Mothers talking podcast

Sevgi is a Turkish mum who welcomed her first baby, Atlas, into the world last summer. As a pharmacist and an international marketing manager in pharma, you might expect Sevgi to view birth through a purely medical lens. But Sevgi’s true superpower is her intuition.  In this conversation, we listen to how she stepped out of Turkey’s highly medicalised mindset, questioning the absolute authority of...

This is part two of the episode, 99 Days in NICU.  In this insightful conversation, Natalie chats more to Kate Merrick, psychotherapist and mum to sweet Eliza, about her time at home and onwards after hospital.  Kate shows how beautifully connected she became with herself as a mother, her intuition and the body attunement which helped her to know what was best for her daughter.  Kate also chats ab...

Active birth is a powerful way to prepare for birth - and super effective. Yet it's benefits are less known about these days thanks to the countless courses, techniques and online courses now available. It's very physical focus is the key to mothers feeling confident as well as to countering the worrying rise in medicalised birth and Natalie's conversation with ardent active birth advocate Silvia...

We're starting the year off right with this uplifting episode of mothers talking.  Jenna talks to Kimberley, co-founder of ThriveNow Education and mum of three, whose own family tragedy has driven her to redefine education.  Kim is an experienced educator with over twenty years in the field and Kim is reimagining how school can be for young people.  Not only that, she is making this school a reali...

In this festive episode of mothers talking, Natalie and Jenna chat to lovely Freya Haines about everything hair and identity in motherhood. Freya is a mum of two and a hairdresser and in her new video series called 'Unbecoming' Freya is exploring a new mother's identity and how it transforms when they have a baby and how empowering it can be to get a new hairstyle.  Freya chats about how she nurtu...

As you probably know by now, Natalie can get quite excited about education. So she was especially pleased to have a chance to explore and explain the mysteries of Steiner schooling with Jenna Kim, mother of Cora, Ada and Iris, who are just starting out on that journey.  If thoughts like 'weird', 'cult', or 'alternative nonsense' are coming to mind, stop right there and have a listen. You may be su...

In this much needed episode of mothers talking, Natalie (author of Why Home Birth Matters) chats to Alex Smith.  Alex Smith has been a childbirth educator since the 1970s and an observer of the changing attitudes to childbirth during that time. She has had the privilege of attending many home births and believes that this is probably the only setting where truly physiological birth is able to unfo...

In this open-hearted conversation of Mothers talking, Jenna chats to Caro Giles, author of Twelve Moons and her latest book, Unschooled, about her journey with her daughters and the school system.  Caro as a single mum and full time carer to two of her four daughters who are autistic, shares how she has had to navigate a broken system while it failed her family and she had to be the one to pick up...

In part one of this beautiful conversation between Natalie and Kate Merrick, a psychotherapist and mum, Kate shares her incredible journey with her daughter Eliza and their 99 days in hospital after Eliza was born early at 29 weeks.  This remarkable story is a true testament to the deep knowing of a woman's body, a teeny but mighty baby girl and a mother's unwavering love and trust.  Kate sees the...

This month on Mothers Talking,  Jenna is chatting to Rachel Parker Soden about her current living situation, how it came about and how her and her two boys are 'letting the road guide us'.  In this inspiring conversation, Rachel shares how sometimes the best thing we can do, is just to do, not overthink and let fear take over but let action lead you somewhere beautiful.  Rachel is experiencing how...

Natalie and Jenna are chatting birth in this month's episode of mothers talking.  We look at the current landscape of birth preparation and explore how we feel about it.  We discuss what we think is more helpful when preparing for birth and how listening and tuning into yourself is much more important than listening to others.  Come with us on this journey to uncover the deep needs of pregnancy an...

In this month's episode of mothers talking, Jenna chats to Suzie Vaughan, psychotherapist and breath work practitioner, about our mum rage and what we can do about it.  We discuss the shame and guilt around anger that especially women can feel, we chat about how giving ourselves permission to feel it can help us work with our anger and not suppress it.  Suzie offers great tools and tips to help yo...

It's very easy as a new mum to be thrown off your beautiful instinct by well meaning but misplaced comments about your baby...in this month's episode of mothers talking, Natalie chats to lovely Laura Hubbard, new mum to baby Bobby, about how she is feeling during these sensitive early days.  As a second time mum, Laura trusts herself more in knowing her baby and is working hard to drown out the vo...

In this rather unique episode of mothers talking, Jenna and Natalie get personal.  As we both go through big changes in our lives, we talk candidly about where we are and how we are feeling during this period of transition.  As usual, we are unfiltered and unscripted and it's interesting the twists and twirls this conversation takes.  Grab a cuppa and join in the chat. If you would like to get in...

Natalie and Jenna are back in the first mothers talking episode of 2025.  Malikah Almaghrabi chats to us about how she enjoys motherhood with her beautiful daughter, Rumi and how allowing the duality of the experience helps her to be present and find the joy.  We share how we each enjoy motherhood and what it means to us and how it isn't necessarily what you think.  Thank you so much for joining u...

In our last episode of the year, Jenna and Natalie are delighted to welcome back the wonderful Peter Walker.  Peter oozes compassion and warmth in his third episode with us as he chats about how fathers can help support their partners through pregnancy and birth but explores so much more than that.  Peter talks about how babies are our teachers, not the other way round, how breathing out is one of...

Natalie and Jenna are back together in this month's episode of mothers talking.  Natalie joins Jenna in her thoughts on how often we are interrupted as mothers and the impact this has on our minds and bodies.  As two mums at different stages in our journeys we discuss the challenges and the gifts of our kids' interruptions and how Natalie reframes this for us all as a super power. If you would lik...

In this thought provoking episode of mothers talking, Jenna chats to Saumeel Patel about how acupuncture can support your fertility journey.  Saumeel is an incredible acupuncturist and holistic practitioner who explains how simple it can be to prepare the body for pregnancy.  Jenna and Saum also discuss how important acupuncture is in treating the whole person and how brilliant it can be for the g...

Mothers talking is delighted to chat to Alex Heath, a perinatal trauma therapist and founder of The Birth Republic, in this much needed episode.  Alex who is so down to earth and honest about her own journey with anxiety, which inspired her to retrain as a therapist, chats to Jenna about birth trauma, perinatal struggles and what we can do to help ourselves through it. Please be aware of the sensi...

Natalie and Jenna are back after the summer break with this honest episode of mothers talking.  We are chatting openly about our own experiences with anxiety and sharing our thoughts about this difficult yet common feeling.  Do you suffer from anxiety?  Is it running your life? Is it even something to cure?  We do our best to explore what living with anxiety is like on a personal and wider level....

We are so delighted to have this mothers talking chat with the brilliant Dr Emma Svanberg, clinical psychologist for parents, author and campaigner.  In this rich episode we discuss Emma's latest book, Parenting for Humans, where Emma allows us to discover why we parent the way we do and uncover more of ourselves in the process.  Emma has a way of making us feel relaxed about our parenting choices...

The wonderful Peter Walker is back with us in this enriching episode of mothers talking.  Peter Walker, a leader in his field of developmental baby massage, is so wise, knowledgeable and all heart as he chats with Jenna about the wealth of benefits our babies receive from respectful and loving touch.  It's a reassuring listen because you definitely can't hold your baby too much. Some sensitive top...

In this soothing episode of mothers talking, Natalie and Jenna explore the sometimes controversial topic of sleep, in babies, toddlers and beyond.  We look at how the decisions we make with sleep have a deep and lasting impact on us and our children and as always how trusting your gut and ignoring the 'shoulds' is always best for you and your baby. This is the blog Jenna mentions during the show....

In this special episode of mothers talking in honour of World Down Syndrome Day, Jenna chats to Susie Baxter whose beautiful son Ziggy has Down syndrome.  Ziggy and Jenna's son Jude met in their speech and language class run by the wonderful Down syndrome charity, 21&co.  Susie shares her journey with Ziggy as well as exploring what Down syndrome means to her.   *We do touch on some very sensi...

In this curious episode of mothers talking, Natalie and Jenna chat to mums, Molly Russell and Tahmina Pinnington-Mannan, about their unicorn births, in particular the difficulty they have had in sharing their experiences.  Have you ever heard of a unicorn birth?  Maybe you've had one?  Maybe you want one?  Come and have a listen and find out what it's all about. If you would like to get in touch w...