When the call came for a photo shoot two months after giving birth to her firstborn son, Haleema Asman hesitated. After eight years on Mediacorp Oli 968, being on camera was routine, but now she didn’t recognise herself.
“There was a lot of water retention,” the 32-year-old said. “I just looked so different.”
Her husband encouraged her: “Your body just birthed a human. Why not show that empowerment instead of trying to look like you did before?”
She sat with it for another day or two. Then she picked up the phone and said yes.
“It was okay even if I didn’t go back to my pre-baby size, even if I didn’t look like ‘myself’,” she said. “That felt very empowering.”
Haleema in a photo taken two months after she gave birth to her son – she was nominated for the Most Popular Female Personalities award at Pradhana Vizha 2026. (Photo: Mediacorp)
Haleema’s lunchtime show on the Tamilbegins at 10am, but her mornings start as early as 3am or 4am.
Her son, now five months old, wakes up five or six times every night. By the time she leaves for work, she has already been awake for hours, handing her baby to her helper as he cries and reaches for her at the door.
“It’s a very tough situation where I have to just tell myself I have to go,” she said.
Before her son was born, she would reply to messages at any hour. Now, she often ignores her phone. She considers it a benefit: less screen time, more presence. “The baby is a good distraction,” she said with a laugh.
Returning to work after maternity leave brought new pressures: Due to her son’s unpredictable mornings, she shifted from a breakfast to a lunchtime show. With two new co-hosts, live interviews, and production duties, she manages all this on little sleep.
“Nobody tells you, ‘Hey, you’re a mum now, we’ll ease things for you,’” she said. “It doesn’t happen that way.”
She said, almost in disbelief, that being heavily pregnant – doing a 6am show with back pain and working until 38 weeks gestation – was easier than what she faces now.
Between childcare logistics, baby sleep and feeding schedules, expressing breast milk and managing work, she is constantly thinking, planning, worrying and adjusting. “The mental load is crazy,” she said.
What surprised Haleema most about motherhood was how intense the emotions were.
“No one really prepares you for how deeply you can feel – the love, the fear, the guilt, and even the doubt – all in one,” she said.
Every day is a struggle between heart and mind, she told CNA Women. Her heart longs to stay with her son, while her mind reminds her of work and bills.
She was always a go-getter at work, she said. Adjusting to not maintaining that pace after giving birth has been a big shift. “I thought I could still give 200 per cent to everything. But you cannot be in 10 places at once,” she said.
Haleema with her husband and son during Hari Raya. (Photo: Haleema Asman)
The guilt begins the moment she steps out of the house, she said. “There’s this constant voice saying, just stay home, just be with your baby. You’re not going to get these years back.”
She worries about whether she has spent enough time with him, whether she said “I love you” enough, and whether she rushed their morning goodbye.
“I need to go to work to self-regulate because it’s a sort of escapism,” Haleema said. “When you go to work, you tend to escape from the routine at home.”
Staying home full-time, she said, is something she deeply respects in other mothers – but it is not what she wants for herself.
“As much as I have a baby, and I love my baby, I also have an identity,” she said. “Ten years down the road, I don’t want to regret not fulfilling that.”
More than a decade of parenting influencers and advocates has made the realities of new motherhood more visible. But Haleema isn’t so sure that it has made things easier for women.
“Everyone is so quick to give a solution,” she said. “They don’t allow babies to just be babies.”
She has noticed a rulebook mentality online, where mothers who do things differently get corrected. “When we don’t fit into the ‘manual’, they think we’re doing it wrong. But we’re just doing things differently, that’s all.”
Haleema when she was seven months pregnant. (Photo: Haleema Asman)
Breastfeeding is the clearest example. Haleema does mix feeds – giving both breast milk and infant formula to her son. “Just because you are doing exclusive breastfeeding does not mean I should be doing it,” she said. “We all have different commitments.”
As long as her baby is healthy, that’s all that matters to Haleema. The pressure also feels generational – her mother breastfed her for just two weeks after a C-section and wasn’t judged. “My mum’s time was more forgiving,” she said.
When she posts on her Instagram about her challenges with sleep deprivation, going back to work and feeling overwhelmed, some mums are surprised. “When you’re in the limelight, people think you have everything sorted,” she said.
She feels more empathy is needed – the willingness to sit with a mother’s struggles instead of judging or giving advice.
Some commenters discount the intensity of having a newborn and brush off her experience – “we all went through it”. Others tell her the worst is yet to come: “Oh, this is nothing, wait till he reaches toddler phase, it’s much worse.”
“I believe it comes from how people perceive things online. But for me, I’m just sharing my reality,” Haleema said. So, she’s learned to filter: “Take the good, leave the bad.”
She has found community in a WhatsApp group of about 500 mothers – all with babies born in November, from all backgrounds. It has become a lifeline. Eczema remedies, sleep tips, formula questions – everything is shared without judgment.
(From left) Abbdul Kather, Haleema Asman and Jaynesh Isuran, the hosts of Oli 968’s weekday lunchtime programme Anantham Arambam, which airs from 10am to 2pm. (Photo: Haleema Asman)
This perspective has reshaped how Haleema approaches interviews.
From 2022 until she gave birth in November 2025, she produced and hosted SingaPenne, Oli 968’s women’s storytelling segment, which aired on her previous morning show. The programme won Best Audio Programme at Pradhana Vizha, Mediacorp’s annual awards for local Indian entertainment, in 2022, 2024, and 2026.
“After becoming a mother, I now listen differently,” she said. “I listen with more empathy, more understanding of what people carry silently. I’m not just asking questions, but I’m feeling their stories.”
Though SingaPenne is not part of her current show, Haleema continues to bring motivational profiles to listeners through other segments, approaching each one with newfound depth.
So how does she keep going, day after day, on fractured sleep and relentless demands?
“Praying helps,” Haleema, who is an Indian-Muslim,
It is a lesson she has had to apply in smaller, more humbling ways, too.
Before her son was born, Haleema had a mental list of things she would not do as a parent. No pacifier. No automatic rocker.
Then her son arrived.
“I needed him to just calm down for 10 seconds,” she said. The pacifier came first. The cradle came next. Her baby just would not sleep without it. When her parents wanted to see their grandson, she gently told them they would have to come to her. The cradle could not travel.
“I thought I would never do these things,” she said. “But you just don’t know until you’re in it. You make your plans, then you meet your child, and those plans quietly change to fit around him.”
CNA Women is a section on CNA Lifestyle that seeks to inform, empower and inspire the modern woman. If you have women-related news, issues and ideas to share with us, email CNAWomen [at] mediacorp.com.sg.
Continue reading...
“There was a lot of water retention,” the 32-year-old said. “I just looked so different.”
Her husband encouraged her: “Your body just birthed a human. Why not show that empowerment instead of trying to look like you did before?”
She sat with it for another day or two. Then she picked up the phone and said yes.
“It was okay even if I didn’t go back to my pre-baby size, even if I didn’t look like ‘myself’,” she said. “That felt very empowering.”
Haleema in a photo taken two months after she gave birth to her son – she was nominated for the Most Popular Female Personalities award at Pradhana Vizha 2026. (Photo: Mediacorp)
DAYS THAT START AT 3AM
Haleema’s lunchtime show on the Tamilbegins at 10am, but her mornings start as early as 3am or 4am.
Her son, now five months old, wakes up five or six times every night. By the time she leaves for work, she has already been awake for hours, handing her baby to her helper as he cries and reaches for her at the door.
“It’s a very tough situation where I have to just tell myself I have to go,” she said.
Before her son was born, she would reply to messages at any hour. Now, she often ignores her phone. She considers it a benefit: less screen time, more presence. “The baby is a good distraction,” she said with a laugh.
Returning to work after maternity leave brought new pressures: Due to her son’s unpredictable mornings, she shifted from a breakfast to a lunchtime show. With two new co-hosts, live interviews, and production duties, she manages all this on little sleep.
“Nobody tells you, ‘Hey, you’re a mum now, we’ll ease things for you,’” she said. “It doesn’t happen that way.”
She said, almost in disbelief, that being heavily pregnant – doing a 6am show with back pain and working until 38 weeks gestation – was easier than what she faces now.
Between childcare logistics, baby sleep and feeding schedules, expressing breast milk and managing work, she is constantly thinking, planning, worrying and adjusting. “The mental load is crazy,” she said.
“THE LOVE, THE FEAR, THE GUILT, THE DOUBT – ALL AT ONCE”
What surprised Haleema most about motherhood was how intense the emotions were.
“No one really prepares you for how deeply you can feel – the love, the fear, the guilt, and even the doubt – all in one,” she said.
Every day is a struggle between heart and mind, she told CNA Women. Her heart longs to stay with her son, while her mind reminds her of work and bills.
She was always a go-getter at work, she said. Adjusting to not maintaining that pace after giving birth has been a big shift. “I thought I could still give 200 per cent to everything. But you cannot be in 10 places at once,” she said.
Haleema with her husband and son during Hari Raya. (Photo: Haleema Asman)
The guilt begins the moment she steps out of the house, she said. “There’s this constant voice saying, just stay home, just be with your baby. You’re not going to get these years back.”
She worries about whether she has spent enough time with him, whether she said “I love you” enough, and whether she rushed their morning goodbye.
“I need to go to work to self-regulate because it’s a sort of escapism,” Haleema said. “When you go to work, you tend to escape from the routine at home.”
Staying home full-time, she said, is something she deeply respects in other mothers – but it is not what she wants for herself.
“As much as I have a baby, and I love my baby, I also have an identity,” she said. “Ten years down the road, I don’t want to regret not fulfilling that.”
FILTERING THE NOISE IN THE LIMELIGHT
More than a decade of parenting influencers and advocates has made the realities of new motherhood more visible. But Haleema isn’t so sure that it has made things easier for women.
“Everyone is so quick to give a solution,” she said. “They don’t allow babies to just be babies.”
She has noticed a rulebook mentality online, where mothers who do things differently get corrected. “When we don’t fit into the ‘manual’, they think we’re doing it wrong. But we’re just doing things differently, that’s all.”
Haleema when she was seven months pregnant. (Photo: Haleema Asman)
Breastfeeding is the clearest example. Haleema does mix feeds – giving both breast milk and infant formula to her son. “Just because you are doing exclusive breastfeeding does not mean I should be doing it,” she said. “We all have different commitments.”
As long as her baby is healthy, that’s all that matters to Haleema. The pressure also feels generational – her mother breastfed her for just two weeks after a C-section and wasn’t judged. “My mum’s time was more forgiving,” she said.
When she posts on her Instagram about her challenges with sleep deprivation, going back to work and feeling overwhelmed, some mums are surprised. “When you’re in the limelight, people think you have everything sorted,” she said.
She feels more empathy is needed – the willingness to sit with a mother’s struggles instead of judging or giving advice.
Some commenters discount the intensity of having a newborn and brush off her experience – “we all went through it”. Others tell her the worst is yet to come: “Oh, this is nothing, wait till he reaches toddler phase, it’s much worse.”
“I believe it comes from how people perceive things online. But for me, I’m just sharing my reality,” Haleema said. So, she’s learned to filter: “Take the good, leave the bad.”
She has found community in a WhatsApp group of about 500 mothers – all with babies born in November, from all backgrounds. It has become a lifeline. Eczema remedies, sleep tips, formula questions – everything is shared without judgment.
(From left) Abbdul Kather, Haleema Asman and Jaynesh Isuran, the hosts of Oli 968’s weekday lunchtime programme Anantham Arambam, which airs from 10am to 2pm. (Photo: Haleema Asman)
This perspective has reshaped how Haleema approaches interviews.
From 2022 until she gave birth in November 2025, she produced and hosted SingaPenne, Oli 968’s women’s storytelling segment, which aired on her previous morning show. The programme won Best Audio Programme at Pradhana Vizha, Mediacorp’s annual awards for local Indian entertainment, in 2022, 2024, and 2026.
“After becoming a mother, I now listen differently,” she said. “I listen with more empathy, more understanding of what people carry silently. I’m not just asking questions, but I’m feeling their stories.”
Though SingaPenne is not part of her current show, Haleema continues to bring motivational profiles to listeners through other segments, approaching each one with newfound depth.
LETTING GO
So how does she keep going, day after day, on fractured sleep and relentless demands?
“Praying helps,” Haleema, who is an Indian-Muslim,
It is a lesson she has had to apply in smaller, more humbling ways, too.
Before her son was born, Haleema had a mental list of things she would not do as a parent. No pacifier. No automatic rocker.
Then her son arrived.
“I needed him to just calm down for 10 seconds,” she said. The pacifier came first. The cradle came next. Her baby just would not sleep without it. When her parents wanted to see their grandson, she gently told them they would have to come to her. The cradle could not travel.
“I thought I would never do these things,” she said. “But you just don’t know until you’re in it. You make your plans, then you meet your child, and those plans quietly change to fit around him.”
CNA Women is a section on CNA Lifestyle that seeks to inform, empower and inspire the modern woman. If you have women-related news, issues and ideas to share with us, email CNAWomen [at] mediacorp.com.sg.
Continue reading...