Johanna’s Story of Recovery: Podcast Ep15

In this episode my guest, Johanna is going to be sharing the very personal story of her own postpartum battle.

She just graduated from my one on one program and was in a very dark place before she met me.

Johanna’s here to share her experience with everyone. She will tell us what brought her to the point of feeling as awful as she did to the courage to reach out for help and move forward to work with me.

As well as where she is now and how my one on one program has gotten her to be able to do what she truly feels is her life’s purpose.

Come listen to Johanna’s postpartum story in this episode, and be sure to share it with friends and family that you feel may benefit from it!

In this episode, we share with you:

• Introducing Johanna
• The weight of postpartum issues prior to working with Maranda
• Depressed and anxious
• Who were your support teams?
• Getting support from all of doctors but they didn’t understand her postpartum body
• End results after working with Maranda
• The eating plan that Maranda helped her find has been the biggest piece for her
• Becoming more in-tune with your body
• Mindset shifts
• Starting her own business to be able to help others
• She feels like helping others is her life purpose
• Maranda’s one on one program can help anyone at any point in their postpartum journey
• It is okay to spend money on yourself and to work on yourself

We all get it: postpartum and the years after having a baby is no walk in the park. But you know what? It isn’t just about depression or anxiety either.

Hey, my friend, I’m Maranda Bower, a homesteading mama with four wild kids. My life passion and education are all about supporting mothers and providers, understanding the science, the art, and the sacredness of healing after birth. What we know as common sense in the postpartum years has many women feeling just plain awful. It’s time to bring back the truth. Get you the tools you need to heal and thrive in motherhood and beyond. Welcome, my friends, to today’s episode.

You may want to come with some tissues on hand. I have a very special guest here with me, Johanna, and she is going to be sharing her story with postpartum depression, rage, anxiety, and even suicidal thoughts. Her powerful testimony to healing brings all of this together. What she shares with you today literally brought goosebumps to me, you guys. It speaks immensely to the need to continue reaching out for the right support until you find it. So, without further ado, let’s connect in with Johanna.

Okay, everyone. Hi, this is Maranda Bower, your postpartum bliss coach, and with me today is Johanna. Johanna and I have been working hand-in-hand together in my one-on-one program. She has recently just graduated and she’s here to share her experience with everyone. Johanna, I’m so glad that you’re here, first and foremost. Can you tell us where you were when you first started working together with me? What was it that had you reaching out and saying, “I really, really need support here?”

“So first of all, I am really excited to be able to share. I think it’s super important. Where I was when I first reached out to you was a really tough place with my mental health and my physical health. I have two kids who were four and five at the time, and they were born 18 months apart. I really did not take care of myself during either one of their postpartum periods. I was having suicidal thoughts, rarely eating most days, and just feeling totally depressed and anxious. I had tried a lot of different things. So, I was at a loss when I reached out to you finally.”

At one point in time, you were working with a counselor as well, and when we talked, you had already done the counseling thing. You were doing that. You had met with a holistic provider and were working with them. Tell us a bit about the things that you were trying, and the people and support teams that you had, which were still not enough for you.

“Yeah. I had both of them naturally, so I had midwives for both of them, and then postpartum care with them.

“So, it was already more holistically minded, and then I had been to several nature paths. I had been to a kinesiologist for quite a while that seemed to help, but then the issues just came back almost even worse when they did come back. I had done hypnotherapy. I had done Theta healing. Yeah, and I tried a ton of different supplements that were all really good products, and most of the people I had been to see were pretty good too.

“I think it just wasn’t exactly what I needed. They didn’t really know a postpartum woman’s body. Yeah, and I think that’s the key in all of this because the work that we did wasn’t just a focus on nutrition. It wasn’t just a focus on energy healing. It wasn’t just, you know, these pieces that we pull; it was all of those components working together synergistically to support you in that deep authentic healing that you so desperately needed.”

And can you share with everybody what it was that we had done and really what was the end result? Where are you now after doing those things? So first, share what the journey and the experience was like, and then if you could share with us where you are now, five months later.

“So I think the eating plan that you have was the biggest piece for me, and specifically the bone broth and the soups. That was huge because I just wasn’t getting the nutrients from the food that I was eating. So that, and then changing my mindset around self-care and taking care of the house. What you said about stopping the housework as soon as I put the kids to bed was huge for me, and like keeping that evening time to start winding myself down and putting myself to bed. Because, and I still struggle with this because it’s my personality, but I wasn’t getting enough rest or sleep specifically. And so then, also, I think I had some blocks around the mindset and like letting some of the energy healing actually come through.

“All that worked together to bring me to where I am now, where I have so much more clarity of thought, and I can understand my body and actually listen to it. Before, that was really hard for me. Now I know, like if I have a little bit of gluten or cheese or something, I can tell instantly that my body doesn’t like that. Before, I thought that I just wasn’t sensitive to those things, but it was because I didn’t really listen to my body. So yeah, it’s kind of emotional because of how far I’ve come. I don’t want to go back to who I was before I had kids, but I feel a lot closer to how happy and mentally okay that person was. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that.”

You have come so far, leaps and bounds over the last five months, and it has not been an easy road. Often, people come and they expect that the energy work and all of this is just going to do it for them. And even with the postpartum nutrition plan, like you went on it and then you were immediately off of it. You were like, “Well, I can’t follow this; this is really hard,” right? And then we would work through all of these little blocks that were in the way. It’s about reprogramming your brain, working with your nervous system, and adopting new mindset shifts. And so the postpartum nutrition plan felt easy, and you were able to do it. Then it was almost like a night and day difference for you. And then from there, working on the other pieces, and here you are.

Not only are you like, “Okay, I’m finally healed and in my body,” but you have also opened yourself up. And you’ve said, “I am going to help other people now.” That’s significant, right? You’ve started your business very recently, you’ve hired a coach, and you have done phenomenal things. Not only because you’re in a place where you have been able to support yourself and do all of the healing, but you’re in such a great place that now you can do that for others.

“It’s been so incredible because I always knew that this was my life purpose, but I felt like I couldn’t do it because I was so in the thick of it myself. It’s really amazing to be in this place, and I wouldn’t have been able to get here if it wasn’t for your support.”

Would you recommend this one-on-one program with me to other women who are struggling with their postpartum experiences, even years after having a baby?

“Yes, very much so. I started the program when I was almost four years postpartum with my last child. So that was a long gap. And so, I think it could help anyone at any time.”

Thank you so much for that, Joanna. I am so happy for you. Every single time I see your beautiful face pop up on Facebook or Instagram, I’m like, “Oh my gosh, she’s come so far.” I just get so excited and giddy. I love following your new journey. And I’m just so happy that you are here and that you dived in and chose to do the work.

And you did it with the support of hands who can help lead you there. For recognizing that, I think that’s just amazing. Any last words that you want to share with anyone?

“I, hmm, I just want to say thank you again so much. And also, that it’s okay to spend money on yourself and to put work into yourself. And that it’s also not easy, that it’s going to be hard. And sometimes you just have to jump in.”

I love that. Beautifully said. Thank you so much, Joanne. I appreciate you.

“Yeah, thank you.”

If you want to explore working together one-on-one with me, you can go to MarandaBower.com/contact, which is linked in the podcast notes. And I will tell you, the worst thing that could possibly happen is that you walk away with some resources on how to get the support you need, whether that’s with me or another expert in the field or even in your community. Either way, keep searching, keep looking. There is someone out there who can support you and you can find that person. You deserve that.

Thanks for tuning in and taking the time to learn about how to support your body and deep healing. We don’t do this work just for us or for you. Your healing impacts your children, your relationships, and your community. We do this work because the health and vibrancy of our world begins with its mothers. I hope you have taken some valuable information today and applied it to your own life.

If you aren’t sure where to begin, reach out about working together one-on-one or at minimum, learning about my postpartum nutrition plan, which is where I start every single one of my clients. And you can do that by going to MarandaBower.com.

Hope you enjoyed this episode. Let us know by leaving a review and we will see you next time.