The following podcast is a deer media production.

From the offices of Creighton Cultivate, I'm Jacqueline Johnson, the host of WorkParty,

a podcast for ambitious women looking to create and cultivate the career of their dreams.

WorkParty is paving the way for a new generation of women, women who are redefining the meaning of work on their own terms.

Every Wednesday, we bring in leading female powerhouses for real talk and BS free advice on building your business.

You'll hear from female founders, CEOs, entrepreneurs, creatives, and so many other badass ladies.

Are you ready to create and cultivate the career of your dreams? And tune into WorkParty, the podcast.

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Hello from maternity leave and as always, thank you for continuing to support the show and the content I put out there.

It means the world to me to be able to spend this time with my family.

And specifically this time is something that is wildly important to me because I feel I want to give myself the space to really

mentally like adapt to all of the changes, whether it be hormonal or lifestyle that come with a child and take the time to be present for all of that.

And that is a large focus of today's episode.

I am so honored that our guest, Ayanna Lage felt comfortable to come on here and share so honestly and vulnerably about her experience because I think the more we can have these conversations, the more a hopeful like support we can get during these times, but be the less alone.

The more people can feel if they are experiencing something similar. So I followed Ayanna for, I don't know, like I think maybe a few years now, I don't know, but we have like been kind of quiet followers of each other, but I've always known who she was have consumed for content, et cetera.

I saw that she posted some articles and publications that she had done as a guest talking about her experience in a psychiatric ward because of postpartum psychosis and I immediately was drawn to the subject and had a lot of personal questions, but was also just so

proud as the wrong word, but like felt so many supportive emotions, I guess, towards her publicly sharing something so personal in such a public manner.

So I reached out to her and asked if she would feel comfortable coming on here to share and thankfully she did and I think this is just a very honest and open conversation around a topic that is very serious and one that

you know is a potential in postpartum, but I don't think many people discuss and maybe even those who experience it feel shame around and so I really wanted to give her the mic to share her story.

Ayanna is a blogger, she's a mental health advocate, a writer, and as she claims a chronic overshare so without further ado, here is our episode.

I'm so excited to have you on here. I've been following you for I feel like a long time, but this is our first time

really interacting other than like maybe a few comments and DMs, right? Yeah, it's so funny because I see you and I feel like I know you, but then I'm like,

...