Woman's Hour

Nurses on the Frontline; Why babies laugh; Glasgow City FC; Marisa Meltzer

05.01.2020 - By BBC Radio 4Play

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Download on the App StoreGet it on Google Play

The number of people who have died with coronavirus in the UK has now passed 26,000, with some 15,000 in hospital. More than 100 NHS workers have died, a third of them nurses. What are the experiences and concerns of nurses working on the front line? Jane Garvey talks to Rachel Winterflood, a critical care nurse; “Mary” who works as a nurse in ICU and Jessica Sainsbury, a student nurse who has opted to finish her training with clinical practice. We talk to the two women who set up Glasgow City FC in 1988 at a time when sexism was a real problem in achieving equality in women's football (and still is!). Denied the access to the football they wanted to play when they were growing up Laura Montgomery and Cas Stewart decided to create the best team in Scotland and did! Glasgow City FC went on to win 13 consecutive League titles and reach the UEFA Women's Champions League quarter finals twice. The psychologist Caspar Addyman’s new book The Laughing Baby is all about the science of why babies laugh. He tells us what sets off a peal of delightful giggles and we hear stories and recordings from listeners about the things that have made their babies laugh. Marisa Meltzer was put on her first diet at the age of 5. Fast forward nearly four decades, Marisa comes across an obituary for Jean Nidetch, the woman who founded Weight Watchers in 1963. Marisa feels a moment of intense connection and decides to sign up for a year of Weight Watchers. In her book, This is Big Marisa ties together the biography of Jean Nidetch with her own story about body image, weight and her complicated relationship to food and dieting.

More episodes from Woman's Hour