MyNestwell with Emily Watson

In September I announced I would be writing a quarterly series to help create a community where I interview boss mamas & mothers to be. The goal was to share triumphs, victories, vulnerabilities and pivotal moments through out motherhood and their careers. The first instalment with Babba Rivera was so well received, that it just name sense for me to do this more often.

This week on my BossMama series I am sharing my interview with Emily Watson of MyNestwell. MyNestwell is an online platform designed to help women and mothers find various maternal wellness providers. Whether you’re trying to conceive, pregnant, a new mom, or transitioning back to work, they believe you deserve a village behind you. MyNestwell connects you with maternal wellness providers locally and virtually. Their motto is “It takes a village to raise a mother.” Now, your village is waiting right at your fingertips.

Can you share a little about how your journey with IVF lead you to create MyNestwell?

I grew up in a family of ambitious, independent women. I learned that you pushed through when things got tough. But when I hit rock bottom during fertility treatment, I realized that I couldn’t keep doing the same thing—like bearing the burden of this alone—and expecting different results. 

I started to look for more support outside of my fertility clinic. My fertility team was amazing (thank goodness because I was in and out of there weekly, sometimes twice weekly for almost a year!) but I needed more emotional, mental, and honestly, spiritual hand-holding than they could provide. I had read countless blogs and books and listened to podcasts ad nauseam about the amazing professionals and healers who could help me manage the non-medical aspects of treatment, but when I went to find them near me, I really struggled. 

While I eventually found my people, the process was arduous, time-consuming, and expensive. Everything was so siloed, it wasn’t clear who specialized in infertility, and I had a lot of false-starts with people who weren’t ultimately a good match for me and my health goals. I knew it had to be easier, but it wasn’t until pregnancy that the vision for MyNestwell came to me.

What type of feelings came up for you during this journey and how did you manage them?

Oh goodness. SO many things. You often hear the infertility journey described as a roller coaster, but that implies there are a lot of highs with the lows. For me, it was a lot of lows—deep lows. Ironically, I have a background in yoga and health coaching, so you would think that I would have all of the tools in my back pocket to help manage the intense feelings, but these were emotions that I hadn’t ever felt before, so I didn’t know how to cope with them. 

In any given day, I would feel sad that we couldn't have the family we dreamt of, angry at my body, resentful and jealous of others who got pregnant when “they weren’t even trying,” guilty for even feeling that way about others, and then grateful that we had an opportunity to even go to a fertility doctor. That’s not to mention how challenging it was on our marriage as we were dealing with the repeated disappointment in different ways. We didn’t know how to support each other. 

It wasn’t until I started seeing an acupuncturist and talking to a fertility coach and a therapist that things started to shift for me. They held space for me that my family and friends and even my husband couldn’t hold for me. They validated my feelings, cheered me on when I wanted to give up, and even physically held me when I got another negative pregnancy test. I also committed to a guided meditation practice using the Expectful app, listening to them in my car during my lunch break at work when all the feelings would well up.

The shift was gradual, but I felt like I wasn’t carrying so much of the burden alone. They also helped let go of the grip I had on growing our family and surrender to the process more fully rather than be stuck in a perpetual spin.

What lead you to create MyNestwell? Why did you choose the practitioners that you have thus far?

By the time I was ready to ask for help from other professionals, it took me a really long time to actually find my people. Between a few lucky referrals, Facebook groups, Instagram, and a whole lot of Googling, I finally cobbled together my village. I still remember the time my computer crashed because I had way too many tabs open trying to find an acupuncturist who specialized in IVF. The process was daunting and overwhelming, but I ultimately I discovered that there is a treasure trove of truly remarkable care providers ready to serve other women like me on this motherhood journey, to lift them higher in so many unique and beautiful ways.

Initially, I sought out the experts that I had trouble finding myself on the fertility journey like acupuncturists, maternal mental health specialists, and fertility coaches. But during pregnancy, I realized that it was also hard to find childbirth educators, doulas, and pelvic floor specialists, too. So the platform really has evolved with my own motherhood journey.
The founding members were members of my own village, but then I began the process of doing what I didn’t want any other mom to have to go through—tedious searches to find exceptional providers. 

What’s really cool is that as I talked to more and more moms and moms-to-be, they started to recommend other experts that could be a good fit for MyNestwell because they want other women to know about them. 

I like to get to know the providers listed on the site to make sure they are aligned in our mission and values, so I have a conversation—or several!—with each one of them. I hope to build a community not just for moms, but for the people who lift up moms every day.

How did you manage birthing a business and child all at once? 

Honestly, I couldn’t have done it without my amazing village of support. The idea for MyNestwell came to me during my first trimester when I was on my way to an acupuncture session. I was so grateful for the amazing people I had found, that I wanted more hopeful and expecting moms to not just know about them but to experience their magic.

But that also meant that I had about 5 months to get a version of the resource up and running before the birth of our daughter. I had already learned the benefits of asking for help, so while I had to do a lot of the heavy-lifting of creating the site and recruiting members and building MyNestwell while also working a marketing consulting job, I navigated pregnancy with the help of my doula, childbirth educator expert, acupuncturist, pelvic floor physical therapist—yes, I had them all! These relationships were essential when I had to switch OB groups, hospitals, and found out our babe was breech all in the last 3 weeks of pregnancy. They proved to be a guiding light when I felt like everything else was out of control.

With their advice, I made plans for a slow postpartum so I could recover, heal, and embrace this new season. I can honestly say that without their help, I wouldn’t have stepped as confidently or powerfully into motherhood. My founding members, many of them moms themselves, were also incredibly patient with me in those first few months of launch. Their support was just another indication of how truly special this community is. I hired a few freelancers to keep things humming along and checked in during naps, but I also used the time to take a lot of notes on what I was feeling and needing so that once I emerged from my cocoon, I could better support new moms through the MyNestwell platform. 

How does MyNestwell link women with the help they need?

The motherhood journey is already hard enough, so I wanted the search for the right support to feel easy. You first search for the type of wellness support you’re looking for and then filter down by sub-filters. For example, someone may search for a birth doula who has experience with twins and offers virtual services from anywhere, or a pelvic floor physical therapist who helps with c-section scar recovery, a fertility coach who helps manage hormonal balances, or a career coach that helps you balance motherhood and your passion. Really, there are so many customizable possibilities.  

But sometimes, we don’t always know what type of support we need. We just know we’re feeling lost or overwhelmed or that we’re even in pain. That’s why we also offer free Well Mama Consults to help you figure out what support would be best for you and who could help you. Or for those who are curious about how our services could help them, we have a fun, free quiz that they can take no matter what stage of motherhood they are in.  

What is one piece of advice you want to leave women with as they enter motherhood postpartum?

I love this question because the postpartum period is not celebrated enough in our culture. It’s all about pregnancy and birth—which are important, but are a drop in the bucket I think compared to the transformation that happens in those first few months as a new mother. 

That said, I think it’s essential to prep for postpartum. The third trimester is the perfect time to channel all of that nervous and excited energy into doing things that your future mom self will thank you for. That means assembling the people, resources, and everything you may need or want because once baby is here, it’s so much harder to think and do, well, anything. If you need help getting started, I recommend The First Forty Days and The Fourth Trimester to orient yourself for the sacred time that postpartum can be. 

Then after the prepping is done, you can more joyfully surrender to those first few months, soak up all of the newborn snuggles, and give space for your inner mama intuition to grow.  

Anything else? 

If you’re an expecting mom who would love a little extra support as you prepare for postpartum (and don’t need another baby onesie!), consider a MyNestwell Well Parent Fund. It’s a beautiful and simple way for loved ones to contribute financially to your postpartum wellness. You can find out more here or email ewatson@mynestwell.com to get started.

Are you a BossMama or know someone who you think would be perfect for this series? Drop me a line and let’s get them on the blog! My goal here is to build a community of women lifting each other up through the many phases of motherhood. Much like Emily, I want to help you find your tribe!

<3 BJS