The LIFTS Podcast
The LIFTS Podcast (formerly Mother Love) is a Montana-based podcast centering lived experience and amplifying diverse voices from across the state. Through conversations with caregivers, providers, and advocates, we explore bold ideas and creative solutions for supporting the littlest Montanans and their families. If you have feedback, or an idea for a guest or topic, email us at stories@hmhb-mt.org.
The LIFTS Podcast
Stephanie Morton, HMHB - New Season, New Name!
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Welcome to Season 5 of our podcast (formerly Mother Love, now known as The LIFTS Podcast)! Today we'll chat with HMHB's Executive Director, Stephanie Morton, to discuss the upcoming podcast season, our updated name, and more.
LIFTS podcast: https://hmhb-mt.org/podcast/
LIFTS online resource guide: https://hmhb-lifts.org/
LIFTS magazine: https://hmhb-mt.org/magazine/
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Connect with Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies
For statewide resources to support Montana families in the 0-3 years of parenting, check out the LIFTS online resource guide at
https://hmhb-lifts.org/
Fall has arrived, and here at Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies, we're thinking about warm sweaters, pumpkins, and the new season of the podcast. Today's guest is Stephanie Morton, our very own executive director, here for a quick chat about the upcoming podcast season. I'm Emily Freeman, Storytelling Coordinator with Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies, the Montana Coalition.
SPEAKER_00My name is Stephanie Morton, and I serve as the executive director of Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies. I'm coming to you with a little bit of an update about the Mother Love podcast and the direction that Emily and our crew will be taking this incredible project in the coming year. Excellent.
SPEAKER_01Well, thanks for being here. What is new with the podcast? What can listeners expect?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. New and sane. Um, in short. So for the past five years, the Mother Love Podcast has been sharing stories about parenting and caregiving in Montana through the voices of those parents, caregivers, and the providers who are caring for them. We really focus in on that perinatal space. So thinking that pregnancy through age three, which aligns with the mission of Healthy Mothers, Health Babies. In conversations with providers, families, advocates, and more, our podcast has really illuminated both the challenges and then also the celebrations that come with pregnancy, parenting, and caregiving and help to highlight some of the dualities of this time frame in folks' lives. But starting this fall, Mother Love is getting a new name. Um, we're gonna transition over to the name the Lyfts podcasts. And what we're really thinking about is trying to align with some of our other programming. So Lyfts is L-I-F-T-S, and that stands for linking infants and families to supports. The Lyft's online resource guide is a statewide pregnancy through age three focused resource guide. And companion to that is the Lyfts magazine. We knew we could make a beautiful online resource guide, but we also needed to tell stories that normalize accessing caregiving supports. And we do that through the Lyfts magazine and then also through our podcast. Aligning those names seems really appropriate at this time. Additionally, when we were looking for stories, we found ourselves not always talking to mothers or folks who identify themselves as mothers or moms. And really, what we were talking about more often was mothering and thinking about that as a verb and an action and all of the different people that do that, whether that's the language that they use or not. When we think about that full perinatal experience, we're talking about mothers, but we're also talking about fathers, grandparents, foster parents, siblings, all of these different experiences need to be part of the conversation. And we found that some of the best ways to support moms is to include those supporting cast of caregivers that come alongside all of them. It was really important for us to have a little bit more of an inclusive name in this particular space so that all the people who are experiencing the perinatal period feel as though they're reflected in the Lyfts podcast.
SPEAKER_01Thank you for that explanation. That all makes a lot of sense to me. What are you most excited about for this coming season?
SPEAKER_00I love hearing stories from parents and caregivers, like always. And I love hearing stories from providers, but it's less about who they're coming from and more about what they can inspire. As a person who, you know, is not in the perinatal period, has not gone through that myself. Like, I'm always looking to learn more from the stories that I'm listening to and thinking about how it's almost like a data point, right? Like, how is this informing the work that Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies is doing? These stories actually fill your cup when you know that a system support has worked. Someone was able to get the assistance that they needed, and a connection was made that helped a family through a difficult point in time, or a provider listened to a patient and changed the way they do their work. I am always looking for the stories that tell us what is the way to better. And like that's my favorite part about the Lyft's podcast is how is this helping to fill out my understanding of the perinatal experience here in Montana? And how do we make a better system that supports the people doing that?
SPEAKER_01Well, we've got a variety of voices coming up this season. We will learn about Montana's new car seat law, which finally will bring our state in line with federal safety guidelines. We have a conversation about the power of live storytelling to provide a space for connection and healing. And we're going to hear from one of our featured Lyfts magazine writers from this year's issue of the magazine about the process of sharing her experience on the page and what that was like. It'll be a nice variety of voices, and we hope to learn a lot. And it's going to be great. Looking forward to it.
SPEAKER_00Thank you so much, Emily. I am so thankful that we have you at the helm of this, and I appreciate you so much being that steward of story for healthy mothers, healthy babies, and for the community that we serve. I look forward to hearing what you come up with. Thank you. Sounds great.
SPEAKER_01See you soon. The Lifts Podcast is a project of Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies, the Montana Coalition, a nonprofit dedicated to improving the health, safety, and well-being of Montana families in the zero to three years of parenting. Visit us at hmhb-mt.org to learn more about who we are and what we do. Views and opinions expressed in these interviews do not necessarily represent HMHB as an organization. If you have feedback on the podcast or an idea for a future episode, we'd love to hear from you. You can email us at stories at hmhb mt.org. Thanks for listening.