When Jana Pittman won the 400m hurdles at the 2007 World Championships, she thought she would become a great source of inspiration for mothers across Australia – but instead, it backfired on her.

Pittman believed she would become an example of how women can still excel physically soon after giving birth, given she won the world title just nine months after bringing her first child into the world.

She was seen as an iron woman at the time, but Pittman has now spoken candidly with the Daily Mail about how she achieved the opposite of what she aimed for.

'It made them [new mothers] feel like they're not enough … because they saw me do this ... and they weren't able to go to the gym, for example,' Pittman said.

That surprising setback led to Pittman becoming one of the most outspoken and authentic Australian athletes in recent memory.

'I've wanted to give people the full story ... that my life hasn't been easy ... and there's been terrible injuries ... and setbacks ... but that's real life,' she said.

The 43-year-old has now launched a new initiative called the 3am Club, backed by the REST Sleep brand, which is designed to help women across the world speak about 'taboo' health topics in order to find solutions.

'I want to talk about taboo topics... and this club aims to give people the chance to collectively share their stories and improve health outcomes,' she said.

The dual Olympian, who competed at both the summer and winter Olympic Games during her glittering sporting career, has since switched to medicine and is now a qualified doctor.

Pittman said going into medicine was a dream of hers long before she won fame for her sporting endeavours.

'I wanted to be a doctor since I was five years old ... but I got into athletics at 11 or 12 ... because a GP told me I was getting too chunky,' she explained.

'It [my sporting career] took my attention away from medicine … but it didn't destroy the passion.'

Pittman, who finished her medical degree more than a decade ago, has since moved from Sydney to Port Macquarie on the NSW north coast in order to prioritise time with her family.

'I [moved because I] wasn't seeing my children enough,' she said.

'(Despite working at the) Royal Hospital for Women, which was amazing ... I had to drive more than one hour to work.

'The sacrifice was too much. I wanted to be present in my kids' lives, and with an eight-minute commute, it's much easier to do that.'

Pittman is a six-time gold medallist across multiple competitions.

She stamped herself as a superstar at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, where she won two gold medals, before claiming four more career-defining victories in the next five years.