Hey, I am Ivana!

Hey! I’m PhDr. Ivana Poku – author of Motherhood – The Unspoken, an award-winning blogger and maternal mental health advocate. Through my work, I am on a mission to create a world where mums feel seen, heard and supported. I am also a mum of three boys, including twins, and live with my family in a small coastal town in Scotland. After my twin boys, Henry & Mason, were born in 2016, I struggled with severe postnatal depression (PND). It was the scariest and loneliest experience of my life and something I don’t wish on anyone. Saying I felt low at the time would be an understatement. I hated being a mum, I longed to turn back time and was even suicidal at one point.  I felt incredibly ashamed about how I felt and put all the effort into hiding my feelings. Outwardly, I was the happy, relaxed mum I thought I should be but inside, I was falling apart. Luckily, I eventually managed to pull through but this is not the case for everyone. There are thousands of mums (and dads) around the world who suffer in silence.  Even if it doesn’t go as far as depression, being a mum is not easy and far from what we have expected. The media and society create an illusion that becoming a mum is the most amazing time in a woman’s life. However, this is often not the case. While being a new mum is rewarding an amazing on many levels, it is NOT all a bed of roses. But since people don’t talk about it, if a new mum doesn’t ‘enjoy every moment’, she often feels like a failure, suffers in silence, and/or falls into depression. Most antenatal classes focus mainly on birth, and offer only minimal (if any) information about life after baby and postnatal mental health which leads to a lot of unnecessary struggle and mental health issues. Once I understood this, I KNEW I had to do something about it!  Initially, I started blogging to help other mums feel less alone. Not even within a year of blogging, I was shortlisted in the Best Business Women Awards. In 2019. I published the first edition of my book Motherhood – The Unspoken which reveals the untold truths about motherhood people don’t talk about (and should), shares real-life stories from 10 different first-time mums, gives plenty of support and reassurance to new mums, and, in the process, helps lower the risks of PND. Around the time the book was released, I also started running online and offline workshops and classes for new mums – many of them in cooperation with NHS midwives, including the award-winning midwife Marley Henry. In 2020 I won a Bronze Shining Star Business Award. I could not be prouder of how far my brand Mumsjourney has come. You could see my work featured in various media outlets including Forbes, BBC, TALK Radio, Telegraph, Guardian, Metro, the Huffington Post, Today, and Vogue, to name but a few. (See my press page to see more.) I also occasionally appear on BBC London Radio as an expert. Before she moved to GB News, I was also a regular guest on Nana Akua’s parenting show on BBC 3CR. And last but not least – I am a mum of gorgeous boys I would die for! It hasn’t been easy to run a business while looking after three small children, but the memory of how lonely and scared I felt once has always been my driving force. In 2016, on one of my lowest days, I made a promise to myself to do everything in my power to help other mums never have to feel like I did. And I will keep that promise for as long as I shall live. (And probably even longer than that) If you want to say hello or work with me, please email me at ivana.poku@mumsjourney.com. I look forward to hearing from you! From the blog: Having a baby is not a joyful experience Are antenatal classes contributing to postnatal depression? What is postpartum depression? Everything you need to know. First pregnancy guide: Everything you need to know as a first time mum How to survive the newborn stage