From navigating conflicting advice during her own pregnancy to creating a platform dedicated to evidence-based conversations around motherhood, journalist and founder Katie O’Malley is on a mission to change the way women experience maternal health information. After years writing for leading titles including ELLE UK, The Times, and i, she launched A Long Way To Go during maternity leave, a podcast, and platform designed to cut through the noise surrounding pregnancy and postpartum. Here, she talks about the gaps in maternal healthcare, why women deserve better information and support, and the small rituals that helped her through the early days of motherhood.
Why A Long Way To Go Is Changing The Conversation Around Motherhood And Women’s Health
You launched A Long Way To Go during maternity leave. What was the moment you realised this needed to exist?
I became pregnant with my first child in 2024 and was immediately struck by how confusing, contradictory and often inadequate the information around women’s health can be.
The first moment came when I told my GP I was pregnant and that I was due to run the London Marathon three weeks later. I was looking for clear, evidence-based advice on whether it was safe, what the risks might be and how to make an informed decision. But I couldn’t get the answers I needed. And there was very little nuance, individuality or emotional investment in pregnancy fitness in the advice I found online.
I saw the same pattern throughout pregnancy, from skincare to nutrition. Women have never had more access to information about motherhood through social media, personal stories, AI and online communities, yet so many of us feel more overwhelmed than ever. It’s increasingly difficult to know what’s evidence-based, what’s outdated, what’s fearmongering and what you can actually trust.
The name A Long Way To Go comes from years of interviews I’ve done as a journalist, where women and experts repeatedly told me the same thing: there is still a long way to go when it comes to research, equality and adequate support in women’s health. And from my postpartum experience, I found that there’s a long way to go when it comes to recovery, finding a new rhythm of life and discovering your new identity as a mother. It all takes time.
Three months into maternity leave, I felt compelled to create a platform for women who wanted clear, evidence-based advice directly from experts. From social media wellness trends to outdated “rules” passed between well-meaning mums, too many women are left to navigate pregnancy and postpartum surrounded by fear, confusion and conflicting information. A Long Way To Go is my attempt to make those conversations more accessible, honest and free from shame, misinformation and scaremongering.
You’ve had a hugely successful career in journalism, writing for titles including ELLE UK, The Times and i. How did becoming a mother shift your perspective on the stories that matter most?
I’ve always been interested in women’s stories, which is why so much of my journalism career has been spent at women’s titles including Stylist and ELLE UK. During my time at ELLE, I created a series called Fertility Focus, which explored lesser-discussed issues around fertility and reproductive health, from baby loss burnout and hyperfertility to surrogacy.
One of the features I’m proudest of was an interview with a South Korean mother whose surrogate was in Ukraine and due to give birth just as the Russia-Ukraine war broke out. It was an extraordinary story involving Covid-19 and surrogacy laws across Europe, and a reminder of how complex, emotional and underreported women’s experiences can be.
Since becoming a mother, that drive to share women’s stories and amplify women’s voices has only grown stronger. Motherhood has sharpened my sense of what matters, and I’m more committed than ever to championing women who are breaking down stereotypes, pioneering new ideas and helping to change the future for women.
The platform brings together leading voices in women’s health. How did you decide which topics were the most urgent to cover first?
I knew I wanted season one of the podcast to cover a broad range of topics, which is why I’ve called it The Foundations. The idea was to create 30-35 minute conversations (roughly the length of a 5km run, a walk around the park) that give women clear, expert-led information on the issues that come up again and again during pregnancy and postpartum.
I started with the topics I felt women most urgently need better support around: C-section recovery, pelvic floor health, fitness, nutrition, skincare, hair loss and mental health. C-section recovery felt especially important to me, having had an emergency C-section myself and finding the recovery much harder, both physically and mentally, than I expected.
According to NHS maternity statistics for England, around one in three births (and in some areas closer to 40%) are now by C-section. Yet despite it being one of the most common birth experiences in the UK, many women still feel under-informed about what it involves, what recovery actually looks like and what’s normal afterwards.
That same lack of clear, practical information runs through so many areas of pregnancy and postpartum. There is often so much focus on the birth itself, and far less on how women are supported before and especially after it. Season one is really about giving women the foundational knowledge they deserve during one of the most physically and emotionally transformative periods of their lives.
What have you learned from speaking to specialists about the state of maternal healthcare in the UK right now?
Thankfully, there is much greater awareness now of mental health during pregnancy and postpartum, but what I’ve learnt from specialists, and from my own experience, is that awareness doesn’t always translate into meaningful support.
Too often, women are asked about their mental health in a way that can sometimes feel like a checkbox exercise. You might be asked how you are while holding a crying baby, running on no sleep, or sitting next to your partner, with very little space to answer honestly. And when a new mother says, ‘I’m fine’ or ‘I’m just tired’, there often isn’t enough interrogation of what that really means.
Postnatal mental health is complex. Sleep deprivation, birth recovery, feeding, hormones, identity loss, relationship changes, financial pressure and returning to work can all affect how a woman feels, and those things don’t disappear after the six or eight week check. Yet too often, support drops away just as many women are beginning to process what they’re going through and may struggle to articulate how they’re feeling when they’re at their most sleep-deprived and vulnerable.
We have an incredible NHS, but women need more consistent physical and mental health follow-ups, and better services that give them the time, space and language to share how they’re feeling and receive impactful support. Because asking the question matters, but only if we are properly prepared to hear the answer and do something about it.
Is there one episode of the new A Long Way To Go podcast that stayed with you most after recording – either because of the expert you spoke to or something it made you reflect on in your own motherhood journey?
My conversation with Vic Holyoak, a midwife and the founder of C-Section UK, really stayed with me because she talked through, step by step, what actually happens during a C-section.
In the episode, I remember saying to her that while I had expected to have a vaginal birth, I knew a C-section was a possibility, but I don’t think I had ever really understood what that meant beyond the scar. I didn’t know much about the process, who would be in the room, what I might feel, what would happen afterwards, or what recovery would really involve.
Hearing it explained so clearly felt strangely comforting. And it made me realise that, when it comes to birth and postpartum recovery, there can often be a fear of ‘scaring’ women with the truth. But by withholding information, we’re not protecting women, we’re keeping them in the dark. Women deserve the knowledge to advocate for themselves and make informed decisions, rather than relying on myth, misinformation or guesswork. Giving women the facts is not about frightening them; it’s about respecting them.
I also think in discussing all the facets of the pregnancy and postpartum experience, we’re enabling friends and family to learn more about the magnitude of change a woman undergoes so that they can have a better understanding of how they can support the mothers in their lives.
If there’s one thing you wish every new mother knew about looking after her own wellbeing, what would it be?
You really can’t pour from an empty cup.
I think every new mother deserves to know that looking after yourself doesn’t have to look like the polished version of ‘self-care’ we’re so often sold. The reality is that caring for yourself after having a baby can be incredibly difficult, both practically and emotionally.
In the early days, I really struggled with the idea of wellbeing or ‘me time’. On the occasions my husband took our daughter for a few hours to give me a ‘break’, I often didn’t want to be alone (maternity leave can feel lonely enough) or I’d feel so overwhelmed that I didn’t even know what would make me feel better. When I thought of wellbeing, my initial response was to book a fitness class because that’s the version of wellbeing I’d known so well before becoming a mother, when in reality I was prematurely trying to push my body back into movement when in reality it needed rest.
So my advice would be to take the pressure off. If looking after your wellbeing means buying a pastry from the local café and going home to watch TV, getting into bed and scrolling on Instagram for a bit, or catching up with a friend over a Whatsapp voice note, it counts as caring for yourself.
We sometimes romanticise self-care as if it has to be really intentional, such as booking a facial or massage. Those things are lovely, but often looking after yourself doesn’t need to be luxurious or Instagrammable. Sometimes it just needs to be a moment of space.
And finally, what’s one small ritual, product or practice that has genuinely helped you through the chaos of early motherhood?
I bought a silicone cupping therapy set from Amazon once my C-section scar had healed, on the recommendation of a bodywork specialist, and found it brilliant. Every night, I’d lie in bed, massage balm or moisturiser around the area, and use the small cups on the skin above the scar, moving them in different directions to help improve tissue mobility and release any tightness. It only took five minutes, but it became a small ritual I really cherished; a quiet moment where I felt I was taking slow, steady steps in my recovery.
The other thing that’s transformed my sleep is an eye mask. I still sleep with the monitor next to my bed and, even with the brightness turned down, the glare would keep me awake. An eye mask makes me feel properly cocooned, and I genuinely wouldn’t sleep without one now.
