Joanna Page on Breastfeeding on Set & Parenting Burnout

The Overwhelm of New Motherhood

• 🤯 Joanna Page describes the emotional overload and stress that comes with parenting, noting how everything feels heightened.
• ⚠️ She shares a personal anecdote of losing her temper with her children after holding in her own emotions, leading to feelings of guilt and inadequacy.

Balancing Acting and Traumatic Birth Recovery

• 💔 Page recounts the physical and emotional toll of a traumatic birth and subsequent recovery, including hemorrhaging and low iron.
• 🎭 Despite exhaustion and physical difficulties like cracked nipples, she felt compelled by her identity as an actress to accept auditions, even two weeks after giving birth.
• 🤱 A specific instance involved auditioning while breastfeeding on demand, without expressed milk or bottles, relying on her mother to manage the baby.

Doctor Who and the Reality of Working Motherhood

• 🚀 Page discusses the challenge of filming Doctor Who shortly after giving birth, bringing her baby to set.
• 🍼 She describes the intense schedule of cluster feeding, expressing milk, and wearing a restrictive corset, all while struggling to remember lines and perform as Queen Elizabeth.
• 😔 The constant conflict between her desire to be with her baby and the demands of filming led to immense difficulty and a feeling of being overwhelmed.

Shifting Priorities and Identity

• 💡 As filming continued, Page's priorities began to shift, with the acting world losing its paramount importance compared to her role as a mother.
• 🛑 She reached a breaking point, deciding to step away from acting for approximately seven years, prioritizing her identity as a mother over her career.
• 🌟 This decision, though potentially career-damaging, brought immense relief and a redefinition of her self-worth beyond professional achievements.