Mother of All Solutions

For World Prematurity Day on Thursday 17 November 2022, we have an episode with Catriona Ogilvy, founder of The Smallest Things. The charity is dedicated to creating a better world for premature babies and their families after neonatal care.

Catriona shares her own experiences of having two sons born preterm. She also discusses the mission and work of The Smallest Things, including the campaign to extend parental leave and the Employer with Heart scheme. 

To read more about the charity please link to the following: 

https://www.thesmallestthings.org/

https://www.thesmallestthings.org/after-nicu-a-post-pandemic-report-2021 

The Employer with Heart scheme mentioned is: 

https://www.thesmallestthings.org/employer-with-heart

You can connect on Facebook and follow the charity on Twitter and Instagram @_smallestthings #AfterNICU 

Thank you for listening. 

Mother of All Solutions is hosted and produced by Laura Broderick, with music by Ros Fraser. You can connect with the podcast via Instagram and Twitter @SolutionsMother

This episode is a compilation of voices and stories from speakers and participants at March of the Mummies in Newcastle, Saturday 29 October 2022. 

#marchofthemummies protests were taking place in London, Newcastle and other UK cities, organised by Pregnant then Screwed:  

https://pregnantthenscrewed.com/event-march-of-the-mummies/

Laura Broderick, host and producer of Mother of All Solutions, was part of the crowd and took the opportunity to record with union rep Mel Wilson, councillor Erin Parker-Leonard and MP Catherine McKinnell.

Also recorded for this episode is trustee of Pregnant then Screwed, Beth Hazon, and mums and dads on the march. Thank you to everyone for sharing - it was great to hear your reasons for attending #marchofthemummies and I hope the podcast captures some of the atmosphere and issues from the day.

Listeners - I would love to hear your thoughts so do get in touch via Insta or Twitter @SolutionsMother 

Music for the podcast is by Ros Fraser; the protest song featured within the episode was written and performed by Beccy Owens.

Chants by all marchers - including children!

In this episode, released on World Mental Health Day 2022, Laura speaks with Clinical Psychologist Dr Emma Svanberg. 

We speak about burnout and what that means for parents in particular. We cover recognising our feelings, and why we should take time to rest - even in small bursts. We also discuss the need for collective as well as individual healing. It was a fascinating and helpful conversation for me as the host - and I hope for you too. 

If you enjoyed the interview please do rate, review and subscribe to Mother of All Solutions on your favourite podcast app. To connect with Laura Broderick you can via Instagram and Twitter @SolutionsMother. 

Dr Emma Svanberg can be contacted via https://dremmasvanberg.com/ or Instagram as @mumologist 

Also discussed were: 

Make Birth Better: https://www.makebirthbetter.org/

March of the Mummies on Saturday 29 October: https://pregnantthenscrewed.com/event-march-of-the-mummies/ 

 

The podcast is presented and produced by Laura Broderick, with music by Ros Fraser. Thank you for listening!

In this episode Laura speaks with Emma Mitchell, captain of Reading FC Women and member of Scotland’s National Team.

We talk about her career as a professional footballer, maternity leave and motherhood. Emma’s daughter Innes is 10 months old and Emma returned to football after 8 months of mat leave.

We touch upon mental health, physical recovery from birth and logistics of being a mum and training/playing professional football. It was brilliant to talk with Emma and hear what she had to say about motherhood and an athletic career. I hope you enjoy listening.

You can watch Emma in the BBC programme The Future of Women’s Football:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0cdwd26

And the Scotland team video following Emma’s return to her national team and qualifying camp can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwRJ1E6KRwo

Thank you for listening and supporting the Mother of All Solutions podcast - hosted and produced by Laura Broderick, with music by Ros Fraser.

Do subscribe and keep in touch via @SolutionsMother on Twitter and Instagram - it would be great to hear from you.

This episode of Mother of All Solutions, with content creator Vivi Koroma Kala, is part interview part book chat! Vivi is Head of Content for Amazing If and also the creator of the bookstagram, The Cultured Life, which she set up whilst on maternity leave.

We talk about her career choices and changes, and have a conversation about the 3 books Vivi chose for us to read and review together:

Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman

The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read (and Your Children Will be Glad That You Did) by Philippa Perry

The Squiggly Career by Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis

I hope you enjoy learning more about content creation and the books we discuss! 

Vivi is on Instagram as the @thecultured.life and her website is www.theculturedmarketer.co.uk

You can connect to Laura via Instagram and Twitter via @SolutionsMother

Thank you for listening - if you can rate or review the episode that would be amazing. And do subscribe for future episodes!

Mother of All Solutions is hosted and produced by Laura Broderick, with music by Ros Fraser.

Frankie Tortora, graphic designer and host of the Doing It For The Kids (DIFTK) community and podcast is on Mother of All Solutions! DIFTK is for "parents who freelance", and was set up by Frankie following her first maternity leave. She co-hosts the DIFTK podcast with fellow parent and freelancer Steve Folland, and they won Gold in the business category of the British Podcast Awards 2021.  

Laura and Frankie discuss managing maternity leave as a freelancer, navigating school summer holidays, community building and support networks. It was a joy to speak with Frankie about her work, family and podcast. 

Doing It For The Kids website for all the DIFTK community, podcast and social links:  https://www.doingitforthekids.net/ 

Mother of All Solutions is hosted and produced by Laura Broderick with music by Ros Fraser. Connect with MOAS via Twitter and Instagram @SolutionsMother. 

Further listening - Laura recommends listening to Episode #72 of DIFTK 'Planning your maternity leave as a freelancer.' On MOAS there is also Episode 5 - The Freelancers. 

Further research - Frankie suggests searching Maternity Action's website https://maternityaction.org.uk/

For the MOAS summer 2022 episode Laura interviews Namulanta Kombo, the host of the award-winning Dear Daughter. The podcast is a BBC World Service series and won Gold in the Family category and was named Podcast of the Year in the recent British Podcast Awards.

Namulanta is based in Nairobi, Kenya, and started the podcast a year ago after winning an international competition from the BBC World Service. The idea began with her writing letters to her own daughter, and the podcast extended this to include wider contributions globally - what do women write about to the younger generation. The series is sometimes funny, sometimes sad, but always warm and interesting. It was an absolute pleasure to speak to Namulanta and find out more about her life, the podcast and her journey to make it. 

Dear Daughter can be found as a podcast on BBC Sounds or as show on the BBC World Service. You can also listen on your favourite podcast app.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w13xtvlp

To reach out to Namulanta you can do so via Twitter and Instagram @namulanta. Her podcast recommendations were:

The Moth https://themoth.org/podcast

The Comb https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w13xtv78

Jesus and Jollof https://jesusandjollof.simplecast.com/

 

Mother of All Solutions is presented and produced by Laura Broderick, with music by Ros Fraser. The show was nominated in the Family category of the British Podcast Awards 2022.

To connect with Laura on Twitter and Instagram search @SolutionsMother or message via [email protected]

 

Thank you for listening, and if you enjoyed the conversation please do take a moment to rate/review and tell your friends!

In this episode Laura speaks with Thomas Pondevie, Co-Director of the theatre company, La Compagnie Babel. 

Thomas Pondevie and Elise Chatauret have brought their French production of the play Fathers to the Brixton House theatre. 

The play is a line of enquiry about fatherhood & family, and addresses, 'How can we imagine fatherhood outside of the patriarchy?' 

It is based on interviews (the practice of documentary theatre) and the end result is a very special show with portraits of fathers played by two male actors on stage. 

I hope you enjoy learning about the play, how it was created and the aim of the production. 

To find out more visit: www.compagniebabel.com 

Mother of All Solutions is hosted and produced by Laura Broderick, with music by Ros Fraser.

The sound clips from Fathers in this episode were created by Maxime Tisserand.

In this episode of Mother of All Solutions, Laura shares her short conversations recorded with women at the International Women's Podcast Festival at King's Place, London, on Saturday 18 June 2022. 

The festival was organised by Content is Queen podcasting agency and I speak with Imriel Morgan CEO of the business. I also chat with Sophie Doyle who is keen to start podcasting, and Karen Arthur who hosts the Menopause Whilst Black podcast. 

I hope this episode offers some interesting reflections on motherhood, maternity leave and work - as well as celebrating the podcasting community. Do reach out if you want to connect and listen some more: 

Content is Queen https://contentisqueen.org/ 

Menopause Whilst Black https://www.thekarenarthur.com/ 

Thank you to the women who recorded with me for this episode, and those I chatted to in the breaks between the festival sessions! 

The podcast is hosted and produced by Laura Broderick, with music by Ros Fraser. 

Find Mother of All Solutions on Instagram and Twitter as @SolutionsMother or email Laura via [email protected]

In this episode Laura attempts to summarise the John Lewis Partnership event, Sharing the Juggle, held at the House of Commons on Tuesday 7 June 2022. 

To get to the real content of the panel discussion, Laura speaks with panellists Elliott Rae, Music Football Fatherhood, and Joeli Brearley of Pregnant then Screwed. They have great reflections...and news! 

The panel also included MPs Caroline Nokes (Chair of Women & Equalities Committee) and Minister Paul Scully, along with representatives from John Lewis and Home Start. The event was attended by parents, employers and even a few lovely kids! 

I hope by sharing what happened, and the voices of some of the panellists, we can all feel better equipped to know what businesses and government can do to support families. I hope you enjoy the episode.

Mother of All Solutions is hosted and produced by Laura Broderick, with music by Ros Fraser. Thank you for listening.