22: Preparing for a Connected, Nourishing Start to Life With Your Newborn | The Regenerative Paradigm for Postpartum
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In this episode, Ceridwen sits down with postpartum and birth doula, biological infant sleep educator, and mother Claire Fagan, founder of Regenerative Motherhood. Together they explore what new parents truly need in the early weeks and why so many common struggles come from cultural expectations - not parental failure.
Claire shares how becoming a mother transformed her approach to postpartum care and deepened her work in biological infant sleep. She and Ceridwen unpack the gap between what parents are told to expect and what babies are biologically designed for: closeness, co-regulation, frequent waking, and responsive care. They discuss why night-time care matters just as much as daytime nurture, and how babies rely on connection for nervous system regulation and optimal development.
You’ll hear about Claire’s new framework, The Regenerative Motherhood Paradigm, which helps mothers tune out cultural noise and reconnect with their own instincts. Built on six foundations - working with nature, honoring nuance, mutual nourishment, connection, embracing change, and recognizing broader impact - it offers a compassionate, empowering way to approach postpartum and baby care.
Using the metaphor of a regenerative garden, Ceridwen and Claire highlight how individualized, attuned care creates ripple effects of wellbeing for mothers, babies, and communities. They also explore how systemic pressures shape modern motherhood, and why parents often blame themselves for challenges rooted in wider cultural conditions.
The conversation covers:
What’s biologically normal for newborn sleep
Why crying is communication, not manipulation
How responsiveness supports regulation and bonding
Mutual nourishment and the motherbaby connection
Tools like SNS and paced bottle feeding that support breastfeeding and closeness
How connection is the foundation of postpartum wellbeing
This episode is for anyone preparing for postpartum, navigating early motherhood, or wanting a more grounded, nature-aligned perspective on newborn sleep, postpartum support, and intuitive mothering.
Claire's links
Postpartum Prep Podcast
Free Postpartum Prep Checklist
Instagram
Pinterest
24 episodes