EXCLUSIVE: Mum-of-six Jana Pittman on normalising bladder leakage and the beautiful support she receives from women

As an Olympian-turned-doctor and former SAS Australia star, Jana Pittman is a high achiever. But, without a doubt Jana’s greatest achievement is her six children.

Jana and her husband Paul Gatward welcomed son Quinlan and daughter Willow earlier this year on March 22.

The newborn twins are being doted on their other older brother Charlie, 18 months, and sisters Emily, six, and Jemima, five.

Jana’s eldest child, Cornelis, 15, from her first marriage to former coach Chris Rawlinson, has also been a huge help for his sleep-deprived and very busy mum.

Bounty Parents caught up with Jana to talk about life with twins, breastfeeding and why she is determined to open up the conversation surrounding postpartum incontinence.

Congratulations on the arrival of your twins, Willow and Quinlan. How are you all?

It’s all good but hats off to mums of multiples. Having four kids I thought I was an old hand at this but it’s been a step up for sure. I knew it was going to be more time consuming, it’s double trouble but I’m lucky as my twins sleep fairly well except for other night when they were up the whole night, one would be awake and then the other. The privilege of having these two beautiful little cherubs is well worth it.

You’ve also got four other kids. How’s life with six children?

That has been a challenge probably most with Charlie, my little 18-month-old. He’s divine and he loves the twins but he’s always trying to lie on them and kiss them and cuddle them. You’ve just got to be on guard to make sure that he’s getting enough attention and that the little ones don’t get hurt from too many cuddles.

Can you give us a glimpse into your household. Are you super-organised?

I have to be but it’s mayhem as well. There’s washing that’s not being done regularly and I’m outsourcing what I can. My mum comes over and picks up the washing and takes into her house and does it for me. Also, the benefit of having the older kids is they do help. They’ll hold a twin while Mummy has a shower, they help make their own lunches and they often get their clothes out ready for the next day. We’re a well-oiled machine but it took a little while to get there. We’re two months into it and we’re definitely getting better at it.

Congratulations on your incredible effort on SAS Australia last year. Going back to the episode where you wet yourself in one of the challenges and you spoke up about it. What was some of the feedback you received after the episode aired?

I was worried I’d get judged for it but it opened a huge conversation around incontinence in women and how we need to get help with physios and that we shouldn’t be suffering in silence and that there are products like Modbodi leak-proof and period-proof underwear, out there to help. It was embarrassing for me but for the conversation it stimulated it was well worth going through it. I received beautiful messages from women saying they were in tears with their husbands in the lounge room because they could finally talk about what they’ve been going through and how they’ve been hiding it.

During postpartum most of us have an incontinence issue where you’re worried you might sneeze in public or go for a run and you’ll have a bit of a bit of a leak. Modibodi is all about restoring a woman’s dignity to feel like she could just carry on with life, no matter what sort of leaks are bothering her, I guess. Not to mention the environmental aspect of the product initially attracted me as well.

We need women to be more confident and proud of their bodies and if their incontinence is bad, they need to get help. A lot of people are not seeking help until their pelvic floor is ruined whereas if they had the right support at the early stages of leakage then they’re more likely to get the right advice and the right exercises to try to fix it and help them avoid surgery.

That incontinence incident happened on national TV, have there been any other notable times that your bladder let you know you’re a mum?

Oh yes, big time – and that’s why I made the decision to say it on SAS because I could have stayed quiet at the time. When I won the World Championships in 2007, seven months after having my first child, I was so embarrassed as I would wet myself every race. Our bodies are not supposed to run at that elite level that quickly after birth, it’s just not. But, it was my job and how I’d pay the bills and I was running really well. Structurally I had a lot of weakness in my pelvic floor, my big muscle groups were still working.

Before every race, I’d pour a bottle of water over myself  pretending I was really hot but knowing that it would cover up the incontinence at the end of the race. I remember during the victory lap after winning this massive race in front the world, fully incontinent and nobody noticed. I didn’t even tell my sports doctor or my coach; I kept it to myself.

It wasn’t until a few years later, I was doing a speaking gig with a women’s group where I spoke about that openly for the first time. A couple of women afterwards come up to me saying how grateful they were that I shared that message because they watched me win the World Championships years before and had felt bad about themselves and that they weren’t able to do that kind of exercise because they had incontinence themselves.

I realised in that moment, I was giving the wrong message to women by hiding my embarrassment. I was actually making women feel bad about themselves. So I vowed that I’d never have that again. So when it happened again, I remember standing there in SAS and thinking, I’ve got a chance to just be quiet and say nothing, or just admit it. I wish I’d done it years earlier. I am going to be a gynecologist, and I’m a doctor and I need to empower women. So, let’s get it out in the open and talk about it.

As an Olympian, as a doctor, you’re obviously very driven. How do you think these skills have allowed you to transfer into motherhood?

I don’t think it’s always a positive. I’m very hard on myself at times and I’ve had to take a step back and just relax. It certainly gives me the resilience to cope with the heaviness and some of the ups and downs of parenthood but I also need to learn to give myself a break.

You’ve been open about your breastfeeding journey with Willow and Quinlan on your socials. What’s your advice to other mums struggling to breastfeed?

For me, it’s all about arming yourself with as much information as possible to support the supply you’ve got and if that doesn’t work, give yourself a break because there are women with hypoplastic breasts or women whose lifestyle doesn’t support them to be able to breastfeed. We have enough mother guilt as it is without giving ourselves issues around breastfeeding. So, just do the best job you can with the right information.

Has it been more challenging breastfeeding twins?

It’s actually been easier. I was really informed because I knew I had supply issues with all my other four. Breastfeeding Charlie wasn’t working well, so I researched galactagogues – food or herbs that may help increase supply. I discovered The Breast Feeding Tea Co.‘s Lactation Tea, which contains amazing galactagogues such as Blessed Thistle, Nettle and Goats Rue.

From the beginning I was having my teas, I was drinking heaps of water. I was getting the Boobie Bikkies – the ones from Pinky McKay are good. Also, I knew that it was going to be tough so I took the pressure off. If I can do it for a week, it’s great and if it’s two months that would be amazing.

How does the lactation tea help your supply?

I make a big pot of the tea in the morning and drink cups throughout the day. About three hours after drinking a cup I have a good let down. I also take advice from a lactation consultant when I need to. At the beginning when it was really tough with the twins, I was feeding eight times a day and expressing eight times a day, it was horrible! Now my milk supply is really good, and the babies have been exclusively breast fed since three weeks.

I know it’s a challenge hunting down what may work for you, so be open minded. I’ll be appearing at the 2022 Naturally Good Expo – on June 6-7 – encouraging more retailers to stock the tea so it’s available in more chemists and stores. I feel strongly that women need to be aware of options and not feel so in the dark.

Your six children have beautiful names. What’s been your system for choosing baby names? 

The first couple were all family names. Cornelis, my first, is my granddad’s name. Emily is my grandma’s name. Jemima’s name was simply that I wanted one of my kids to have the same initials as me ‘JP’ – my mum has them too. Charles is my husband’s father’s name. Willow and Quinlan were people I admired. There’s a guy who I work with who’s very good looking but very humble, a dad himself and a really phenomenal doctor and I loved his name, Quinlan. Willow was a beautiful little girl I met at a daycare centre. She was a sweet, wonderful little girl and I said to her mum, ‘Do you mind if I steal her name?’ And she said ‘Go for it’.

You qualified for the Sydney Olympics when you were just 15. What would  15-year-old Jana would think of Jana today?

I’ve always believed you should dream big and if failure happens, accept it and use it as an opportunity to find a new path. I was even like that as a young person, always attacking big goals and things. So I’d like to think that she’d be quite proud of the goals we set at a young age. The only message I’d like to give her is to say, give yourself a bit more of a break. I’ve been very hard on myself over the years and I think a lot of successful people are but I could have enjoyed some of my athletic achievements more if I’d stopped to smell the roses more, which I do now in life.

Modibodi has recently launched the new Ultra range which is created to support full incontinence (styles for both men and women) and is its most absorbent briefs to date.