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The Spotlight: One Tough Mother’s Arsenal to Surviving Postpartum

By Ayesha Habib /

This tough mother is changing attitudes and celebrating new mothers one care-kit at a time.

After giving birth to her first child in 2017, Kristine Sostar McLellan found herself unable to walk more than a block. With so much focus on the pregnancy, the postpartum period was often put into reductive terms for the first-time mother, who was assured that everything after birth would simply be ‘intuitive’.Sostar McLellan is here to set things straight: looking after a tiny human is not an easy job. And it gets even harder when your body is recovering after giving birth. After hearing her own postpartum frustrations echoed back to her through a marketing survey, Sostar McLellan sought to find a solution. And thus, One Tough Mother was born.With One Tough Mother, Sostar McLellan both celebrates the strength of women while providing them with what they really need after giving birth: support and education. The company offers curated kits of necessary care items that address the reality of postpartum needs. “It’s full of the unglamourous items that you’re actually going to need,” Sostar McLellan says. “ your survival kit.” New mothers need to arm themselves with everything from Maxi pads and hospital mesh underwear to nipple cream and stool softener. It’s not a dinner conversation topic, Sostar McLellan laughs, but it’s a reality new mothers need to tackle head on.She’s not stopping there: Sostar McLellan also put together an educational e-book for the kit. Tailored specifically for new mothers in Vancouver and the lower mainland, the e-book is filled with educational material on the tedious things new mothers don’t realize they need to know. It covers topics from how to apply for EI to how to register the birth of a child.Sostar McLellan hopes One Tough Mother can help new mamas better navigate the postpartum world by educating and preparing them. “It’s a pretty crazy thing you go through ,” she says. “We gotta be pretty f—king tough to do it.”One Tough Mother kits are $75 with free shipping in all of British Columbia. Find out more at imonetoughmother.com.