In this episode of the podcast, Motherkind Café coordinators Katherine Crawford, Emily Malden, and Jules Pidgeon are joined by local mum Heather, who gave birth to her second baby in May 2021, to discuss loneliness in motherhood and how the pandemic has affected Heather’s experience of second-time motherhood. 

Pre-warning: there is brief discussion of suicidal thoughts and of a traumatic birth experience. Please proceed with care if you might find that hard to listen to. 

We discuss the lonely moments of raising a baby that don’t often get talked about, the long nights with a baby that wakes often, how difficult it is to find honesty about the mental toll of motherhood at baby groups, especially when you are suffering with depression or anxiety. We also talk about feeling lonely amongst the relentlessness of looking after two small children at home all day (and how well the new Netflix film The Lost Daughter depicts this), and how weekends can be a lonely place for single parents. 

Happy Christmas from The Motherkind Café! In this episode the four Motherkind Café coordinators Emily Malden, Katherine Crawford, Kats Handel and Julia Pidgeon talk about all the extra pressures on mums at Christmas, and how we all manage those responsibilities for our family.

Join us on a meandering, wine-accompanied conversation through how we each create ‘the magic of Christmas’ for our often underwhelmed children, and how Kats skilfully used a detached retina this year as a way to convince her partner to share the mental load of Christmas with her. Emily discusses what the mental load is like as a single parent, and Jules shares with us how is she is coping with her first Christmas as a single parent away from her son.

We hope you are managing to enjoy yourself this Christmas, and please remember, if it doesn’t feel like you hoped it would, it’s just one day… Look after yourself, and reach out if you need help.

For episode 9 of the podcast, Motherkind Café coordinators Katherine Crawford and Emily Malden are joined by Kate Thirlwall, a local mum and poet, who has written 4 poetry collections reflecting on her experience of the highs and lows of motherhood.

Kate talks honestly about how past trauma and an experience in hospital shortly after the birth of her son derailed her breastfeeding experience, and left her feeling like she had failed.

She also talks about feeling isolated and invisible as a new mum and how her experience of motherhood led her to start writing poetry.

You can find out more about Kate’s writing and buy her books through her website or follow her on instagram @katethirlwall.