“I Needed All the Drake:" Hannah Bronfman Talks Pushing Playlists and Postpartum Self-Care

May 06, 2021 | 01:51pm

There should be plenty of Beyonce and Rihanna in the mix, too.

“I Needed All the Drake:" Hannah Bronfman Talks Pushing Playlists and Postpartum Self-Care

Doulas and midwives often tell their clients to record their birth stories so they don't forget the moments leading up to how they became mothers. But this past year has changed many of these narratives as the global pandemic has impacted birthing people in ways big and small. Some welcomed children alone, as hospitals struggled to contain the virus. Others have been isolated from friends and family, trading in-person celebrations for face-time and Zoom calls. As we prepare to celebrate Mother's Day, Birth Stories—a limited audio series hosted by Vogue Beauty Director and pandemic mom Celia Ellenberg—spotlights the resilience of women and the weird, wild, and wonderful experience of bringing life into the world during a time of unimaginable loss.

After nearly three years of struggling to conceive, Hannah Bronfman finally got the news she’d been waiting for—a week before New York went into lockdown. All of the circumstances she had long envisioned around her pregnancy changed drastically—both due to the pandemic, and last summer’s social justice protests, which only magnified for Bronfman the maternal mortality rates for black mothers in the U.S. But the DJ, wellness entrepreneur, author, and founder of HBFit—a health, beauty, and fitness lifestyle brand—found strength in listening to her body (and in an expertly curated pushing playlist, with plenty of Drake). She channeled this holistic approach into her fourth trimester, when she launched a podcast to address the very real struggle around postpartum self-care. In today's episode, Bronfman reveals how she finds even just 45 minutes, a few days a week, to “reconnect and tune in” with herself, while sharing a mindfulness technique from her own mother who always tries to make everything a “mind, body, and soul experience.”