Just as we launch our much-awaited series “Speak Your Truth,” in partnership with Robyn, we sat down with the founder Allison. Now pregnant with her third boy (naturally!) after suffering fertility issues and IVF treatments with her first pregnancy, she shares how she learned to mother herself, why she launched Robyn, plus what’s next for the brand. @wearerobyn

We just moved to LA with 20-month-old twin boys and I’m pregnant with a third boy!

The company began as a result of my fertility journey. We were having trouble getting pregnant, which I decided to share pretty openly about on social media. Fairly quickly after I began sharing the conversation shifted from only focusing on me to a platform for other women to share their journeys. To date, we’ve shared hundreds of paths to parenthood through our various channels, with a mission to destigmatize the fertility conversation and to empower women with the resources they need to get pregnant. Our community has grown to about 25k women across our social media and newsletter.

Recently we polled our growing community on what information would be most helpful on their journey, and overwhelmingly the response was resources! Therefore, over the past couple of months, my team and I have been building a robust resource platform that’s going to cover pre-pregnancy, pregnancy, and postpartum. Moreover, we have vetted maternal wellness experts that will contribute accurate and credible information to the site (of which you can also connect to any of the experts or practitioners in-person or over-the-phone). These days, the internet is a haven for misinformation which we’re trying to solve.

The new site will also have a dynamic library whereby you can search your specific path to parenthood be it twins or multiples to embryo adoption and surrogacy. In short, we’re taking what we do on social media and making it web-friendly as well as a tool for people that want to read about different experiences or similar experiences to their own.

We’re meant to soft launch this month to our community. The site is complete for the most part, but we’re in the process of revisiting our messaging and communication strategy. Plus, we’re working on a new name, which is exciting! Once we have all of that done, we’ll go live! I’m open to talking about it and letting people know that we’re fast at work getting ready to bring them all of these fantastic resources.  

When I first started, people were far more hush-hush about the topic and then Chrissy Teigen began talking about her own experience along with several other celebrities which opened up the conversation. Now every other day it seems there’s a related story in my Apple Newsfeed. In general, it seems like an era of destigmatization for many issues! Plus, there’s been a whole trend towards wellness and eastern medicine, of which a lot of these complementary practices are important to help support what you may already be doing with your western doctor.

I worked at JP Morgan in finance for eight years and loved my job. I had risen to Vice President, was running a division, and felt very empowered by my career. However, when we started having trouble getting pregnant, my entire world flipped, and I finally understood this concept of work-life balance. I took a personal leave from my job for a few months to focus on mothering myself and doing all of the things that I’d wanted to try but never had the time to do like, changing my diet, acupuncture, and removing sources of stress. While I was on leave, I developed a passion for wellness + fertility and felt this path would add a considerable amount of meaning to my life. Therefore, I stepped away from finance, which ultimately was an incredible foundation for starting a business and finding my purpose.

You know it’s funny, we were getting ready to do IVF just before this plan to move to LA was set in motion. As part of that IVF cycle, we were going to put in a girl embryo, and as fate would have it, we got pregnant naturally—with another boy! As a result, this whole gender conversation has us talking about whether we would have a fourth (to try for a girl) or not…however I’m still wrapping my head around having three under two so we haven’t decided on that yet!

This pregnancy is a lot different from my first. My first was twins and high-risk because I was carrying multiples plus it was via IVF. Therefore, I was more cautious all around about what I was eating and the activities I was doing. Whereas with this pregnancy, I have been more laid back and not as controlling overall. Although with that said, I’m a pretty healthy person in general as a result of the changes I made when I was initially trying to get pregnant, such as eating whole foods and plant-based protein with healthy fats and omega-3s. My one craving has been breakfast burritos, which sounds terrible, but when you look at the ingredients (black beans, eggs, avocado, and whole wheat tortilla) it’s not! I grab one from The Smile on my way to work out of The Wing every morning

I have been working out at Fit Pregnancy Club and walking a lot.

Eating right, staying active, not sweating the small stuff, and taking baths when I can. Plus, I have been seeing a physical therapist for my back since I gave birth to the twins. I also try to get acupuncture and/or a message when I’m there. Had I not made this a priority, I think I would have been in tremendous pain throughout this pregnancy.

Everyone stresses self-care during pregnancy because, obviously, you’re growing a human, but it’s just as important pre-pregnancy and post!

You know, I had a tough time with this so-called “fourth trimester”. I remember taking my kids to the pediatrician a few days after I gave birth and all I wanted was for the pediatrician to look at me and ask me if I was OK! I was dealing with a ton of issues like crippling back pain and felt utterly unsupported. So with this one, I’m determined to change that narrative. I’m planning to be a self-advocate and find the support I need.

Ironic, by Alanis Morissette

I mean, I documented my entire fertility journey leading up to my first pregnancy, including the doctors that told me I would never get pregnant and I launched this whole company around destigmatizing infertility and then a year after having twins I get pregnant naturally! I had unexplained fertility, and they were never able to tell me what was wrong. I had my period every 28 days, and my husband got checked out too! I always thought it was possible and therefore was not that shocked when it happened naturally the second time around.But ya, isn’t it ironic