{"id":160793,"date":"2025-11-30T06:30:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T06:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/160793\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T06:30:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T06:30:10","slug":"jess-quinn-opens-up-about-parenting-with-disability-and-health-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/160793\/","title":{"rendered":"Jess Quinn opens up about parenting with disability and health challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been a manic morning for Jess before she chats with the Weekly, catching up with us between media interviews for her new business \u2013 supplement range Cadence \u2013 as well as running the free women\u2019s health platform<\/a> called The Cyclist, which she launched earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Co-founded with fellow mum Katherine Douglas, The Cyclist is a website, blog and podcast aimed at educating and supporting women through various stages of reproductive health, and includes resources from medical experts, plus real-life stories submitted by its members.<\/p>\n

\"JessJess says the platform was born from both her and Katherine\u2019s shared experience. Photo \/ Ruby Hamilton<\/p>\n

It tackles everything from puberty to prolapse, fertility, hysterectomies, menopause and more.<\/p>\n

Jess says the platform was born from both her and Katherine\u2019s shared experience of years feeling dismissed and lost in the healthcare system, and left to figure their bodies out on their own.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many times in our health journey, we asked, \u2018why weren\u2019t we taught this in school\u2019?\u201d she shares. \u201cWe\u2019re really passionate about educating women on their bodies. Hearing what other people are going through is comforting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I started speaking about my fertility journey and endometriosis online, my inbox had never been so flooded in my life. That was the moment I thought women are really craving this kind of information.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile there are many great people working in our healthcare system, in our experience, there is also a lot of gaslighting by doctors that over a very long time turns into self-gaslighting \u2013 when you start doubting your own symptoms and don\u2019t back yourself.<\/p>\n

\u201cYet so many women\u2019s journeys \u2013 particularly mine and Kat\u2019s \u2013 could have been shorter and a lot less traumatic had we been equipped with the information we\u2019re now putting out.<\/p>\n

\"JessJess Quinn. Photo \/ Ruby Hamilton<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want The Cyclist to foster a community of women going through the same thing, so they know they\u2019re not alone. A huge part of it is, once you have the knowledge set, it gives you the confidence to advocate for yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Juggling her new roles with motherhood<\/a> (hello, sleep deprivation) and chronic pain isn\u2019t easy, and the normally upbeat Jess wants to be real about it.<\/p>\n

While her default setting in the past might have been \u201cfake it until you make it\u201d, she no longer wants to be anything but authentic.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s talking about one of the toughest parts as an amputee mum \u2013 not being able to quickly get up in the night when she hears little Marla cry out for her.<\/p>\n

Jess explains, \u201cshe\u2019s going through a bit of a sleep regression at the moment. My husband Todd feels guilty if I\u2019m hobbling around trying to put the leg on and off several times, but then I feel guilty he\u2019s doing it all.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing worse than lying there hearing her yelling out for me, because sometimes there\u2019s a parental preference. I wish I could jump up and run to her but I can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JugglingJuggling her new roles with motherhood and chronic pain isn\u2019t easy. Photo \/ Ruby Hamilton<\/p>\n

Jess has always been known on social media as an advocate for body positivity, but she\u2019s \u201cstill human\u201d and sometimes needs to preach that self-acceptance to herself when negative feelings creep in.<\/p>\n

\u201cTodd knows that I want Marla to grow up in a family that doesn\u2019t put focus on what our bodies look like, but rather what they\u2019re capable of,\u201d she tells. \u201cSo he\u2019ll call me out if he hears me speaking unkindly about myself \u2013 usually before my period is due.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually have a body image song that I sing to her in the bath \u2026 \u2018I love my body from my head to my toes!\u2019 It\u2019s really cute. Marla\u2019s such a chatterbox and repeats so many words, I have to start being careful about what I\u2019m saying.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple\u2019s journey to parenthood hasn\u2019t been straightforward. Jess went years with undiagnosed endometriosis. Doctors would give her brochures for irritable bowel syndrome until she was finally diagnosed in her mid-20s via laparoscopic surgery.<\/p>\n

After her cancer treatment<\/a>, she didn\u2019t know if getting pregnant was even a possibility.<\/p>\n

She and Todd, 36, a software engineer, took a year \u201cdesperately trying to conceive\u201d before having a miscarriage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was actually modelling at a photo shoot when my first miscarriage happened,\u201d recalls Jess. \u201cIt was horrific. But if we hadn\u2019t had our first miscarriage, we wouldn\u2019t have got Marla. We both couldn\u2019t imagine life without her. She\u2019s the sweetest, best kid on the planet.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy second miscarriage recently was less physically hard on my body and easier to go through the grief. I feel kind of guilty saying that because it\u2019s still a baby that would have meant a lot to us.<\/p>\n

\u201cTodd\u2019s very strong, pragmatic and a great support system. He was able to be like, \u2018this wasn\u2019t our time\u2019. So I\u2019m trying to trust the process and not get too caught up in taking five pregnancy tests a month. But I\u2019m not winning that battle!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AfterAfter her cancer treatment, she didn\u2019t know if getting pregnant was even a possibility. Photo \/ Ruby Hamilton<\/p>\n

Understandably, following her cancer and ongoing struggles with endometriosis, health anxiety has always lurked in the shadows. But for the past 18 months, Jess reveals she has been struggling with anxiety as a whole.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like I had that condition most of my life, in the sense of overthinking things and having anxious habits,\u201d tells Jess candidly, chatting from her Auckland home. \u201cSo I claimed I had it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d hear people talking about their horrific anxiety and think to myself, \u2018it\u2019s not that bad\u2019. Then I began having really bad panic attacks about four months after Marla was born. I thought, \u2018wow, now I understand what they were going through and how horribly crippling it is\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

At times, the new mum was having close to five panic episodes a day, some while driving. It got to the point she needed to call Todd to help get her home.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been pretty scary,\u201d she confesses. \u201cI think it came from a combination of taking on new business ventures, going through a lot of health issues, while also being a new mum. It tipped me over the edge and all just came to a head.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have actually gone on medication to support myself and it\u2019s definitely helped. I\u2019m hoping to come off it soon, once I\u2019ve mastered the tools my body needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those include breathing techniques, meditation, journalling and working with a therapist doing EMDR \u2013 eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing \u2013 a type of psychotherapy that helps people heal from trauma using eye movements, tapping or sounds.<\/p>\n

Jess is also grateful to have the support of seeing her mother Debby, \u201cthe best mum and grandma in the world\u201d, most days.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was sick as a child, she always repeated the mantra to me: \u2018Stay positive, stay positive\u2019,\u201d remembers Jess. \u201cIt\u2019s like Dory on repeat in my head. Even for all she\u2019s been through, Mum has a really positive outlook on life. I want to instil that in Marla.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JessJess has gone on medication to support herself, and is hoping to come off it soon once ‘I\u2019ve mastered the tools my body needs’. Photo \/ Ruby Hamilton<\/p>\n

Slowing down, offloading what\u2019s on her plate a bit and allowing for vulnerability is something which the entrepreneur and social media star is getting used to. Instead of showing up only when she\u2019s \u201ccrushing\u201d it in life, she shows up when also feeling crushed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past, when I spoke to the media, I probably talked a lot of toxic positivity,\u201d reflects Jess. \u201cBut for the past five years, I\u2019ve been challenged by my prosthetic leg in a way that I\u2019ve never been challenged before. And as a mum, I\u2019ve recently felt quite disabled by my disability.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a long time, adversity was this thing Jess thought she needed to overcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen I realised that adversity just keeps knocking on my door!\u201d she says. \u201cSo for me, it\u2019s learning to live alongside it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have so much good in my life,\u201d she enthuses. \u201cI consider myself a very lucky person. People might hear me say that and think, \u2018are you sure\u2019? But honestly, all the luck shadows the unluckiness.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m most proud of the way I\u2019ve come out the other side of some really hard things and feel grateful to live alongside adversity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quick fire<\/p>\n

\"JessJess Quinn with her daughter, Marla. Photo \/ NZ Woman’s Weekly<\/p>\n

How would you describe your little girl?<\/p>\n

Marla has this amazing energy about her and I see the way she impacts the world already. When we\u2019re at cafes, people gravitate to her. Todd and I are really introverted people, but we\u2019ve somehow managed to create an extrovert to a huge degree. We love her to pieces.<\/p>\n

What do you want your daughter to grow up knowing that you wish you had known?<\/p>\n

To listen to her body, trust her instincts and know that her symptoms are important. We want her to have the confidence to advocate for herself and who she is as a person. I\u2019ve obviously been through a lot in my life, so I have a few nerves about what\u2019s going to be handed down to her health-wise. I just hope that she gets Todd\u2019s genes!<\/p>\n

Most interesting person you\u2019ve interviewed for your podcast?<\/p>\n

A lady called Prue Craven, who was born without a uterus and had one of the first womb transplants in Australia in 2023.<\/p>\n

One thing you think doctors should stop telling young women\u2026<\/p>\n

That they need to have children to cure their endo.<\/p>\n

For more information, visit wearethecyclist.com<\/a> and cadencewellbeing.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been a manic morning for Jess before she chats with the Weekly, catching up with us between…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[105835,1443,15408,95,7681,9084,14032,5972,48901,21658,1054,2842,134,296,85536,105838,19725,105834,4505,1304,3025,105837,111,43,139,69,2680,8765,50436,42543,3240,5764,1361,30645,810,5828,6925,105836,102],"class_list":["post-160793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-2yearold","tag-about","tag-almost","tag-and","tag-bedroom","tag-challenges","tag-daughter","tag-day","tag-decided","tag-determination","tag-disability","tag-experienced","tag-health","tag-into","tag-jess","tag-limb","tag-marching","tag-marla","tag-moment","tag-morning","tag-most","tag-mummys","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-opens","tag-parenting","tag-prosthetic","tag-quinn","tag-recently","tag-soldier","tag-that","tag-unexpected","tag-up","tag-wanted","tag-wear","tag-whod","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}