood up and then it was like the movies like huge gush all over the floor so she had inadvertently broken my waters she's like we really need to keep this sack intact ma'am and then she slashes it we really want to avoid bursting it burst it goes ahead and burst it with a fingernail like yeah and that was like the movies all over the floor i'm stood there like wet you know head to toe basically in amniotic fluid so i did a little buzzer thing and a student comes and i was like hey just to let you know just to let can you just go and let your midwife know that I've lost the rest of my waters she'll know what you're talking about she knows me I'm up in the back in you know 4b or whatever but you

should tell them the woman that's not supposed to be giving birth is giving birth like at 34 weeks she's like oh yep yep yep cool so off she went I mean I think she relayed the message in that time I had had one panadol that was my pain relief because it was manageable until then I just was like you know what take the edge off with a bit of one paracetamol so what was your pain like in that time then? Because it sounds like you had no idea that you were in labor and they didn't know you were in labor. So it's like you weren't, it's like this unicorn pregnancy went so far as you didn't even have a labor. Looking back, it was. So for like eight hours, I was getting these period pains, but they weren't ramping up in pain. Like it wasn't getting worse

and worse and worse. And it was so manageable. I was dealing with it fine until I would make pierce my waters accidentally. Then immediately it was like, I started crying each one. I was bent over the bed tears I was like trying to breathe through it thinking like this is just what contractions feel like and I don't know I think Jay called the midwife or the student back or something but within 40 minutes I was like fucking mooing like I could not stay quiet I was like in the like a highland cow I was highland cooing over the bed and these poor I was on the antenatal ward so all these pregnant people that were getting induced just like casually you know waiting to go in for their c-section had to listen to me basically give birth in a ward like with

four other beds like with just a curtain between us and then I think the mooing brought the midwife back and she came and said how long have you been like this and I said about 20 minutes and she goes all right get on the bed I was like I can't I can't get on the bed I was on my knees on the floor of the ward mooing how had they left you there I don't understand they were they were amazing I don't want to speak ill like the whole team at the hospital I delivered at was insane they are so busy and I was completely uncomplicated you know aside from being early and having lost my waters there was nothing you know they were popping in on me doing my obs and things like that but they were so busy and it ramped up really really fast so after they did this internal the

baby was here in an hour and a half after doing the internal that's how quickly it was an hour and a half on one paracetamol after an angel pregnancy yes but I thought I was dying and so What was it like when you shot her out? Like how quickly did she come out? No, hold on. There's more. Oh. I was on my knees and the midwife comes and she goes,

hon, you've got to get into bed. I was like, I can't. I can't get into bed. I cannot move during this contraction. So I think they lifted me. I think Jay and the midwife lifted me from memory. But I said to her, I had this overwhelming, I said as loud as I possibly could, I am going to do a poo right now.

Like I am going to poo. It's coming. And I wasn't embarrassed because I was like, it's so overwhelming. You could say here is $500 million to not poo. and I couldn't do it yeah but it turns out it wasn't a poo it was the baby so that's that feeling because everyone says it feels like you're doing a giant poo you are as soon as I said that she pressed a buzzer and like we know from working in a hospital right like you know when they're serious when they start doing things like quickly but like calmly yeah and I was like oh shit like

it's just happening and so they lifted me onto the bed I was pulling off my pants and screaming down the corridor I'm like she's coming I'm pushing now I was pushing and pulling off I was naked from the waist down down the corridor as they reeled me out of antenatal into a delivery suite and then as soon as the door closed I was just like unleashing just started pushing I said I have to push so who birthed her a midwife or a midwife one midwife and there was no one else there was yeah she was just like the one that was answered the buzzer and was like oh this is me tonight delivering a baby man I drew the short straw she's like oh fuck I should have gone on my break I should have gone for a cuppa yeah I was screaming that she was coming Jay was amazing

he said that he couldn't even think about the baby he was just like I was in so much pain by that stage it was absolute agony like agony I thought I was dying I thought I was dying I think most women like logically exactly the same logically I knew I wasn't dying but you feel like you are and you also had like low levels of preeclampsia oh yeah I haven't mentioned that have I so while I had a unicorn pregnancy I had hypertension I have a bit of background on hypertension normally so it was something that was monitored and then I got to the hospital and it was super high like really high so basically they were like it's not officially preeclampsia because I had no protein in my urine but my blood pressure was offensively high like 190 on 120 kind

of high really really high and so I think that that's probably why she came and then as soon as she came out did the pain just go is it like everyone says where it's just like this euphoric moment? It is so instantaneous. So it was, I ended up pushing for an hour, pretty much that whole time. So an hour and 20 minutes I was pushing and I see why so many women, you know, end up in emergency seizes from exhaustion. Let's, you know, let's give you the epidural or whatever. It's so exhausting. And I had this moment and they call it, I was talking to you before about it, they call it rest and be thankful. And it's where you have this break in, you know, contractions and pain and you almost have a little sleep. Like I think I almost fell asleep in between contractions,

this really long break in between a contraction and it felt like I was outside my body looking down like an outer body kind of thing I was having a sleep and the midwife did not say a word and Jay did not say a word I was holding his hand and I was making no sound and I had a little rest and then after that a few big pushes and out she came and the head ring of fire is a real thing what just so the ring of fire is when the head is coming out and then the midwife will say stop pushing now and just breathe her out so that to avoid tearing which I did and then once she's out on the next contraction it's like a little loaf of jelly that is like like she flies out and she was 1.8 kilos so there wasn't much to her she did just slide on out and then the pain was gone

instantaneously and then you had a little Maya and then Maya was in the world so a big question people had for you is how do you feel having your first baby being away from your family like you're on the other side of the world we have such a close family and you I imagine have this innate inbuilt feeling that you want your family around you but you didn't get that it's so hard it's so hard man I initially was going to have Maya in Australia I was going to go home and then we made a really difficult decision to stay for a lot of reasons you know to be around Jay's family because we're going Myra's going to live in Australia forever and to give them some time like cost of living wise it really made sense for us to be in the UK because we're staying in a family home

we have help there it was like a bit of a no-brainer from that aspect but it and you just never will have that in Australia it's just so expensive yeah yeah exactly so it really made sense for us from that perspective it was so hard I cried on the phone to mum and dad I cried on the phone to you like we were going through pros and cons about you know having her here and then actually work worked out really well because I got so unwell towards the end that flying would have been really difficult with my blood pressure and then her coming you know six weeks early would have been crazy. So what's your advice for people that are looking to or have had just recently had a baby away from their family because a lot of people wrote in saying that that's on the agenda

for them you know I'm pregnant but my partner lives overseas a lot of UK based people which I I guess it's pretty normal. A lot of Australians emigrate to the UK. I think it's like it's so innate, right, that like the woman wants to be near her family, like especially near her mother if she's in the picture. You've got to have a network around you. If you are totally alone, it can be so isolating and lonely.

Jay's brother lives close to us, which is amazing, and I have two friends over here that have had babies at the exact same time. So we're in like a little Power Hour group chat and that has totally got me through. But it's so hard. Like we're FaceTiming you all the time. I had to really reconcile what I thought my first year

of motherhood would look like versus what it does look like. Like I had pictures of you holding Maya when she was first born in my brain and Dad cuddling her when she's a few days old and they're never going to get to see her until she's nine months old. You've only seen her now at nearly four months old. You've got to have a support network, even if it's just sort of friends, take yourself to classes. It's also easier for you, I think it's important to note too,

you and Jay both work from home. So Jay is around and he's hands-on all day. Like you can work your work around your baby schedule, whereas it would be very different if you were here alone and your partner was at work for eight to ten hours a day. Oh, my God, it would be impossible. Impossible. It would be so hard.

I am so, so lucky that he works from home and can help me like that. It would just be so hard. What was the best gift you received after birth? Food. honestly we got gifted a few little deliveries of like meal deliveries from friends it was 10 out of 10 the best gift we got the most helpful for sure that's interesting because you think that you both I remember you saying when you went into pregnancy you were like I don't get how people say that they don't have time to eat I remember you saying that you were like totally like I know

I obviously know I'm not an idiot like you you have way less time right but I was like surely you've got time to put a piece of toast in the toast like or put something in the oven you truly I was getting to like 2 p.m and having not eaten and I don't know if that's because Maya was premmy and it was so hard at the start for us with her like we had such a difficult start to life that I mean I don't know what it would be like if she was a term baby or if it is just always that that hard but I couldn't feed myself so food would be your number one recommendation for people if they've got friends or someone that is giving birth 100 flowers are beautiful but then like you have to clean them up like it's one more thing that you had that the mother has to deal

with put them in the bin that's really true it's so true and also if pollen drops on furniture it stains exactly food yeah like either cook for them or meal delivery like some waitrose orders tesco orders whatever like send food jay would just chuck it in the oven and then bring me food and i would eat one-handed have you felt like you've lost much of your identity since you've become a mom because you hear that a lot i don't think so maybe i get why people say that i don't know I've been in such a bubble a Maya bubble that I haven't I don't think so I haven't thought about it I haven't really thought about that much to be honest I really put life on hold for months with Maya well I think that question came in probably more specifically around you and your

job like you're a nutritionist you help people with body image with diet and nutrition on the daily so there's probably this expectation of people to say oh you always have to exercise because you're a PT as well you have to always be eating well and looking after yourself and I guess when people think that's your job it's so outward facing that maybe you do have an internal battle with the fact that your body has changed so I think when people say like are you struggling with identity I guess it's like your friends aren't there anymore your work is changing the way you look at the world is changing I guess yeah that's true and who are you outside of just being a mum and the primary caregiver but yeah I guess like with work that definitely showed up like

about I suppose now you mentioned it yeah it was it was hard to turn up online because I'm like I'm not eating well I'm not exercising I'm not even cooking for myself I'm eating meals that other people have prepped for me in the oven I don't have anything to talk about that isn't the baby like I feel like that's all we talk about now but I am starting to you know find my way back to myself I'm exercising again I'm feeling good again I'm feeling more like myself again and it will never be the same my body will never be the same I won't look the same and that's okay that's completely fine but I guess it's just managing that it's managing the expectations within yourself that things have changed I think a lot of people it takes them a lot longer or it's a lot harder

to get there and be like okay maybe I won't be able to do quite what I did before maybe I will do exercise now and wet myself a little bit every single time which isn't normal guys it might be common but it's not normal so see your pelvic floor physio if that is the case that is definitely things that you can do for that another common question was what sort of exercise are you doing and when did you ease back into that it's a good question I started walking maybe maybe three or four weeks it was really hard for me to get out of the house I saw all these and I spoke about this on my Instagram a lot as well I saw all these people you know out and about having coffee you know two weeks a week after having a baby like first you know mama's first day out with a cafe

at a cafe. And I was like, why can't I do that? Why can't I get my shit together? I can't even get out of the house. It was almost debilitating. And again, I don't know if that's, you know, that was definitely harder because Maya was premmy. We had a lot of feeding issues and things like that. She was just so small. And I was really comparing myself to other mums on Instagram or even maybe, you know, second time mums where they don't have a choice. They have to get outside because they've got a toddler. So it was actually, it was so much harder than i thought it was going to be getting back into normal exercise and like i couldn't i couldn't get my shit together and get out of the house for weeks on end so i've really only started easing

back in at like three months postpartum i started back at a gym at about eight weeks really gently in doing pilates and bar because i couldn't i couldn't get to my normal gym i couldn't do my normal lifting it's just impossible to get out of the house for that length of time so i'm doing pilates and i'm loving it i'm a bar girly now who would have thought who would have thought i'm there do all my plies yeah but I think the thing is there's no right or wrong answer for that like there's no time frame for people to be able to get back into like quote unquote normal exercise yeah and some people can get back really quickly and their body allows them to do that and that's great for them like they need to get back in quite quickly and other people it takes longer

and so just you know anyone out there worrying about it please don't do it at your pace if you want to get out exercising quickly go for it if it's taking you a long time like it took me that's also so fine. And a big question that came in is around nutrition post-birth. What are the best things to be eating to fuel yourself or any recommendations you can make for someone post-birth? Post-birth is so hard because there's no perfect food you need to eat. You obviously need a lot of calories, a lot of extra calories, especially if you are breastfeeding, like upward of 300 extra calories per day for breastfeeding moms. Standard healthy diet, you need lots of good fats, you need lots of fiber, lots of protein. You basically need to, if you're not prepping ahead of time,

You need someone to be organizing your food for you so that you're not just surviving off toast. Yeah. So you're actually consuming. Actually consuming good, healthy calories and enough food. Like the pressure to get back to your body is insane. And I know that a lot of people can, you know, straight off the bat, start trying to diet. People message me, hey, should I start dieting?

I'm, you know, three weeks postpartum. It is absolutely not recommended to start dieting that quickly. Please do not even think about doing it. But it's like, it's interesting that so many people talk about, and I experience, like I have never felt sexier than when I was pregnant. and everyone you know your pregnant body is stunning and beautiful and your stretch marks are beautiful and all of this and then as soon as the baby's out that same body is perceived as not so beautiful and you've got to get back to your body and your stretch marks are gross you know

your saggy belly's gross like it's so weird that that pregnant body was so celebrated and then as soon as your baby's out it's like oh you're a mom bod you know you've got to get back to yourself why haven't you bounced back yet there's zero bouncing over here you know I gained and I haven't spoken about this because I don't want people to compare I mean now I'm speaking on a podcast but I I don't want people to compare how much I gained versus someone else and you know your body needs to gain what it needs to gain I gained almost 20 kilos when I was pregnant and you know I eat really well I exercise regularly she's only weighed 1.8 kilos yeah she only weighed 1.8 kilos and 10 of that came out straight away in fluid and blood and things like that but I'm still

sitting at 10 kilos heavier post-birth and it's nearly four months later and I you know I thought naturally everyone says oh the breastfeeding it'll fall right off you that was a lie it has not fallen off me I think that's so anecdotal that doesn't happen for everyone your body needs fat stores to breastfeed you know and you are so hungry and you're consuming a lot of calories you're probably not moving as much and yeah I am the same weight as when I gave birth to Maya nearly four months later yeah it's normal it's completely normal I think this is the problem too not just around pregnancy around literally everything in life comparison is a thief of joy we love that quote but Instagram social media gosh like the pregnant women on Instagram stunning I know so many of

these people and they are you know this beautiful round beach ball belly with these long lean arms and legs but those people are genetically that's their body they're genetically petite and so I can't look at those people and say like well I don't look like that I've gained 20 kilos all over That's what my body needed to do to have a baby. And it's also, I think, the way that people bounce back. And I say that with, quote unquote, yeah, bouncing back and how they look like they've got their shit together online. And chances are, 99.9% chance that they don't have their shit together online.

No one knows what they're doing. They've got a corner of their house that's clean that they're shooting their Instagram content. It's a highlight reel. And I think a lot of people get stuck going down a rabbit hole, which snowballs your mental health. 100%. that comparison of seeing a new mum out at a cafe. She might be having a great time, but she might

also be really struggling. You also don't know. You don't know that. Do you think your relationship has changed much with Jay since having Maya? You know, they say, you know, you go through the roommate phase and you do, right? Because your attention is on this baby. You're trying to keep it alive. You're not having sex and being romantic and all those sorts of things. But we have made a really concerted effort to do our best to stay a team. And it's funny, like we do this thing where if we get snippy with each other because you're so tired like you're tired you're sleep deprived you're hungry you've got this baby hanging off your boob and I was in agony with every food forgetting snippy each other we look at each other and he will say with a dead

pan face don't let her come between us and we just like make a joke of like she cannot divide us like and then we just laugh and move on but it's it's hard because you're so fatigued that you snippet everything and then it becomes a little bit of a competition like a tit-for-tat of you resentful that you feel like well I've done more like I've fed the baby all day and cleaned up you know what have you done sort of thing but you can't do that you have to realize that you are a team and you are contributing to this household and raising the baby up to 100% and sometimes I give 80% and he's giving 20 and then sometimes he's giving 90% and I've only got 10 to give and you have to remember that you're a team what about intimacy because you hear a lot of new mums say hey I'm

touched out don't fucking touch me I'm not horny I have no sex drive have you guys been having sex Has the intimacy come back yet? The sex drive thing is so real. Like, I naturally have a really high sex drive pre-pregnancy and during pregnancy was really high. And then post-pregnancy, it is non-existent. Like, the breastfeeding hormones, right? It is completely suppressed.

And it just doesn't, like, it doesn't feel good yet. We have had sex. Not a lot. I mean, I'm only three months. I'm only three and a half months postpartum. I think everyone's like, oh, the six-week checkup, off you go. Back to pound town. You don't want to.

you're not physically, I wasn't physically recovered. I didn't want to at that, like that early. And it's just, yeah, there's no pressure. And Jay's amazing. There's zero pressure whatsoever. Like it's really important to remember that your body is going through so many hormonal changes that literally tank your sex drive. Like you will feel normal again. You will want to have sex again. It will feel good again. You've just got to, you've just got to ride it out. Like, especially I'm still breastfeeding. So, you know, hormones are still, breastfeeding hormones are still you know high sex drive still tanked and then you lose your natural lubrication and everyone says to you like tips for first sex so much lube all of the lube because you are it's

the dry as a sahara down there and every other mom here is nodding their head for sure because you know post baby there is zero lubrication and no one wants to have dry sex it's yeah it's never non-existent never i'm praying for you it'll come back thanks thoughts and prayers last question do you plan on moving back to Australia and when? Yes oh my gosh I cannot wait I shouldn't I mean I love the UK I love my life but we are both so excited to come home we are coming home right before your wedding perfect we are heading via South Africa for another really good friend's wedding into Sydney and then we're heading to Bali for your wedding perfect yay I can't wait we sound like exactly the same person part of me wanted you to stay over here purely

to get ahead in life like not because i didn't want you near me or in australia i really did but i was like you get such limited time where people can help you out and obviously you can get ahead a bit more financially over here so there's part of me that was like oh maybe stay over there for another year but i'm glad that you got to the decision to come home and you know what it's Jay. Jay said he cannot do another UK winter. So it's not me dragging him home, everybody. He's dragging me back to Australia. Well, Sherry, I can say that I am utterly obsessed with my new niece, Maya. She is trickery because she's the kind of baby that is so good and so perfect. And she's sleeping for like 11 hours a night. She makes me be like, oh, piece of cake. I could do

this. I want this. She lulls you into a false sense of security. She does. She's a unicorn baby. She's a unicorn baby. She's absolutely divine. Thank you for joining the podcast today and sharing your story with everybody. If anyone wants to know more, you can go to Sherry's Instagram, Sherry Health. We'll link everything in our show notes. And if you want to look at what Sherry does on Strive, that's her nutrition business page. We can put those links in as well. But you are constantly helping women every single day, pre-birth, post-birth, nothing to do with birth, get their fitness journeys on track. Thank you for having me. And Maya loves you more than me right now.

I think she needs to remember where her milk's coming from is all I've got to say. Where's your alliance? And everyone, don't forget, tell your mum, tell your dad,

tell your dog, tell your friends and share the love because we love love!