Momé

Sam Blay

Headshot of Sam Blay, a Momé founder and editor, with long wavy brown hair and a black t-shirt, smiling on a white sofa.

Sam Blay is a contributor at Momé and the founder of SB Photography, where she's built a loving community of mothers behind her camera. A young mom to her two boys, she writes and edits with the same warmth she brings to every shoot, capturing the truth of motherhood without the filter. Sam brings a voice to Momé that every mom wants to hear.

Articles

36 pieces
Margarita Nazarenko sits on a chrome cantilever chair against a pale grey studio backdrop in an oversized black blazer, her chin resting on her hand.
Features · Identity

Margarita Nazarenko on Unbothered, Detachment, and Motherhood

The bestselling author on emotional sovereignty, letting go of the outcome, and why choosing yourself was never the selfish thing.

Rachael Shepard-Ohta in a soft cream top, photographed in a bright living room, looking over her shoulder at the camera.
Features · Parenting

Rachael Shepard-Ohta says “You Are Not Failing Because Your Baby Wakes Up”

The Hey, Sleepy Baby founder on the 2 a.m. loneliness, why fear-based sleep advice does damage, and the options between sleep training and suffering forever.

Three children stand with their arms around each other, seen from behind, one wearing a small quilted pink and orange backpack with a heart patch.
Essentials

The Best Backpacks for Every Age and Budget

The bags worth your money, sorted by age and by budget — plus the fit, weight, and durability checks worth doing before you buy.

A mother sits back on a sofa in soft window light holding a mug, her newborn asleep against her chest in a blue wrap, her eyes lowered.
Pregnancy & Postpartum

Postpartum Depression Is More Common Than Anyone Told You. Here Is What to Know

A real, common, treatable medical condition — not a character flaw. How it differs from the baby blues, the disguises it wears, and when to reach out.

A mother holds her sleeping newborn against her shoulder in soft sepia light, the baby's small hand resting on her back.
Pregnancy & Postpartum

Why Don't I Feel Close to My Baby? The Truth About Bonding After Birth

Not feeling an instant bond with your newborn is far more common than anyone admits. Why the connection can be delayed, what genuinely helps, and when it's worth reaching out.

Tamari Jacob sits on a sofa in a teal patterned shirt dress, smiling in front of soft blush curtains.
Features

The Breast Pumping Advice Every New Mom Needs: Inside One With The Pump With Founder Tamari Jacob

Before she was the lactation consultant thousands of moms call at 3 a.m., she was the mom in the dark — forced into pumping twice, with no one to ask.

A mother in a light jacket with a blue backpack glances back over her shoulder as she walks hand in hand with her young daughter across an airfield toward a waiting plane.
Essentials

What Flight Attendants Recommend Parents Pack This Summer

Nobody sees more summer travel than the people working the aisle. The advice they give most often — one bag per kid, an empty water bottle each, more snacks than seems reasonable — matched with kid-tested brands.

A mother with braided hair kisses her laughing young daughter on the cheek, the two of them surrounded by pale yellow garden roses.
Identity

The Mother You Didn't Expect to Be — and Why That's Okay

Most women picture the mother they'll be: patient, present, the one who never yells. Then they meet their actual children. The gap between the mother you imagined and the one you are — and why that's okay.

A couple sit close together on a bed with a breakfast tray, as he gently holds her hand to his lips and she smiles softly toward him.
Identity

The Couple You Were and the Parents You've Become: Navigating Relationship Identity After Baby

They still loved each other — they had just stopped being the people who knew how to show it. What the research shows about couples after a baby, and what the ones who make it through do differently.

Two raised arms of different skin tones make peace signs against a pale blue sky, beside the back of a blonde woman's head.
What Matters

Maternal Health Block Grant: What It Is, Why It Matters, and What's Happening to It

Mass layoffs at HRSA have left Title V — the block grant funding maternal and child health services in all 50 states — functionally unstaffed. What's at stake, and what states are doing.

A protester at a crowded outdoor rally holds a hand-lettered cardboard sign reading 'ENOUGH' above the crowd.
What Matters

WIC Benefits Are Being Slashed: Here's What That Means for Your Table

The proposed FY27 budget would cut WIC's fruit and vegetable benefits by 75% for breastfeeding mothers and 62% for young children — the first benefit cut in the programme's 50-year history.

A neutral-toned flat-lay of baby items — a cream knit bunny rattle, a cherry-print onesie, a wooden brush, muslin wraps tied with polka-dot ribbon, and a blank cream card.
Identity

What Your Pre-Baby Interests Are Still Telling You About Who You Are

The things you loved before the baby aren't gone or outdated — they're diagnostic information about who you still are. Why they go dormant, and how to find your way back.

A woman in a dark blazer rests her chin on her hand, gazing thoughtfully, against a white wall patterned with blue tilework.
Identity

The Invisible Emotional Labor: What the Mental Load Really Costs a Mother's Sense of Self

The mental load isn't exhaustion — it's identity. What the invisible cognitive labour of running a household really costs a mother's sense of self, and why redistributing systems is what actually works.

A woman in a cream robe lies relaxed on a green carpet, smiling, one arm tucked behind her head, in warm natural light.
Identity

Staying at Home Is a Choice. Why Does It Still Feel Like It Needs an Explanation?

One in four American mothers chose to step away from paid work — and the culture still treats it as provisional. The identity work nobody discusses, and what the women who carry it most gracefully know.

A smiling mother in a white shirt holds her yawning newborn, dressed in blue knit, close to her chest by a bright window.
Business & Career

I Didn't Go Back to Work After Baby: How I Rebuilt My Career Three Years Later

Mothers who took multi-year career gaps on what re-entry actually required — the identity work, the imposter syndrome nobody warned them about, and the discovery that their skills never left.

Two women sit side by side at a white table in a sunlit room, looking together at a laptop showing an e-commerce storefront.
Business & Career

Mompreneurs Who Sold: What It Looked Like, What It Was Worth

A wave of mother-founded brands has reached acquisition. What it takes to build a sellable business, what acquirers really look for, and what founders who sold wish they'd known.

Two mothers carry their babies in green-and-white checkered Solly wraps against a sunlit brick wall, the babies' hands reaching toward one another.
Essentials

Is the Solly Baby Wrap Worth It? An Honest, Evidence-Based Review

A single piece of TENCEL modal, five and a half yards long — the honest, research-informed case for the baby wrap that belongs on every thoughtful registry.

A laptop open on a sunlit wooden desk beside a leafy plant, a water bottle, and a phone, looking out a window over rooftops.
Business & Career

How to Start a Business on $500 or Less

You don't need venture capital or a pitch deck. The four models that work on $500 or less, the infrastructure every founder needs from day one, and the grant money most people never claim.

A mother with curly hair leans in to whisper to her young daughter as they crouch together against a stone wall on a city street.
Business & Career

How Black Mothers Are Building Out of Necessity — and Winning

Over 300,000 Black women left the US workforce in 2025 — and new Black women-owned businesses grew 13%, faster than any group in America. This isn't coincidence. It's adaptation.

A mother in a black tee, jeans, and a tote walks hand-in-hand down a tree-lined street with her toddler, both in coordinated neutrals.
Essentials

The 12 Pieces Every New Mom Is Actually Buying Right Now

You don't need a new wardrobe — you need 12 pieces that meet your body where it is. The postpartum capsule, with a splurge and an under-$50 pick for each.

A mother and father sit on the floor with their two children in a warmly lit living room at night, talking gently and listening.
Parenting

How to Talk to Your Child About Death

A developmental roadmap for one of parenthood's hardest conversations — the words that help, the euphemisms that quietly harm, and how to tell the truth in a way that builds resilience.

Rachel Abugov leans over an incubator in the NICU beside her tiny newborn daughter, Brooklyn.
Features · Pregnancy & Postpartum

Rachel Abugov on 99 Days in the NICU, and the Daughter Who Made Her a Mother

A first-time mother on the birth she didn't plan, the daughter who arrived fifteen weeks early, and what 99 days inside the NICU taught her about love, fear, and strength.

A woman sitting cross-legged holds a grain bowl of quinoa, broccoli, tomatoes, and mozzarella in her lap.
Nourish

What to Eat in a Day While Breastfeeding

A realistic, zero-prep daily guide — from the 7am feed to the 3pm slump, the wholesome meals built for the lived experience of nursing, not an unattainable wellness ideal.

A pregnant woman packing tiny baby clothes into an open suitcase in a softly lit nursery.
Pregnancy & Postpartum

How to Prepare Your Home for a Baby: A Real Mom's Room-by-Room Guide

A room-by-room guide to nesting and baby prep — the postpartum recovery station, feeding zone, and stocked freezer that actually matter in the first weeks home.

A woman in a headband and pink robe with a cream face mask on, sipping a glass of milk in front of a bathroom mirror.
Pregnancy & Postpartum

How Your Skin Changes During Pregnancy

A hormonal field guide to the glow, the melasma, the breakouts, and everything else nobody warned you about — plus which ingredients are safe and which to skip.

A toddler in a cream sweater works independently with simple wooden materials and trays on the floor and a low table in a lived-in home.
Parenting

How to Set Up a Montessori Home on Any Budget

Montessori at home in any space, on any budget — lower the shelves, rotate the toys, involve them in real life. The aesthetic is optional; the principles are not.

A smiling mother holds her toddler on her hip in a bright kitchen, a blender of pink puree on the counter beside the stove.
Nourish

I'm Starting Solids With My 6-Month-Old and I'm Scared. Here's Everything You Actually Need to Know.

The difference between gagging and choking, the foods to avoid until age four, how to introduce allergens early — and everything you need to start solids with confidence.

A blonde toddler in a mustard hoodie sits crying on a supermarket floor, holding their mother's hand beside a shopping cart.
Parenting

How to Handle Toddler Tantrums

Tantrums are not bad behaviour — they are brain events. Why they happen, what helps during the storm, what to do after, and the prevention strategies that quietly reduce them.

A pregnant woman and her partner sit close together on a cream sofa in soft light, turned toward each other mid-conversation.
Pregnancy & Postpartum

12 Truths About How Pregnancy Changes Your Relationship

Pregnancy reshapes your relationship in ways no one warns you about. Twelve honest truths about what shifts between partners — plus the scripts to talk about it before the silence sets in.

An expectant mother in an open denim shirt leans against a sunlit wall in a calm, neutral-toned room, one hand resting beneath her belly.
Essentials

Postpartum Essentials for Mom: The Real Truth of What You Actually Need

Most postpartum shopping lists are written by brands. This one is written by mothers — the recovery products, clothing, and self-care that actually carry you through the first twelve weeks.

A pregnant woman in a cream slip dress sits at the window of a soft, sunlit room, one hand resting on her belly.
Pregnancy & Postpartum

Do You Really Need a Birth Plan? What No One Tells You.

The honest answer is yes to both — useful and a setup for disappointment — depending on how you write one. What belongs in a birth plan that actually helps you advocate, and how to plan for the birth you didn't expect.

A mother in wide-leg denim holds her toddler on a sunlit tree-lined street, both in soft golden afternoon light.
Parenting

How to Build a Daily Routine for Babies and Toddlers That Actually Sticks

Start with bedtime, add the morning anchor, skip the rest. The cue-based, clock-flexible approach that works for the life you actually live.

A woman packing a soft cream weekender bag on a bed, with a water bottle, folded linens, and a toiletry pouch laid out beside it in a calm neutral bedroom.
Essentials

What to Pack in Your Hospital Bag

A real mom's tested checklist for labor, postpartum, baby, and a c-section — plus the 8 things to leave at home.

A mother in a wide-brimmed hat and white shirt holding her baby close against a warm neutral backdrop, both calm in soft studio light.
Wellness

Losing Yourself in Motherhood? The Identity Shift Nobody Prepares You For

Becoming a mother isn't adding a role to your life — it's becoming a different person. This is the part of motherhood the world forgets to warn you about.

Six small ceramic bowls of smooth, brightly coloured homemade baby purees on a linen cloth, surrounded by fresh vegetables and fruit.
Nourish

10 Homemade Puree Recipes for Starting Solids (6+ Months)

Ten essential single-ingredient purees for your baby's first tastes — the tools you need, how to introduce foods safely, and a simple way to batch-freeze.

Four well-loved children's picture books arranged on soft linen in warm natural light.
Parenting

9 Parenting Books Actually Worth Your Time

An honest edit of the books that change how you parent — from newborn classics to the new releases reshaping discipline, screens, and the teenage years.

A neutral-toned bedroom scene with postpartum essentials.
Essentials

14 Things New Moms Actually Need for Postpartum

The recovery products new moms actually use, what's worth buying, what's a waste, and the under-$30 versions of the cult favourites.

Consider this your weekly letter, once a week straight to your inbox

A note from us, stories worth reading, things worth knowing, and the occasional find we can't stop thinking about. Not a roundup. Not a pitch. A letter — from mothers who get it, to mothers who need it.