Newbies: New Moms, New Babies

Newbies focuses on a specific window that many pregnancy podcasts gloss over: the first year after your baby arrives. Produced by New Mommy Media and hosted by journalist Natalie Gross and doula Kristen Stratton -- who have five young kids between them -- the show has been running since late 2015 and has built up over 350 episodes. Each weekly episode runs about 40 minutes and covers a focused topic relevant to newly postpartum mothers and their newborns. The content ranges from the physical recovery after childbirth and breastfeeding challenges to infant sleep patterns, developmental milestones, and the emotional adjustments of early parenthood. The hosts bring in pediatricians, lactation consultants, sleep specialists, and other experts to provide professional guidance alongside their own parenting experiences. The show fills an important gap. Most pregnancy podcasts understandably concentrate on the nine months before birth, and then you're suddenly holding a baby with no idea what comes next. Newbies picks up right at that transition point and walks you through the first year with practical, week-by-week relevance. The combination of Natalie's journalism skills and Kristen's doula background means episodes are both well-structured and grounded in hands-on birth and postpartum experience. One note: some listeners have mentioned that the ad load at the beginning of episodes can be heavy, with several minutes before the actual content starts. The substance is solid once you get past that. If you're approaching your due date or already in the thick of newborn life and want a podcast that speaks directly to what you're dealing with right now, Newbies is built for exactly that stage.