New Leaf

SE3 Ep9: Anna Kent: Frontline Midwife

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Anna kent, midwife, humanitarian and single mum of 5 year old Aisha joins me today on the season 3 finale of new leaf podcast. 

 

I found out about Anna after my mum pointed me in the direction of a BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour broadcast featuring Anna and her book which is out now, Frontline midwife. I knew pretty soon from the sheer length of text my mum sent about her that she was not one to miss, and after I listened I realised that to have her as my final guest was non negotiable. I am always quite careful about whom I choose to close the series, and I was really stuck as who to choose. Anna however did not disappoint. 

 

Anna Kent spent her late twenties in war-zones, nursing, midwifing, and in her words - witnessing. Witnessing the amazing successes they had, with the often sparse and scant resources available, but also the horrors of war. Anna delivered babies by head-torch, project managed maternal health units for thousands of people, and faced life and death stories on a daily basis with medecins sans frontiers, or Doctors Without Borders. I was absolutely riveted, and I know you will be too. Since she was a little girl, Anna felt a deep sense of injustice at the hunger, violence and intense healthy inequalities faced all around the world. The moment she got a chance to do something about it, she did, and it was this decision that set in motion her professional and very personal journey to where she is now. 

 

Host, Editor + Producer: Laetitia Gordon-Furse

Sound Editor: Frederick French-Pounce

SE3 Ep8: Clare Bourne: Pelvic Health Physio

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Clare Bourne is my guest on this week’s episode of new leaf podcast. 

 

Clare is a pelvic health physiotherapist who’s been practicing in this field for over ten years. A mum of 2 herself, Clare has practiced on both sides of the fence - having kept her career consistent either side of having babies, something I have to say that is unusual amongst my guests. 

 

I found Clare on social media, where her reels about the general hilarity of motherhood combined with incredibly educational reels and polls on all things pelvic floor, really impressed me. I don’t think I’m alone in feeling like sometimes, Instagram is home to a lot of, erm, rubbish - particularly unfortunately when it comes to motherhood. Clare couldn’t be more different. The creativity and thought she puts into her account to make it as digestible and informative as possible really appealed to me. I’ve always made it a priority to give exceptional people in the postnatal health space a platform, so it wasn’t exactly a hard choice to have Clare on. 

 

Clare was brave enough to share with me her incredibly challenging experience with hypothalamic amenorrhea, a severe stress response that effectively results in your periods shutting down. Clare faced a possible early menopause diagnosis at the age of just 24, when she was not only single, but also desperate for a family in her future. 

 

What happened next was an experience in a) always having medical friends nearby, and b) listening to both your body and your gut. Clare went through a whole grieving process for the family she thought possibly wasn’t to be, which I cannot even imagine going through, let alone at just 24 years old. Her story from there to 2 babies is a great one. 

In a world with a lot of misinformation and myths when it comes to the postnatal experience and our physical recovery, we really need more people like Clare. Introducing this speedy goncales, Clare Bourne. 

 

Host, Editor + Producer: Laetitia Gordon-Furse

Sound Editor: Frederick French-Pounce

SE3 Ep7: Linnea Dunne: The Right to Choose

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Click here to read Linnea's article on the Maternity Hospital in Dublin --> https://roguecollective.ie/post/whats-the-story-with-the-new-national-maternity-hospital-and-what-do-the-nuns-have-to-do-with-it?loggedin=true 

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Linnea Dunne, writer, editor, podcaster, mother of 2 and feminist joins me on series 3, episode 7 of the new leaf podcast.

Linnea is a Swedish native who’s lived full time in the UK and is now based over in Dublin, Ireland. Besides her incredibly strong (and incredibly accurate) broad Irish accent, the fact that she’s not a native anglophone is all the more impressive when you consider that Linnea’s written two books in English, and has several written features for the Irish Independent, opinion pieces for the Guardian and the Irish Times, and conducted her podcast, Bits of Me, in English too. 

Linnea has also been hugely active in the reproductive rights movement over in Ireland. She immersed herself fully into the campaign for the repeal movement of the “8th amendment”, a piece of Irish law that was essentially a blanket ban on abortion, stating that the foetus and mother’s lives are completely equal. A referendum in 2018 finally resulted in its repeal, marking a huge social and cultural change in Ireland. Northern Ireland eventually followed in 2020. I still cannot quite believe how remarkably recent this is. There are so, so many women globally who are still fighting for this right to to choose - yet there are also an enormous number of women who are experiencing the chipping away of this choice, too. Texas, you know who you are. We live in very strange times.

Linnea’s story is particularly relevant to the repeal of this 8th amendment. Linnea was faced with an agonising decision when her unborn baby was diagnosed with triploidy at 20 weeks, a rare genetic abnormality where there is an extra set of chromosomes in the foetus’s cells. 

This is only a small portion of her story, which is absolutely fascinating. This pregnancy expedited some time away from her career, and an amazing choice to go back to education and get her masters. Linnea finished her dissertation at 9 months pregnant, and now has 2 boys, juggles creative projects, her podcast, her own business as an English language copy agency for nordic brands, as well as project management and blogging. This is one impressive lady.

Linnea is incredibly inspiring and shares a brilliant story. For all sorts of reasons, this is one of my proudest episodes to date, and I’ll think you’ll see why when you listen. Introducing, Linnea Dunne.  

Content edits: Laetitia

Sound edits: Frederick French-Pounce

SE3 Ep6 Jessica Lawes: The Mum Club

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Jessica Lawes, mum of 4 and co-founder of @themumclub, joins me on Series 3, episode 6 of the new leaf podcast. 

Jess co-founded the mum club with her friend Lauren Webber back in 2016, after a fair bit of mutual frustration that there weren’t really groups for women that were mum, rather than baby focused. The mum club is therefore a community for women to meet up all over the UK to discuss all things motherhood, but in a much more woman-centric way… Through a franchise model, they curate local events and provide a nation-wide online experience, as well as providing offers and discounts - making it a lot easier for mums to make other like-minded mum friends that in their words, value ‘who you are’ rather than ‘what you are’ as a mummy. 

 

Of course, for fans of the podcast who know me and what I’m about, hopefully it’s nice and clear to see why I wanted to get jess on! Anything that is woman-focused when it comes to the juggle and struggle of motherhood gets my vote any day of the week, and the mum club was no exception. 

 

Jess’s journey through motherhood and career has been quite different to my other guests, with babies coming first and career later, at absolutely zero detriment to her success. She was pregnant with her first at just 21, making her pretty young by modern standards where the average age to begin our motherhood journeys is nearly 10 years later at 31 years old in the UK being when most ladies have their first babies. As a result, it means Jess has now completed her family just when lots of other ladies are beginning theirs - with four beautiful children under her belt and still so much youthful energy to do what she now does. 

 

Jess’s family setup is definitely a bit different to most people, but it was clear to me that this setup has had a really positive influence on both her motherhood and professional experience and has massively encouraged her passion for wanting to create this incredible community. 

 

Jess’s husband happens to play rugby for England, and to me it seemed clear that this has given her invaluable first hand experience of the value and power of the ‘village’ through incredible female friendships, which I have no doubt must have really influenced the birth of the mum club. To be in that world, Jess describes the very unique and shared experience of having their partners away on tours, where they are doing a stressful and physically demanding job, and are also under scrutiny from press as well as under constant pressure to perform. Motherhood can be challenging at the best of times, and Jess talks in the episode about how incredibly supportive and vital it was to her to have other girlfriends and wives going through the same thing as her - where they could pick up the phone and share the highs and lows of that life with immediate understanding of what they were all going through! 

 

And so actually, we all need this as mums, and Jess has geniusly recognised that, and capitalised on it. We all need our village, our someone to pick up the phone and moan to (or voice note, which is my main communication method of choice since being a mum), and also be ourselves with.

Jess made me laugh out loud at multiple points in this interview - her unwillingness to join the ‘Cath kidston and pie-making’ motherhood set (her words, by the way) as well as sometimes just needing a mimosa and babies kinda brunch I completely and utterly understood. She then combined this with an enviably laid-back approach to motherhood which was refreshingly different to how I am - and made her a truly intriguing guest!

 

Jess and the mum club are definitely ones to watch. Introducing, the very glamorous and unimaginably mum of 4, Jess Lawes. 

 

Content + Edit: Laetitia Gordon-Furse

Sound: Laetitia Gordon-Furse + Frederick French-Pounce

SE3 Ep 5: Yebin Mok: Dancing On Ice

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Yebin Mok, ice skater, Dancing on Ice Star and mummy of 2 joins me on Series 3, episode 5 of the new leaf podcast. 

I’ve wanted to interview a professional athlete who was a mum for a while, so Yebin as an ex Team-USA figure skater, and current professional skater on dancing on ice, as well as being mum to Theo and baby Lilia was no exception.I’ll be honest, I’ve always felt a sting of envy watching figure skaters - the sparkly costumes, the music, the romance, and the incredible physical ability of the athletes…. so when I found Yebin and then realised she was a mum, the rest was history and I made it my mission to get her on. Luckily, I didn’t have to try very hard, as she is so personable, sweet and lovely - we had one quick phone call where we couldn’t stop talking, and that was it. 

How do you go back to work when you’re entire professional career is doing crazy stunts on ice, when you’ve just had your second c-section and you need to get back into spangly lycra pronto??

Yebin’s journey started in South Korea, before she emigrated to Los Angeles at seven years old.It was there she discovered ice skating - yet somehow, she ended up in extremely rainy Manchester with her Doctor slash figure skater love of her life, and 2 babies. It is a great story and if you’ve ever been curious about this world, this is the episode for you.

I don’t want to give away too much of this episode because her story is just so interesting, but something she says towards the end really stood out to me. 

Yebin says that the thing she learned most from motherhood was how she had just stopped ever taking time by herself for granted, and I can’t help thinking how completely true this is.

And just like Yebin, it’s not that I don’t want to be with my kids - it’s that I want time alone. And yes, I’m aware that this doesn’t make any sense. But then, motherhood is kinda like that sometimes. The cliche of craving craving craving time alone, but then missing your kids, is that absolute classic struggle that so many women face - particularly when heading back to work. 

Yebin’s sheer discipline yet with an incredible positive outlook when it comes to her physical recovery after her csections is really inspiring. At the time of recording she was only 3 months postnatal, and already smashing it back out on the ice. Although it seems sparkly, the training Yebin must go through to return to her usual fitness must be gruelling, yet she clearly loves it. As she says in the episode, skating for her is like walking, and you can really hear her love for her job all the way through. I can only imagine that it must be nice to go back to glitz and glamour, and get to take a break away from the yoghurt in the hair and baby throw-up that even Beyonce can’t avoid. It’s just… mum life.

If you’re listening to this, you as a mum are obviously taking some time for yourself. Sometimes it can look a bit different to how it looked before, you may be cooking, or pushing the pram - but every little helps. And maybe try and book some in for yourself soon that doesn’t involved cooking or pushing a pram. Enjoy this episode - introducing, the sweet and gorgeous, Yebin.

Content + Production: Laetitia Gordon-Furse

Sound: Frederick French-Pounce 

SE3 Ep4: Elizabeth Christmas-Hutton: Kicks Count

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Click here to buy a @kicks.count wristband --> https://kickscount.shop/ols/products/wristband 

 

Elizabeth Christmas-Hutton, CEO of the charity @kicks.count, joins me on series 3, episode 4 of the new leaf podcast. 

 

Kicks count is a British charity with big ambitions, to reduce the UK's stillbirth and neonatal death rate by raising awareness of baby movements and empowering ladies with knowledge and confidence.  The UK has one of the highest rates of stillbirth in Europe, and you may be shocked to hear that you are ten times more likely to experience a stillbirth than cot death, now referred to as SIDs. 

There isn’t one single cause of stillbirth - however, a decrease in baby movements can be a warning that something may be wrong. 

HALF of mums who had a stillbirth, noticed their baby movements slowing down beforehand. Half.

Stillbirth is still a highly taboo subject. We aren’t very good in our society at talking about death. Let alone, baby death. I want to be straight up with you and admit that I felt nervous before getting on a call with Elizabeth. This is not exactly a topic of conversation that comes up regularly when you think of pregnancy and birth. Knowing in advance that her story was so tragic made it hard to face, and I knew it would be hard to hear. Hearing it, however, is not living it. And what she went through could only be described as a nightmare.  However, her cause is so, so important - and her story is so powerful, that I knew it had to be shared.

I was very, very nearly one of the unlucky ones. During my first pregnancy, my baby movements reduced at 38 weeks, and despite a scan just days earlier showing everything was fine, I had a niggling feeling that wouldn’t go away. I thought of the large kicks count posters in my south London hospital and went in. Expecting to be sent home, I didn’t even bring in a hospital bag, only to have my little boy born that day via emergency C-section after a very abnormal heart beat pattern whilst being monitored, followed by several instances of it plummeting. If I hadn’t noticed a change in my movement pattern, I was told he would have died, at full term. I have Elizabeth, this charity, and her son Toby, to thank for saving his life. 

Elizabeth’s own son Toby was born sleeping at 20 weeks. The pain and the devastation of this loss is quite simply unimaginable for anyone who hasn’t been through it. She is so incredibly brave to share her story of what happened to her on this episode. She is also a breast cancer survivor - having had a double mastectomy and her ovaries removed, all whilst running this incredible charity. Her ambitions know no limits and to say I was a bit starstruck having met one of my heroes is an understatement. 

This episode is dedicated to Toby.

Introducing; Elizabeth.

 

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Words / Structure / Content: Laetitia Gordon-Furse

Sound Editor: Frederick French-Pounce

SE3 Ep3: Claire Gleave: Natal Active

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The incredible Claire Gleave, founder and CEO of the maternity and postnatal sportswear brand Natal Active, joins me on this episode of the New Leaf podcast. 

 

I’d been following natal active for a while, especially as the instagram algorithm kindly picked up that I was pregnant and into fitness, and so naturally I started to be inundated with Claire’s advertising. Money well spent, Claire. 

 

On this episode, Claire and I talk about birth injuries, prolapse, postnatal recovery and in particular, her own journey of discovery as to how exercise was so integral to her identity - and therefore how upsetting it was when this hung in the balance after a particularly bad birth injury. What happened afterwards was a journey to build an absolutely rocketing brand built on the premise of making women look and feel good when exercising, but pre- and post-natally. 

 

Claire’s journey with prolapse and with some of the really disappointing interactions she had with healthcare professionals were a shock for me to listen to, but since researching more into this space it is so clear that the voices behind postnatal support are getting louder. There is a mantra that is beginning to be chanted: which is that birth injuries are common, but not ‘normal’, and I couldn’t agree more. Using partial or total incontinence as an example, your GP or healthcare system dismissing these to you as ‘normal’ can actually be really upsetting. Common does not equal normal or acceptable - and by using that language we are telling ourselves as a society that we don’t have to do anything about it. Oh you’re struggling with incontinence? Normal after a vaginal birth. This wouldn’t be so bad, if we had proper postnatal support. But, we don’t. You feel unheard and unsure of what you can do, if anything, about it, and the system in general provides very little - or nothing. 

 

The French system has TEN pelvic floor rehabilitation sessions paid for, by the state as standard, after your birth, available to all women. In the US and UK, this then means that you’re at the complete mercy of ‘how severe’ your birth injury is, in which case you still may be waiting weeks, or - at the mercy of your own income. Postnatal private physio is expensive, and therefore not necessarily accessible to all. I was painfully aware of how lucky I was to be able to afford a postnatal physio for my abdominal problems and it was undeniably a) simple but b) life changing to fix with the right support. This shouldn’t be a luxury - basic health care is a human right. 

 

Claire makes this point brilliantly via her own experiences, but also shows us what you can do with enough grit, passion and determination. Claire experienced plenty of adversity in her journey, but kept going and is CLEARLY building a much-needed empire which is exploding. I am obsessed with companies supporting women at the biggest change points in their lives - and natal active is doing just that.

 

So much more to say on this but… for another time. If you want to engage in the conversation around birth injuries or postnatal exercise, follow me on instagram @newleafpodcast.

SE3 Ep 2: Louise Boyce: Mama Still Got It

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This guest is the live wire Louise Boyce, aka the hilarious @mamastillgotit, who joins me on episode 2, series 3, of New Leaf podcast. 

In this episode, Louise describes in detail the journey to the mamastillgotit empire, from the ‘heroin chic’ modelling culture she battled with in the 90s which led to a serious eating disorder, all the way through to her eureka moment - where after the birth of her second child, she realised that actually, ‘mama still got it’ and wanted to help other women feel the same way too. 

She also discusses her outstanding campaign to get well known fashion brands to declare when they’ve used models with fake bumps for maternity clothes, which has fundamentally changed the landscape of UK maternity fashion. This is one impressive lady, and the rest is history.

Louise describes each of her 3 births - each of them extremely dramatic and impactful in their own unique way. Also, each birth had a vastly different postnatal experience, and it showed me once again that birth stories never really repeat themselves - our babies have their own ideas and we are often merely a participant! The stories are amazing - and although I was 38 weeks pregnant when we recorded and terrified of giving birth again, Louise’s story actually really helped me at the time to embrace the unknown and work with what I knew. Her story is both scary and beautiful all at the same time - but don’t worry, it’s a happy ending I promise.

Louise’s positive attitude with a healthy dose of realism, swear words and hilarity was super refreshing to listen to - and as someone who is a bit further down the baby track than I am, it was inspiring to see someone as vibrant and funny as Louise being incredibly successful at something she loves with three children, fully embracing her femininity and glamour in a way that yes, definitely says, mamasstillgotit. 

Words / Structure / Content: Laetitia Gordon-Furse

Sound Editor: Frederick French-Pounce

SE3 Ep1: Elliott Rae: Music, Football, Fatherhood

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This is my exclusive fortnightly summary writeup of these episodes, with judgment free motherhood tips and tricks, general musings and interesting articles about all things woman - straight to your phone. All factual articles or tips are academically supported, so that you can feel confident that you have the right information to make the right choice for your family. 

Doing all the googling, so you don’t have to. 

Click here to subscribe --> https://newleafpodcast.substack.com 

 

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Well, I promised I’d kick off series 3 with a bang… so here we go. Introducing my first ever male guest to the new leaf podcast.

Elliott Rae, founder of the podcast music, football and fatherhood and published author of the book DAD: Untold stories of Fatherhood, Love, Mental Health & Masculinity joins me on this explosive first episode of series 3 of the new leaf podcast. 

Elliott’s article described his journey suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, after witnessing his own daughter’s terrifying birth where he nearly lost both his wife and child after complications from group B strep bacteria. The bravery of his article was met with support - but also stigma. In this interview, he describes the comments and judgments he faced, highlighting how far we still have to go in understanding and including men in the birth process. We all need to understand the psychological impact that witnessing a huge trauma can have, and how watching the person we love go through something incredibly scary and complex can be jarring at best and deeply harrowing at worst. 

We are living in a very different world to the one our parents, or baby boomers, lived in. Expectations on dads are changing, but it is a voluntary change. Many, many more dads want to be equally involved in the child-rearing - and this should be welcomed and not feared. We cannot escape the fact that birth is an undeniably female process - but our support partners really, really matter. We cannot get back to work in the way that we want to without support - and single parents excluded, this is most often through the dads. Whatever your family structure - positive male role models are needed. Toughen up, boys don’t cry, man up, be strong, grow some balls… we all (women as well as men) need to do these things from time to time. Resilience is of course important in society. But denying men’s feelings’ existence doesn’t work. We see this in alcoholism, drug dependency and suicide affecting men that much more disproportionately than women. And being a great dad does not equal not ‘being a man’. To display feelings, and speak up, takes great strength.

 

Having Elliott on New Leaf was a massive eye opener and to be honest it was my great privilege to have him as the first certified bloke on the show. He was also just really nice, and really funny. I really, really believe in what he is doing for dads everywhere so watch this space and look him up. It gives me great pleasure to introduce, Elliott Rae. 

 

SE2: Ep9 Illy Morrison: Mixing Up Motherhood

IBefore we begin - Click the following link to subscribe to the New Leaf Nutshell, breaking down the most controversial of motherhood topics and doing all the Googling, so you don't have to. This month, I'm debunking Sleep Training and exploring its murky waters, as we discover the secret (or lack thereof)... of getting your tiny terror to sleep --> https://newleafpodcast.substack.com/p/the-new-leaf-nutshell-should-i-sleep?r=aze8z&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=copy

 

lly is a midwife, hypnobirthing teacher, mama to 2 and a half year old Ihsan, and also post/pre-birth debrief consultant with her business mixing up motherhood. Illy helped me to fulfil a dream of mine for this series, which is to interview a midwife who has become a mum, to see how the process of becoming a mum changed both their professional and personal practices. Illy gave me so much more with her interview, and challenged a lot of my perspectives about advocacy, as well as reminding me of the importance of questioning ‘the norm’ whatever that norm may be - which we all already know, but occasionally forget or allow to pass us by when it matters most.

 

Having suffered from her own traumatic birth, something she said to me really stuck out - which was that if you suffer from a traumatic birth of a difficult birth, or have a complaint about your care, very often the last place you want to return to is the ‘scene’ of the crime. It is so obvious when you say it aloud or hear someone describe it but quite honestly I’d never thought of it like that, and how so many women must be avoiding those conversations with their care providers because they feel frightened, ashamed, weak or frankly just too traumatised to reach out and ask. Illy’s training as a hypnobirthing provider is undoubtedly a massive asset in this space, as she understands all too well the power of language. I know myself how simple adjectives people use to describe your birth can be devastating, even if well-meant, if you are still getting over something incredibly emotionally painful. This is where Illy’s power clearly lies and is something that I’m sure is a huge contributor to her success. 

 

Illy mentions a few times her frustration with an excessive focus on mark schemes and policy around things that have a lot more nuance. Something I found incredibly frustrating at school and with my own education was the fixation on following an extremely ‘set’ path - our mark schemes were decided, the ‘right’ answer agreed even on more philopshiocal or interpretative subjects like English and Art, only to find that the so-called ‘right’ answer would change like the wind with a new exam board or mark scheme.

 

In a lot of ways, I think all of us feel at some point that the mark scheme mentality hasn’t really left us, and no more so than the space of birth. Whether it is judging our method of pain relief, our mode of delivery, our birthing location even, the baby’s birth weight, your own weight gain, how quickly you ‘snap back’ (ugh), we often hold ourselves to these arbitrary mark schemes. It is worth noting that these also change like the wind, as does our understanding of birth and the evolution of what being mother actually is. My 93 year old grannie had 5 babies at home and had to fight for that right to do so. In 2021, home birth these days is often not only celebrated and lauded but also encouraged by an increasing number of providers in the UK. In Turkey, the USA, and in many other countries, the caesarean is often the norm. There are huge variations between countries where birth is more or less medicalised in culture - another perfect example to me of how there is no right answer when it comes to motherhood. 

 

What matters most is our perceptions of our experience, the importance of awareness and education, and kindness from whomever is supporting us in our birth experience. Birth is its own miracle with its own path, and is one of the few things in our overtly micro-managed lives that we can’t apply the same tick boxes to. Reading every book isn’t going to get your A star. The secret is, that the A star doesn’t exist, and feeling confident, safe and powerful about your birth experience is the most important things. Ah so much more to say on this, but I’ll let you have a think for yourself. 

 

Introducing the amazing, Illy Morrison.