To Every Mum Who Puts Herself Last

This One Is For You.

I want to talk to the mum who has spent hours researching her child’s sensory needs, advocating in every school meeting, and tailoring every meal, every routine and every environment.

While simply forgetting to eat lunch herself.

I see you. Because I’ve been you.

Nine years ago, I became a mum through adoption. At the time, I was over 40 and working freelance in marketing — juggling career and motherhood like so many women do, trying to hold it all together with good intentions and not quite enough sleep.

As my daughter grew, daily life became more intense. Multiple meltdowns a day. Food refusal. Broken sleep, night after night. Parenting suddenly required a level of constant presence and emotional resilience I had never experienced before.

Parenting a neurodivergent child doesn’t clock off. There is no end to the working day. Every moment asks something of you: your patience and your ability to stay regulated when everything around you isn’t.

It is, without question, the most demanding and most invisible work I have ever done.

And it raises a question that feels especially urgent as Mother’s Day approaches alongside Neurodiversity Celebration Week:

How do we support the mothers who are holding so much together behind the scenes?

The Science Is Saying What You Already Feel

All these feelings are not in your head, and it isn’t your fault. Research confirms that carrying this level of stress day after day takes a real physical toll. It affects your weight, your relationship with food, and your energy reserves. This is happening because your body is responding exactly as it should to an extraordinarily demanding situation.

And here is what makes this even more interesting: many of the mums I work with are discovering, as they navigate their child’s neurodivergence, that they too are neurodivergent. Late-diagnosed, finally seen and suddenly making sense of a lifetime of feeling like they were working harder than everyone else just to keep up.

Your Gut Is Listening To Your Stress

Here’s something most self-care conversations miss: around 90% of your serotonin, your “feel good” neurotransmitter is produced in your gut. When chronic stress disrupts the gut microbiome, it doesn’t just affect digestion. It affects mood, anxiety, energy, and your capacity to cope.

This is the connection that rarely gets talked about in parenting forums. We are told to “take time for yourself” and that advice, while well-meaning, often feels like another thing on the to-do list you are already failing to complete.

What if instead, we started with what you’re eating? Food is the most accessible, powerful tool you have to regulate your nervous system, stabilise your mood, and replenish what the constant giving takes away.

Three Places to Start (Without Overhauling Your Life)

1. Find your calm window to nourish yourself.

Mornings can be the hardest part of the day, and adding one more thing to that chaos isn’t the answer. If eating before the school run feels impossible, that’s completely understandable. What matters is that once the house is calm and there is a quieter moment, you actually stop and eat something nourishing. Blood sugar stability is the foundation of emotional regulation — and yours is just as important as everyone else’s.

2. Feed your gut bacteria.

Fermented foods, diverse fibre, colourful vegetables — these aren’t just nice to have. They are the building blocks of the serotonin your brain needs to keep you calm under pressure.

3. What do you tend to reach for at the end of a hard day?

We have all stood by the fridge not quite sure what we are looking for. If you happen to be depleted, that pull is your brain seeking a dopamine fix because your body has nothing left to give. Comfort eating in this context is a physiological response, not a behavioural failing and nourishing your body consistently throughout the day is one of the most effective ways to reduce it.

If you are not sure how to get started with this, check out my 21 day how to eat for energy programme called IGNITE. So simple, yet so effective if you want more energy right now.

This Is Where Nutritional Therapy Can Help

Nutrition and neurodivergence are more deeply connected than most people realise. Every neurotransmitter your brain relies on to regulate mood, focus, and calm — serotonin, dopamine, GABA — is built from nutrients. Without the right nutritional foundations, the body simply cannot produce or utilise these messengers effectively. And when you’re running on stress, broken sleep, and whatever you could grab between school drop-off and the next crisis, those foundations are often the first thing to erode.

As a Nutritional Therapist specialising in neurodivergence, I work with neurodivergent children, with the adults supporting them, and with the mums who have realised that their own brain and body deserve the same attention they’ve been giving everyone else.

If that’s you, you are in the right place.

This Mother’s Day, I simply want to remind you that you are not just the carer in this story. You are someone who deserves to be cared for too and it can start with something as small as what is on your plate today.

Should you wish to learn more about Nutritional Therapy and discover simple tips for more energy, focus and calm in your life, feel free to join my Facebook group Hormone Harmony.

If you would prefer exploring a personalised approach to address current health challenges, feel free to arrange a free chat HERE.