More Than a Mom: The Women We’re Becoming | Moms Beyond Motherhood

Please note: This story touches on miscarriage and pregnancy loss.

An editorial for Moms Beyond Motherhood featuring Ssonia Ong

Motherhood changes you. Not all at once, and not always in obvious ways.

It shifts the way you move through the world. The way you carry love, worry, responsibility, and joy all at the same time. It asks more of you than you thought possible, while quietly revealing parts of yourself you may never have discovered otherwise.

But becoming a mother is not the end of who you are. It is the beginning of another version of you.

For this chapter of Moms Beyond Motherhood, we sat down with Ssonia Ong, a mother of five kids, full-time content creator, partner, athlete, and storyteller, to talk about the many identities women continue to hold alongside motherhood.

Her story is deeply personal, but it’s also one many mothers will recognize in pieces of their own lives. The balancing act. The invisible labour. The joy and grief that can exist together. The constant becoming.

Please note: This section touches on miscarriage and pregnancy loss.

“I knew I always wanted to be a mom,” Ssonia shares.

For some women, motherhood arrives exactly as imagined. For others, the path is layered with loss, waiting, uncertainty, or change. Ssonia speaks openly about experiencing miscarriages along the way, and how those babies are still part of her family’s story.

“My kids still talk about those two babies as if they’re part of our family, and they’ve just moved on to heaven a little bit earlier than us.”

There is something incredibly grounding in the way children process love. No timelines. No conditions. No need to minimize grief in order to move forward.

For many mothers, this is the reality rarely spoken about out loud: motherhood can hold both heartbreak and gratitude at the same time. And maybe that’s part of what Moms Beyond Motherhood is really about. Not perfection. Not performance. Just the full, human experience of becoming.

Ssonia’s oldest child is 16. Her youngest is 4. She has spent years raising children through entirely different stages of life while also building a career and creating a home rooted in stability and connection.

“What I hope is shining through our content is that we have a very stable and loving family life.”

She credits much of that foundation to her partnership and the environment they’ve intentionally built together. One where her children feel peace, confidence, and emotional safety.

And yet, what stands out most is not the idea of a “perfect” family. It’s the reminder that children absorb what they live around.

The way we speak to ourselves. The way we recover from hard days. The way we care for our bodies, our relationships, and our mental health.

“I think our job as parents is to nurture what is already there.” Not to shape children into someone else’s definition of success. But to notice who they already are, and help them grow from there.

There is a version of motherhood culture that celebrates exhaustion like a badge of honour. The mom who gives endlessly. The mom who never stops. The mom who puts herself last at all costs.

But more and more women are beginning to ask a different question: What happens when mothers are cared for, too?

For Ssonia, self-care is not separate from motherhood. It is part of how she mothers. “The best way that I can mother is to take care of myself first.”

When she has spare time, she plays tennis once or twice a week. Not because it’s productive. Not because it’s aesthetic. Because it helps her feel good physically and mentally. And that matters.

“If I’m burnt out, if I’m stressed, it affects my kids, and they can tell.” For so many moms, this will feel familiar. The invisible emotional temperature of a home often starts with the person carrying the most. Children notice more than we think they do.

Taking care of yourself is not taking away from your family.  Sometimes, it’s one of the ways you care for them most. Sometimes it’s the small rituals that help mothers come back to themselves. A tennis lesson once a week. A quiet coffee before the house wakes up. The soft robe you throw on after bedtime routines are done. The comfortable layers you reach for at the end of a long day because they ask nothing more from you.

As Mother’s Day approaches, Ssonia reflects on how impossible it feels to contain motherhood into a single celebration. “I would like to think that it is Mother’s Day every day. One day is not enough to recognize what moms do.”

Because motherhood is never just one role. It is caregiver, comforter, scheduler, protector, teacher, partner, listener, organizer, advocate, nurturer, and so much more. Often all before noon.

And still, mothers continue showing up. Whether they work inside the home or outside of it. Whether they are raising newborns, teenagers, or navigating pregnancy after loss. Whether motherhood came easily or through years of waiting.

At Nest Designs, this conversation matters deeply to us because our community has never been made up of just one kind of mother.

Some are navigating sleepless newborn nights.
Some are rediscovering themselves after years of caregiving.
Some are balancing careers, motherhood, and the mental load in between.
Some are grieving versions of motherhood they thought they would have.
Some are still waiting for motherhood to arrive.
All of those experiences belong here.

Throughout every stage of motherhood, there are small things that become part of our routines. The pieces we reach for when life feels chaotic. The fabrics our children fall asleep in. The familiar comforts that move with us through different seasons of life.

Sometimes it’s the bamboo sleep bag that carries you through another season of bedtime routines. Sometimes it’s the bedding that turns your room into a place of rest again after long nights with little ones. Sometimes it’s finding soft, familiar pieces that support your changing body through pregnancy, postpartum, and the years beyond it.

In Moms Beyond Motherhood, the products are not the story. The women are.

But the pieces they wear and live in become quiet symbols of the lives they are building: comfort, softness, movement, rest, identity, home. Not as a performance of motherhood.
But as support for the woman inside it. Because mothers deserve to feel cared for, too.

At Nest Designs, we think a lot about the lives happening inside these pieces. The middle-of-the-night feeds. The toddler bedtime negotiations. The moments mothers finally sit down at the end of the day. Every detail is chosen to support real life as it changes, grows, and continues becoming.

What is Moms Beyond Motherhood?

Moms Beyond Motqherhood is a storytelling campaign by Nest Designs that celebrates women beyond traditional motherhood narratives, highlighting identity, self-care, family life, and personal growth.

Who is Ssonia Ong?

Ssonia Ong is a Canadian content creator, mother of three, and featured voice in the Moms Beyond Motherhood campaign.

What is the message behind Moms Beyond Motherhood?

The campaign explores how motherhood changes women without defining all of who they are. It highlights the ongoing journey of identity, care, growth, and connection.

If there is one thing Ssonia hopes mothers take away from her story, it’s this:

“Give yourself some credit. Give yourself some grace. You do such amazing work, and our whole world and our society depends on what you do. So thank you.”

You are already carrying so much. More than most people see. More than most people understand. And still, you continue becoming.

This is what Moms Beyond Motherhood means to us: creating space for the women we continue becoming alongside motherhood.

Watch Ssonia's story and hear her reflections on motherhood, identity, and the women we continue becoming.