Jane Helpern

Hi friends! In honor of my youngest Ruby’s 2nd birthday, I’m hard launching my Big Sur 11-miler fundraiser to raise $1500 for @everymomcounts . As a mom, doula, baby runner, and maternal health advocate, I’m so honored to be on Team EMC running and raising funds for this incredible org fighting to make childbirth safe, respectful, and equitable for everyone, everywhere. In some parts of the world, women travel more than 26 miles to access safe care. Here in the U.S., black and brown moms are dying due to preventable causes at unacceptable rates. Slide 3 is a screenshot from an article I wrote about my friend @clancymccarty ’s EMC documentary “Giving Birth in America” for @i_d in 2015 (before kids) and slide 7 is a photo of me doula-ing Clancy’s 2nd homebirth in 2025 (after 3 of them). I’ve been pregnant and breastfeeding for much of the last decade, and yet, early motherhood has been the single most energizing and radicalizing era of my entire life. Now, let’s hope that energy carries me 11 miles! I know there’s an abundance of need and many causes to support. But just maybe: peace on earth begins with birth?! So if you can—give a buck, give 5, give a thumbs up, wish me luck, wish me dead, share this with your rich boss (maybe they offer employee matching), whatever. Link to donate in bio! ***yes I know many of you are doing full marathons and ultras and 11 miles is a seemingly arbitrary and underwhelming number but it’s big to me, and I’m just stoked to be here raising money for such an important organization and showing my kids the amazing things our bodies can do in amazing places and for amazing causes. What a gift! #WhyWeRun

If you know me, then you know I’m a weirdo: about groups, about photos, about group photos, about being in the official spotlight (I stared at the ground walking down the aisle at our wedding). And you also know I fucking love moms! Running the Big Sur International Marathon 11-miler with @runteamemc for @everymomcounts challenged all of my things. Not only was it my furthest and fastest distance (on a famously hilly but even more famously stunning course), but my whole family made the schlep to see me (including the kids, my husband, my parents, and even my uncle and dog!). And my friend and ultimate mom marathoner muse @soo.zee.q paced me the entire time despite my adamant protests that she not go slow on account of me—devoting her own run to encouraging and pushing mine—leading to a finish more than 30 minutes faster than I anticipated (that she, of course, dropped back to film - slide 6). Not to mention, my fundraising goal was met by the generous support of all of YOU!!! (An extra meaningful donation note from a beloved doula client - slide 19). All birthing people and mothers around the world, and right here in the U.S. where the Black Maternal Health Crisis is raging and urgent, deserve safe and respectful maternity care. And so I guess that mission made it easier to get in the picture, to join the group, to go the extra mile, and let a few other people go it for me, too. But also I’m turning 40 this summer, so maybe I’m finally starting to get over whatever middle child former varsity soccer player who stopped being a starter when they started being too distracted by bad boys narrative has been plaguing me all these years?!?! Right mom? And no offense Dylan. Anywayyyy that’s a wrap on Big Sur, I can’t wait to see where this radical breastfeeding birthing body of mine takes me next (especially bc allegedly we are done birthing and breastfeeding soon and I will certainly need a new fix). Thank you @everymomcounts for the endless purpose and motivation, and the tireless work you do every day to fight for maternal health. Every Mom. Every Mile. LFG!

Pregnant moms in detention centers moms shot dead in cars full of stuffed animals outside their homes moms ripped from their babies dads disappearing while dropping their babies at daycare daycare teachers forcibly removed from the very place where they are helping to raise the next generation babies left without parents dads snatched while going to work to put food on the table dads never making it home for bedtime what is this world we are leaving for our kids f*ck f*cking ice.

Lost our weird and wild school to the fires but the kids are alright! Wrote about it on Substack! Doula-ed a beautiful homebirth and witnessed its simplicity and magic! Got laid off from a toxic job (while in a bikini) and jumped off the Jaws bridge in the same day! Went back to freelance after a decade in-house and had my highest earning year to date despite aforementioned horrible job and layoff and the fact that my highest earning year barely covers the cost of mortgage and health insurance and the occasional fancy smoothies + trip to sky zone and oh ya AI is coming for me! Started running after years of saying I was gonna start running! Ran a 5k! And a 10k! But not in that order! Camped in El Cap and Big Sur and Catalina! Road tripped to the Grand Canyon and ate elk chili from a truck in a blizzard! Breastfed everywhere! Had writing published in a print magazine! Did a reading about said writing where an intimate room of mostly moms and one amazing auntie laughed and cried about rented jumpsuits and invisible labor and the absurdity of it all! Took two sister trips (one with kids and one without)! Went to New York for the first time since becoming a mom but obviously saw a bucket list museum exhibition about motherhood! Hit 10 years of marriage (15 together) despite having fewer date nights than I can count on two hands and celebrated with an Altadena hike and homestate marg! Didn’t sleep through the night even once but still managed an average oura sleep score of 80! Visited a lot of nature centers! Saw all the bears in Monrovia! 67! Labubu! Mom of 3! Friends! Family! Many of the things mentioned here are not pictured and some of the things pictured are not mentioned here and a bunch of things are neither mentioned nor pictured! Have already made one trip to urgent care in 2026 (everyone’s fine)!!!

hot child(free) (2 hours outside of) the city.

Moms be like “I need a break” but it’s just 21,000 steps alone in NYC to see the @designingmotherhood exhibition at the @madmuseum . *not pictured: hand-expressing milk into a drinking glass and feeling v on brand.

If a toddler splits her lip on a redwood deck and it doesn’t make it to mommy’s first camping reel did it even happen?

TRYING IRL with @janeohelp this Saturday 10/11 and her essay: Rent the Runway, Own the Motrin We’ll be talking about motherhood, identity, that crazy time deemed postpartum. Work, full time, freelance, partnership, live, laugh love. Jane is one of my favorite writers and a go-to mother for me. I admire her so much as a whole person but specifically as these roles also. It feels like such an honor to talk to someone about this huge thing (parenting/living) in such specificity and with such fun (laugh to keep from crying). If you’re someone who parents, whether it be your own kids, your parents (ha!), or your honorary family, you’re welcome to join us. We hope you’ll join us in a time of reading, trying, having conversation this tremendous thing we do day in and day out, exist, try and thrive, while doing the same for these little amazing people we’re in this life with. Hope to see you this Saturday for our last convo in this series. Some images attached from the past couple of weeks of existing as mother, friend, entrepreneur, and then some. Tickets at bywayof.us under EVENTS hosted at @gambogela with support from @minorfigures ❣️

Fountain to the Falls! TLDR a couple bears, too many thumbs up, a 10k with a 1200 foot elevation gain, me looking like a teenage boy, not sponsored by @mother_tongue_magazine , @soo.zee.q placing 3rd for women overall (1st woman overall was a mom of 3!), my first ever official race after years of saying I was going to do one but being intimidated by all the apps and gear (still not my thing), never running more than 2.5 miles until this week, @ddlovato and @mylessmithuk saving me, breastfeeding duh ✌️ *last photo from another runner — by the time I saw that 2nd bear, he was chilling further up the hillside

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What are we all doing about hats under our helmets.

JAWS 50TH ANNIVERSARY SUMMER