AUGUST 2026

Moms We Admire with Jackie Volney

A former traveling theatre actress on trusting your intuition, dressing the bump, and the mamas who show up for each other.

For this installment of Moms We Admire, we sat down with Jackie Volney — actress turned full-time mama — to talk about the parts of motherhood nobody hands you a script for.

What's one piece of advice you'd give to expecting mamas?

So much advice comes from someone's own personal life experience — and fertility, your journey, whatever it is, is just not one-size-fits-all. Everyone's so different. If it resonates with you, take it. If it doesn't resonate with you, move on.

And trust yourself — I feel like intuition's everything.

So many new moms struggle with setting boundaries. How do you think about it?

You're not shutting people out. You're creating a safe space for you and your baby to flourish. And I get it — it's really tough, especially when people want to come visit you and you're like, "Actually, I need her to nap. I need my own space, please don't come."

What has it been like watching your husband become a dad?

I usually say one of the best gifts I gave my daughter was picking an amazing father for her. You don't think about that when you're getting married — but you have to.

How do you get through the hardest days?

When you're in the hardest part of motherhood, having things you look forward to really keeps you going. In the now, you're like, "Okay, I'm having a really tough day" — but you know the tough day is going to pass, because everything's a transition. They're constantly growing. And at one point, you're going to say, "I'm going to miss this."

How do you maintain a healthy body image through pregnancy and postpartum?

Stopping and giving yourself grace, and understanding all the hard work your body is doing. Pregnancy is finite — then the baby's here, and you recover, and a year goes by and you just forget. So in that moment of pregnancy, it's, "This is my time to do this" — and you have to embrace it, otherwise it's fleeting and it's gone.

You'll always look back and think, "That was such a beautiful time — my body did such an amazing thing." If you're not having gratitude now, you're missing out.

What was your biggest style challenge during pregnancy?

You get to watch your body transform, and you get to dress the bump a different way. Sometimes you find struggle, and sometimes you're like, "Wait, I would never have tried this — but now I'm glad I did, and now I feel really proud and confident."

Even on our babymoon, I still wore my bathing suits — I wanted to show the bump I had. I almost had more confidence in my body than before, because you can't really judge my body right now — it's doing what it has to do. Even though we have style challenges, there's a way to find a style that makes you feel more like yourself.

What did postpartum self-care look like for you?

I gave birth in January, so my first two and a half, three months postpartum we were really stuck inside — it was too cold, by the pediatrician's advice, to go for a long walk, and the sun was rising later and setting earlier. Postpartum was really hard. That sunshine, being able to get out — it's so key.

Where have you found support as a mama?

As soon as you're pregnant — as soon as you're entering into that community — the moms come out of the woodwork to help, and to support, and to give you any kind of advice you might want or need. We go through so much; there's really nothing to hide.

Moms We Admire is an ongoing EMME series celebrating the mothers in our community.