Perth MamaMag Jun/Jul 2022

A YARN WITH JANA

Jana Pittman is one of Australia’s greatest female athletes. She’s represented Australia at three Olympic Games, is a four-time Commonwealth hurdles champion, plus she’s the first Australian woman to compete in both a summer and winter Olympics (hello bobsled team!). But what many might not realise is what an absolute super-mum she is too. Jana is a mother to six children (yes six!) including her new twins, Willow and Quinlan, who were born in March this year.

But that’s not all… She’s also a qualified medical doctor, specialising in women’s health with a Masters in reproductive medicine, and somewhere in the middle of all these sporting, career and parenting achievements, she even found time to go on SAS Australia. We had a quick chat to Jana about how motherhood and the secret to her success!

Firstly, congrats on the recent safe arrival of the twins. How are you surviving motherhood with six kids?

Thankyou - it’s busy but it’s going well! I always found it hard after having a baby that my cluckiness didn’t go away. I’d think, 6

‘My goodness when am I ever going to feel complete?’ well, I now finally feel like my family is done at six kids!

Tell us all about your family.

There’s Cornelius, 15, who’s kind, friendly and an amazing babysitter; Emily, 7, who is the spitting image of me personality wise - driven, sensitive, loving; Jemima, 5, my outgoing pocket rocket; Charlie, 18 months, who’s very adventurous and can often be found standing on the kitchen table; and the twins who are 10 weeks. Quinlin who was born first is super chilled and Willow is already quite fiery. And then there’s my husband, Paul, who helps hold everything together and thankfully is great at cleaning.

You went into labour with the twins at 35 weeks after a fall at home. What happened?

I had a speaking gig and was rushing around.

Charlie started running up the stairs, so I chased after him. He fell backwards and I tried to catch him, but I then fell quite hard on the stairs. It brought everything on as I’d already been having intermittent contractions for a few days.