The Science of Motherhood

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 Ren...

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 Cra...

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 ferti...

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, a...

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-p...

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...

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 H...

⚠️ 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 ge...

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 ...

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...

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 ...

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 Psycholog...

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 m...

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 ide...

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 productiv...

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 Univ...

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 ha...

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 ...

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,...