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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Support the show

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

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

In this episode we go over:

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

Resources:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Support the show

Today's episode dives into a different side of postpartum depression and treatment options that are not as widely discussed. We were joined on this episode by Stephanie Wu, a Taiwanese American occupational therapist and perinatal mental health certified professional, who talked to us about her treatment resistant depression after the birth of her second child.

Stephanie has been very open about sharing her story about being a first time mom during the beginning of the pandemic, and then going on to have her second child almost exactly 2 years later. In this episode, she shares how insomnia played a role in her postpartum depression and then how she tried therapy and multiple medications in hopes of finding something that helped.

Stephanie talks about her experience with the Day Program at The Motherhood Center, which is a well-known mental health treatment center for new and expecting mothers in New York. Finally, we hear about Stephanie's experience with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), which is something that can be offered for treatment resistant depression.

We hope this episode might shine a light on how hard it can be to recover from depression for some people and hold space for those who are working hard to find the right balance of treatment regimens. Yet, Stephanie still offers hope that there is help out there and that mothers can advocate for themselves.

Trigger Warning: There are mentions of suicidal ideations in this episode.

Stephanie works part-time at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City and is the founder of H.O.M.E. MAMA, a private practice dedicated to providing in-home maternal health support. She offers home visits and community workshops.

Resources mentioned:
The Women's Guide to Overcoming Insomnia By Shelby Harris

Find more of Stephanie at:
Instagram: www.instagram.com/home_mama_nyc
Website: https://www.home-mama.com/

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

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

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

Support the show

To kick off 2025, we invited Alyce Chan, stand up comedian and founder of MomCom NYC onto the podcast!

Alyce is a Chinese Canadian/American mom of two boys and has been featured in the New York Comedy Festival and placed finalist in the esteemed Boston comedy festival. You've likely seen her work on ScaryMommy and other major parenting platforms. Alyce has also appeared on ABC, Hulu, The Drew Barrymore Show and the Tamron Hall Show.

While this episode is definitely more light-hearted and funny, we also dive into some heavier things. Alyce tells us how when she first became a mother, she didn’t realize she could get postpartum depression and that a lot of her symptoms showed up as postpartum rage—an uncomfortable topic that many moms oftten feel ashamed to talk about. We explore how being AAPI also impacts rage and anger showing up because that may be one of the few emotions we did get to see from our parents as children of immigrants.

We also talk about the role of stay at home mom and how that invisible work can breed a lot of resentment too. The reason Alyce even returned to comedy was also because motherhood was lonely at first, and making others laugh has felt fulfilling to her in making parents feel less alone in parenthood. We discuss the label of “geriatric” pregnancies and how Alyce decided to have a second child and worked through some gender disappointment.

And finally, Alyce talks to us about the grief of losing her dad in recent years and how she has used humor to combat some of that grief while helping her dad’s memory live on in her shows. Alyce tells us that her dad was by far a perfect man, but she knew he loved her in his own way and chooses to forgive the things about him that she grew up wishing were different.

We hope you’ll join us in this touching episode covering topics from rage to humor to grief to love.

Find more of Alyce at:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/momcomnyc
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/momcomnyc
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/momcomnyc

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

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

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

Support the show

The episode today explores two big themes we haven't touched upon yet on this podcast-- being child-free by choice and then the journey of adoption. Our guest today is Katy Wang, a Taiwanese American early childhood educator for the past 15 years in both private and independent schools all over the Bay Area. Katy has held a variety of positions--everything from an assistant teacher to teacher to site director to program director to now assistant principal.

Katy and her husband fondly call themselves a PANK (Professional Auntie No Kids) and a PUNK (Professional Uncle No Kids), and they love on so many of their friends' children by taking them on fun outings, dinner dates, shopping trips, and more. Katy is definitely the epitome of "fun aunt." But what's unique about Katy's journey that we will explore together in this episode is that even though Katy adores children and works with them day in and out, she had initially wanted to be child-free for a long time due to mental health reasons. Then, not too long ago, she decided to pursue adoption and embark on the parenthood journey with her husband.

We unpack the reasons Katy had for being child-free by choice for a long time and then the reasons for choosing adoption when she and her husband decided to pursue parenthood in the end. Katy shares with us her personal experience of clinical depression and why it had affected her so deeply. She also openly shares with us in detail what the adoption process has been like so far (financially, emotionally, logistically) and how her family has responded to her choices.

Katy is still in the middle of her adoption process, so we have been given a unique perspective and snapshot of this time in her journey before she and her husband are hopefully matched with a baby. We hope this is an episode that might be helpful for anyone who is curious or considering adoption in the U.S., as there are so many factors to consider!

If you're interested in learning more, Katy may be posting more about their journey in the future at a family IG account: @hellochoi.fam

We hope we may be able to record a future episode with Katy from the other side of her adoption process!

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

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

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

Support the show

In honor of Veterans’ Day this month, we wanted to highlight a motherhood journey of a veteran who not only served her country but also now serves the needs of so many mothers in their postpartum period.

Our guest today is none other than Stephiney Foley, CEO and Founder of Yuzi Care. She is a postpartum doula, army veteran, military spouse, West Point Grad, and mother of two biracial boys.

Stephiney is first generation Chinese American, born in Shanghai and raised in New York City. She served in the U.S. Army for over a decade as a logistics officer. Stephiney experienced postpartum anxiety after her first child and then postpartum depression after her second child. In this episode she tells us her story and journey of motherhood from the military to working at Amazon to launching and creating a postnatal retreat center to support postpartum mothers.

We talk about how it actually took a long time before Stephiney realized she needed help and then even longer to actually get the help she needed. Stephiney recalls the key moment when she knew she wasn’t okay and shares with us how medication and therapy later on would be crucial to her healing. (TW: We do discuss suicidal thoughts briefly.)

Stephiney also shares with us the inspiration behind postnatal retreats like her own and also what she envisions it can grow to become to care for more mothers. We discuss the issues of costs and barriers to getting all moms the right kind of care in postpartum. Please join us for this insightful discussion about what would be some potential ideal ways to care for the mother during her fourth trimester in postpartum.

Find more of Stephiney at:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/yuzicare
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/96649640
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yuzicare/
TikTok: https://tiktok.com/yuzicare
Website: www.yuzicare.com

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

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

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

Support the show

For this next episode, we were so excited to interview Susan Lieu, the Vietnamese American author of the moving memoir The Manicurist's Daughter. This debut memoir has been featured not only on Apple but in the New York Times, NPR books, Elle Magazine, LA Times, and the Washington Post.

We talk with Susan about how losing her mother at a young age (11) was such a pivotal event in her life, that everything going forward went through the sieve of her mother's death, especially while she was becoming a mother herself. We discuss the impact of her mother's death from a botched tummy tuck and how that further exacerbated body image issues and conflicting relationship with food that Susan always grew up with.

Susan shares with us how no one talked about her mother's death in the family after it happened, even to this day. As the youngest of 4, she said she was always shut down when she wanted to hear more details about her mother's death, so she had no one to turn to when trying to learn more about her mother.

The conversation is rich with themes of grief, motherhood, body positivity, and mental health. We talk about many parts of the Asian American experience as a child of immigrants/refugees and break down how Susan did the work to heal from generational trauma before being ready to become a mom--particularly also chasing her dreams of being a performer first. We know this episode will resonate with many who are navigating relationships with their parents as they become parents themselves and who are trying to heal their inner child. Please join us for this riveting conversation!

Besides being an author, Susan is also a playwright, a performer, a TEDx speaker, a podcaster, and a cofounder of Socola Chocolatier. She has a degree in Social Studies from Harvard College and an MBA from Yale School of Management. You can find more of Susan at:

Instagram: @susanlieu, @celadonbooks
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/susanlieuofficial
TikTok: @susanlieuofficial
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanlieu/
Podcast: Model Minority Moms-- https://modelminoritymoms.com/
Website: https://www.susanlieu.me/

TedEx Talk: Making Peace With Your Belly Fat - https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=al0Jw_9b06Y


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

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

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

Support the show

Trigger Warning: We will be discussing pregnancy loss in this episode.

In honor of Pregnancy and Infant Loss Month, we wanted to share the story of our next guest, Eileen Santos Rosete. Eileen is Filipino American and it's fitting she is our guest this month too, as October is also Filipino American History Month. She holds a master of science in marriage and family therapy, is certified as a DONA International postpartum doula, trauma-informed yoga teacher and grief educator.

Her brand, Our Sacred Woman, is known for its elevated offerings that help women feel seen, held, and honored. Her debut book is titled “To Tend & To Hold: Honoring Our Bodies, Our Needs and Our Grief Through Pregnancy and Infant Loss,” which just launched today!

In this episode, Eileen shares her story of suffering two losses following the birth of her first child. She explains the nuances of grief in her personal story and how each of the losses were different, how she was supported or not in both cases, and how she came to realize that while losing her babies, she was actually in labor and delivering them too.

We talk about how the losses also impacted her future pregnancies and subsequent living babies, and we also talk about her experience with postpartum depression and anxiety. We also talk about how being a person of color played a role in her journey. Eileen gives us a raw and vulnerable discussion about loss and how the healing journey looked for her, as well as the new resource on loss that she has created for new mothers to come.

Find more of Eileen at:
Website: https://www.eileensantosrosete.com/
Instagram: @oursacredwomen
Book Preorder Links: https://www.eileensantosrosete.com/to-tend-and-to-hold-book

Other Resources:
Free PSI Online Support Groups for Loss: https://www.postpartum.net/get-help/psi-online-support-meetings/?_search=loss

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

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

Lastly, check us out on Patreon for more exclusives and to support us more! <3 patreon.com/healingthetigresspodcast

Support the show