S3 Ep10 : Life's Too Short to Pressure New Mums to 'Lose The Baby Weight'

Today we chat with Dietitian and PhD Candidate Melissa Eaton. Melissa is a Mental Health Dietitian with Keeping the Body in Mind (Primary) located at UNSW (currently on extended maternity leave), an NSA Registered Nutritionist, and a former dancer and teacher - having completed a Master of Nutrition and Dietetics, a Bachelor of Science (Food and Nutrition), and a Bachelor of Arts (Dance) with a Bachelor of Education.  Her PhD research explores nutrition and mental health, with a focus on weight-neutral approaches, eating behaviour, disordered eating, and weight-stigma.  She is also a new Mum of a baby girl and is currently navigating the mum, work, life, juggle.

We first met Melissa when she was a student dietitian who 'got it'. She already had a super firm grounding in weight bias and weight inclusive care, not to mention a really cool and popular instagram page where she shared great non-diet information to her many followers.

Now as a mum of a toddler she's a bit shocked and horrified by the pressure she sees being placed on new mums to lose weight, control their child's diet and weight and how this can do a lot of harm to both parents and children.

We also chat to Melissa about her PhD research into mental health and experiences of weight bias that patients can have when accessing health services.

If you want to go back and listen to our interview with Alicia Edge it is episode 24, you can find it here