Do Not Disturb: The Inside Story

Why are mothers expected to cope while everyone checks on the baby? Simona Deifta speaks with Laura McGrath, co-founder and CEO of Lola&Lykke, about the experiences that led her to build a maternal-health company.

Laura talks candidly about pregnancy loss, advocating for her own care, returning to work after miscarriage, and what practical support for mothers at work actually looks like. They also discuss the pressure around breastfeeding, Laura’s own decision to use formula, and why motherhood should not be treated as an instinctive skill women must manage alone.

Content note: This episode discusses miscarriage, sepsis and difficult postpartum experiences. Laura describes her personal experience; this conversation is not medical advice.

Explore Lola&Lykke: https://lolalykke.com/en-gb
Discover the Bloome wearable breast pump: https://lolalykke.com/en-gb/products/bloome-wearable-breast-pump

Do Not Disturb: The Inside Story is a podcast about motherhood, work, identity and ambition.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What does it take to make Britain obsessed with beans? Simona Deifta sits down with Bold Bean Co founder Amelia Christie-Miller to talk about building a challenger food brand, creating a new category, the reality behind Dragons’ Den, and the naming decision that nearly sent the business in a very different direction.

A candid conversation about conviction, risk, brand-building and turning an overlooked everyday product into something people genuinely care about.

Watch the full episode on the Do Not Disturb YouTube channel.

Follow Amelia Christie-Miller and Bold Bean Co on LinkedIn.
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What happens when you leave your job, start a business and discover you are pregnant in the same week?

In this episode, Simona speaks with Sabrina Sarl, creative business adviser, artist manager and host of Mothers of Creativity. Sabrina has spent more than 15 years working across the creative industries and now creates space for honest conversations about how motherhood shapes creative careers.

Sabrina reflects on how motherhood changed the shape of her work without erasing her ambition. She and Simona discuss the promise and pressure of self-employment, why comparing yourself with people who are not parents is a trap, the different expectations placed on creative mothers and fathers, and what it takes to define success on your own terms.

At the heart of the conversation is a more useful question than “Can mothers have it all?”: what is the life and career you actually want to build now?

In this conversation:

• Leaving a job, starting a business and becoming pregnant at the same time
• How motherhood changes the shape of ambition
• The flexibility and hidden pressure of self-employment
• Why creative parents are working with genuinely limited resources
• The danger of comparing yourself with people who are not parents
• The different expectations placed on creative mothers and fathers
• Building Mothers of Creativity
• Redefining success after motherhood

Find Sabrina:
Mothers of Creativity: https://podcast.mothersofcreativity.com/
Website: https://www.sabrinasarl.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sabrina.sarl/

Follow Do Not Disturb: @donotdisturbpods

If this conversation resonated, follow the show, leave a review and share it with a woman rebuilding ambition on her own terms.
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Many women prepare carefully for the baby. Far fewer are prepared for what motherhood will do to their identity, relationships, body, ambition and sense of control.

Simona Deifta is joined by Becky Selbie, a therapist specialising in maternal mental health and the founder of Motherway. Together they explore the expectation-versus-reality gap, matrescence, perfectionism, accepting help, invisible labour and why high-achieving women can find motherhood especially destabilising.

This is not an episode about becoming a perfect mother. It is an honest conversation about what motherhood actually feels like—and why women may be responding normally to impossible expectations.

Find Becky on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_motherway_/
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Comparison is the thief of joy—but motherhood can make the timelines women are measured against feel even louder.

In this episode, Simona speaks with Gillian Orr, award-winning journalist, former Editor-in-Chief of Refinery29 UK and writer of Slouching Towards Bethnal Green. Gillian reflects on building a career in women’s media, becoming a mother at 39, having her role eliminated while she was on maternity leave, moving into freelance work and slowly finding her ambition again.

They talk honestly about the loneliness of maternity leave, why high-powered motherhood so often depends on invisible help, the affluent version of motherhood over-represented in media, the rise and fall of “girlboss” culture, and Gillian’s decision to have one child.
At the heart of the conversation is a simple permission slip: stop measuring your life against other people’s milestones and choose the timeline that is right for you.
In this conversation:

Gillian’s journey from The Independent to launching Refinery29 UK
Career identity after maternity leave
Becoming a mother at 39 and the pressure attached to turning 35
The loneliness that can accompany maternity leave
Why “having it all” usually depends on invisible help
What women’s media gets wrong about affluent motherhood
Choosing to have one child
Losing ambition, finding it again and allowing life to move in seasons
Why comparison and age-based milestones steal joy

Content note: this episode includes discussion of fertility anxiety, pregnancy, prenatal depression, maternity leave and maternal identity.

Gillian’s newsletter:
https://gillianorr.substack.com/

Gillian on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/gillian__orr/

Gillian’s Refinery29 archive:
https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/author/gillian-orr

Follow Do Not Disturb:
@donotdisturbpods

If this conversation resonated, follow the show, leave a review and share it with a woman who needs permission to choose her own timeline.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.