It wasn't a manicure that brought the female founding team of Ezmio into our orbit - it was, as so many of these stories go, shared feeding experiences and mutual admiration for each other's businesses that brought us together. Starting with just $4000 pooled between them, the four founders bootstrapped their Sydney-based brand into a highly successful, global DIY nail empire. And with one very busy Aunty Rochelle in the mix, three of those founders - Jazmin, Saryne and Nicolle - came motherhood from very different starting points.One thing they all arrived at in the end: a fed, happy baby, and a version of themselves they hadn't quite expected to find.


Jazmin Hanna Oluku will be the first to tell you that her daughter Talita came into the world with something to prove. Born naturally, no epidural, and already absolutely certain about who she was. Talita turns three soon, and if you ask Jazmin, nothing about that child has changed. "There is nothing this child cannot overcome," she says. "I have never met anyone as determined as Talita."

Like so many of us, Jazmin had imagined she would breastfeed. But the pressure of new motherhood had other plans, and her supply never arrived the way she hoped. "The stress I felt when I was trying to breastfeed was incredibly overwhelming," she says. "But the second I started Talita on mumamoo, I felt so calm. It was like suddenly the routine and ease came to our lives."

Relief was instant, and she's not apologetic about it. "It might be controversial to say, but I didn't feel any sadness. I honestly just felt relief that we found a formula she loved. I truly felt like a winner in that moment - knowing she was fed and happy was the only thing that mattered to me."

Her one regret? Not giving herself permission to pivot sooner. "I wish someone had told me not to push myself so hard. I hate thinking that I was the reason she wasn't being fed properly." It's the kind of guilt that lives in the chest of so many new mums, but Jazmin's message to any parent sitting in that hard, heavy place is simple: "The days are long but the years are short. As they age, there are less tough moments and more fun ones."

Saryne Lagudi is running a two-under-three household, which is exactly as much as it sounds like. Her son is full-throttle - wheels, chaos, all of it - and her daughter arrived in April, the watchful one, quietly clocking everything her brother does from what feels like a very composed distance. "Two kids close together means the toddler and newborn stages are colliding in real time," Saryne says. "It's a lot, but it's good chaos."

Saryne had imagined relaxed, easy breastfeeding. A content baby, an unbothered mum. Her supply had other ideas. But her path to mumamoo came with a recommendation she trusted - her sister had used it, and that was enough to take the first step. "Once I let go of the guilt around that, it genuinely made things easier. Feeds got simpler, other people could help out, and both baby and I were a lot calmer for it."

When her daughter arrived, there was no deliberating. "Mumamoo was a no-brainer and no surprises, my daughter loves it just like my son." Proof really, that Plan B doesn’t mean failure.

Then there's Nicolle Khattar-Elrassy, and if you want to understand the weight that the word must can carry, her story explains it better than most.

Nicolle has two: Aria, four, born via emergency C-section - outgoing, bubbly, already looking after everyone in the room. And Joshua, two, elective C-section, full of energy and utterly cheeky. "I thought I was going to be a full-time breastfeeding mother," she says. "I didn't even buy formula as a backup because I just thought it wasn't an option for me. I feel like I was brainwashed into thinking I had to breastfeed to give my baby the best start in life."

What followed was painful in every sense. Hospital nurses who discouraged pumping even as her nipples bled. A pandemic that stripped away visitors and nursing classes and the basic human support that new mothers have always needed. Home alone with damaged nipples and a hungry baby, Nicolle called her mum in tears. Her mum, with the benefit of experience reassured her: it doesn't matter how you feed your baby, as long as she is fed. "Mums really are just the best," Nicolle says.

She began mixed feeding - pumping and formula- for ten weeks. And then, when her milk started going, she made a choice. "Can I tell you that I felt so free. Not trapped by the pump, able to do things around the house, able to share the feeding with others. Mentally I was a new person, so much happier."

By the time Joshua arrived, she breastfed for a week and switched. The mum-guilt came again, but quieter this time. Because she already knew: she would be a better mum to both her kids if she was not drowning.

"Motherhood is hard enough already," she says now. "The pressure to breastfeed shouldn't be placed on mums. It should be every parent's own choice, and nobody should be made to feel guilty for doing what is best for their baby and their family. A happy, healthy mum is just as important as a fed baby."

Three different households. Three different journeys to the same truth. Fed is fed. And a mum who feels like herself is the best thing any baby can have.