The Secret Life of Mothers

Chloe Saunders is the Director of The Afterbirth Club, a community supporting parents through the messy, in between stages of parenthood.Alongside this, she works in cyber security, balancing a structured professional world with advocacy, podcasting and community building.She brings an honest perspective on motherhood lived in the often overlooked space of not quite a young mum, but not quite anything else either. At her core, Chloe believes that no act of kindness is ever wasted, and that showing up for people, consistently and without judgement, matters.Insta: theafterbirthclubwww.mothersuncovered.com

Re-releasing this episode from April 2023.Maggie interviews Ali Norell, who tragically lost her baby daughter Romy at 4 months old due to a rare condition.Even though Romy's life was short, she changed Ali's life (she believes for the better) and led to the work she does now.#alinorell #grief #maggiegordonwalker

The re-release of this first episode from March 2023. Trustee of Mothers Uncovered/Livestock interviews Maggie Gordon-Walker, who is the founder of Mothers Uncovered, set up for her charity Livestock in 2008.The Brighton-based creative support courses are led by past participants, celebrating the woman behind the mother, while allowing feelings to be explored honestly, without judgement. She is an advocate for matrescence (the transition to motherhood), believing women’s wishes around pregnancy, birth and postpartum are often ignored ormarginalised. She co-edited an anthology of past participants’ stories of their matrescence: ‘The Secret Life of Mothers’ (2018) and presents this podcast.She has spoken locally and nationally and been interviewed by BBC Southeast, R5 Live and ITV.Her work on the importance of maternal peer support and recognition of matrescence has appeared in The Guardian, The Canary, Mumsnet, Charity Times and academic journals. She has won several awards for her advocacy, including Social Enterprise UK Women’s Champion and Big Issue Changemaker.www.matrescence.uk www.mothersuncovered.com #maggiegordonwalker #mothersuncovered

Naomi Booth is the author of the novels Exit Management and Sealed, and the short-story collection Animals at Night; her work has been featured in books of the year in the Guardianand the White Review, listed for the Sunday Times short story award, and she won the Edgehill Short Story Reader's Prize in 2023. Naomi grew up in West Yorkshire and now lives in York; she is Professor in Creative Writing at Durham University. Her most recent novel, raw content, was described in nb magazine as 'a beautiful and thought-provoking story of post-natal mental health, violence, paranoia and unconditional love in all itsforms'. #naomibooth #rawcontent #mothersuncovered #matrescence #maggiegordonwalker

Charlotte is Professor of Family andSociety at the UCL Social Research Institute and Co-Director of the ThomasCoram Research Unit. She is one of the directors of the UCL Centre for HumanReproduction where she leads Repro@UCL, a network for social science andhumanities scholars working on reproduction She is currently leading a large UKRI fundedstudy, entitled '50 Years of Becoming a Mother' with Institute colleagues AnnOakley and Meg Wiggins, revisiting Ann's 1970s landmark study of the same name.#charlottefaircloth #maggiegordonwalkerwww.mothersuncovered.com

Ida Melum is a BAFTA & BIFA nominated and Annie & RTS awardwinning animation director based in Sweden. She has a master's degree in Directing Animation from the National Film and Television School in London, where she made her award winning, and BAFTA nominated graduation film ‘Night of the Living Dread’. She just finished her newest film, “Ovary-Acting”, a short comedy that deals with the topic of whether to have children or not. The film premiered at Tribeca and Annecy, has screened at over 50 festivals so far and won several awards, including Flickers Rhode Island - Best Animated Short. www.matrescence.uk

Hannah Turlington is an artist, writer and creative practitionerliving and working in North Yorkshire. Her work explores her own lived experiences through her work, such as being an adoptive mother. It also creates opportunities for the viewer toshare their own narratives. She runs community based projects that focus on connecting people with their creativity alongside running skills specific workshops from a shared studio space in Malton where she is also a director of AHH CIC. www.mothersuncovered.com

Jane Upton is a playwright. She wrote her first play when shewas 30 after an eight-year career in marketing. Her first play BONES had a sellout run at the Edinburgh Festival which led her to leave her marketing job and pursue a new path as a writer. It’s been a road of many tangents and fourteenyears on. She’s married and has a 10-year-old daughter and a six-year-old son.Her Bruntwood shortlisted play '(the) Woman' is at the Park Theatre, London from Sept 24th-Oct 25th.Insta@mothers_uncoveredPromoted by @mobiustheatre on Instagram

Caro Giles is an author and single parent-carer. She livesin Glasgow with her four daughters. Her first book, Twelve Moons is a memoir about her wild life in Northumberland with the girls, and her new book,Unschooled, is out now. Caro also writes a monthly column for Psychologies magazine. Instagram @carogileswritesInterviewed by Maggie Gordon-Walker for Mothers Uncoveredwww.mothersuncovered.comInstagram: @mothers_uncovered @maggiegordonwalker @matrescenceuk

Maggie Gordon-Walker speaks to Daisie Lane, who is a mother of two, and writes poetry about motherhood which she shares online. She speaks honestly about maternal mental health, has run various workshops encouraging mothers to write about their experiences, set up an online community for mothers who gave birth in lockdown, and has published two books, including Motherhood in Lockdown - a compilation of 150 mothers' experiences.Instagram @daisielanewritesInstagram @mothers_uncoveredwww.mothersuncovered.com

Maggie Gordon-Walker is delighted to speak to Becky Barnicoat, a mother to two boys, about her #matrescence, the juggle of motherhood with her creativity and much more.Becky is a cartoonist and writer for The New Yorker, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Grazia, and many more. Before becoming a full-time cartoonist, she spent 10 years working as an editor and writer at The Guardian. She is the author of the graphic memoir Cry When the Baby Cries, a darkly funny account of her first years as a parent. Instagram @beckybarnicomicsMaggie is the founder and director of Mothers Uncovered; which runs peer-led creative groups for mothers to share experiences. She is an award-winning advocate for matrescence, having written articles and spoken at events. www.mothersuncovered.comInstagram: maggiegordonwalker; mothers_uncovered

Maggie speaks to the inspirational Sam Southern, who is a devoted mother of five children and a stepdaughter, navigating the complexities of life after losing her husband to suicide. As a manager of a service in Blackpool, she draws on her lived experiences to project manage initiatives that support those affected by suicide. She is a passionate advocate for suicide postvention support. Her journey has fueled her commitment to raising awareness and providing compassionate support to others facing similar challenges, and she strives to foster understanding and healing within the community. Sam will share details of her husband's suicide and references to domestic abuse, so please be mindful if that is something that you will find upsetting.Sam can be found on Instagram @sammysuns

Alisha Samms described making friends as a mother to be as hard as making friends in adulthood. You introduce yourself and don't feel like you're getting much from other mums. You're just left on your own. So she founded the group The Mamahood Space, a relaxed group that meets up twice a week. The groups in Birmingham and Wolverhampton and where participants just have a chat about anything and everything. Interviewed by #MaggieGordonWalker for #SecretLifeofMothers www.mothersuncovered.com

Ashleigh Houlton is a former beauty features editor. She’s now a mum of a 3 year old son, with a blog on motherhood. She has had many hurdles in her journey, both to motherhood and thereafter, having experienced adenomyosis, described as the ‘the evil sister of endometriosis’. The indomitable Ashley has not let it stop her. She makes sense of her new sphere of life on Substack and Instagram as MotherVerse, where she tackles taboo topics such as birth trauma, PTSD and parenting with chronic illnesses.  https://motherverse.substack.com/about

Kelly Thistlethwaite is a trauma informed yoga and breath work instructor and nervous system educator working with pregnant women and new mothers to aid their general health and well-being. She is a #matrescence coach, combining it with her skills and passion of somatic approaches. She has a particular interest in supporting women following birth trauma and loss. The passion for this comes from her pain of experiencing pregnancy loss and a rare ectopic pregnancy. This led her to co-founding a pioneering online support platform called FLY Mama. https://www.flymama.co.uk/ Kelly believes that we can all heal following our experiences and be the women and mothers that we desire and deserve to be. Edited by Vladimir Jaksic https://www.linkedin.com/in/vladimir-jaksic-37629640/

When I became aware of the word matrescence, meaning the process of becoming a mother, I could see immediately the importance of it. The word was coined by anthropologist Dana Raphael in 1973, but is not well known in the UK outside of medical circles, unlike the very familiar adolescence. Both are times of hormonal fluctuations and bodily changes, when a new identity emerges and emotions run riot. Why is this word important? What’s in a name, after all? Quite a lot, I think. Currently there is no term in common usage to describe this point in a woman’s life. The offerings are diagnostic and medical, or the belittling ‘baby blues’, which only covers the short-term period following the birth. Post-natal depression is a label that comes with a certain stigma; it is negative, prescriptive and limiting. It in no way embraces the complexity and depth of this time. Becoming a mother is a lengthy process, it doesn’t happen overnight. Indeed one might argue that the journey of motherhood continues for the rest of your life. With matrescence to describe this time, women can start to own it and trust that whatever they are going through, it normalises the full gamut of experiences and feelings. Every single person on this planet has, or had, a mother. There are countless studies that point to the impact of upbringing in later life. It is time we took it seriously and championed matrescence.

Beverley Pannell is from Sussex but was living in Aberdeen when she gave birth to her child. She tells the story of the birth that was traumatic and she felt very unprepared for and also about the baby loss that preceded it. She now lives in Horsham with her partner and two year old daughter. Beverley found her transition to motherhood very uphill, and often felt like she wasn’t thinking or feeling the ‘right’ things. Once she eventually stopped blaming herself for this she started to see the myths, misogyny and nonsense that surround motherhood and she has since founded a charity, Motherhood Uncensored, to try and shed light on these issues.

We speak to the fabulous and inspirational Emma whose daughter Hannah’s mental health was affected by a traumatic incident when she was eight, turning a confident and happy child doing well at school into one who had three fixed exclusions in a year. Emma, already working with families whose children had additional challenges with her organisation SELFA, had to relearn parenting to support her daughter through her explosive outbursts. Through what’s now known as a restorative approach, the family were able to meet her daughter’s needs and she is now a thriving 17 year old. Emma’s story is honest and difficult to hear at times so please do take care of yourself through the course of this listen. In the meantime - sit back and listen to the wonderful Emma.This episode focuses on mental health issues as well as suicide so please do take care of yourself as you listen should these issues effect you.

Join us as we delve into the inspirational Secret Life of Mothers as we hear real stories from real women sharing the real story of Motherhood. Be prepared for raft of stories around courage, resilience, wit and strength - all through the eyes of a Mother. A podcast about the real story of Motherhood told by real women from through their own lived experience.