Abigail Yardimci is a neurodivergent author who helps other neurodivergent people find their voice through writing.She writes novels that spark joy and connection and believes in everyone’s stories being heard and celebrated.

 Abi is a Geordie girl living by the sea in South Devon with her Turkish husband and two terrifying teenage boys. Herexperiences of neurodivergence in motherhood are tumultuous to say the least, especially considering they are set against a multi-cultural background as she and her Turkish, Muslim husband navigate parenthood together.

 Abi’s writing inspiration comes from scratching the surface of everyday life to find the underlying magicthat connects us all. The fire beneath the frustration, the creativity beneath the boredom, the stillness beneath the chaos.

www.abigailyardimci.com FREE mini writing app to help with stress and overwhelm –particularly good for neurodivergent people or parents who just need space tobreathe and come back to themselves for a moment.Direct link: https://hello.abigailyardimci.com/mini-app

Eirinie Carson is an award-winning Black British writer and college dropout living in California. She writes about sexual taboos, death and dying, illegal substances, hauntings both real and imagined, and ancestral inheritance in a world desperate to sever the connections between what came before and what isto come.

Her work has appeared in LitHub, the Notre Dame Review, Electric Literature, the Sonora Review, the Los Angeles Review, The Unibrow, and other venues. Her first work of fiction, the maternal gothic novel, Bloodfire, Baby (Dutton, 2026), has been named one of the year’s best debuts by Debutiful.Eirinie’s first book, the memoir The Dead Are Gods (Melville House, 2023), was critically acclaimed in Oprah Daily, Nylon, Shondaland, and the Washington Post, and was named one of the year’s best books by Kirkus Reviews.

https://www.eiriniecarson.com/

www.matrescence.uk

Lily Redwood writes poems that connect us to the mess and the magic of being human. Described as "visceral, loving and brave", her work explores the tangled landscape between birth and death.

Her debut pamphlet, You Make Me Think of Swifts, is a raw navigation through the landscape of early motherhood. The book features a foreword by Lucy Jones, author of Matrescence. Lucy says: "Electrifying and radical; anoasis, a healing balm [...] a generous, consoling and powerfulcollection which swells with imagination, meaning and hope”. You Make Me Think of Swifts recently earned a place on the shelves of the National Poetry Library.

Lily is currently working on her new collection, exploring the complexity of the mother-daughter bond, through an unflinching, intimate account of caring forher mother at end-of-life.

She performs extensively across the South West. Originally from South East London, Lily now lives off-grid in South Wales, where she is establishing a regenerative farm with her partner and two children.  

Insta: @lilyredwoodpoet

Insta: mothers_uncovered

Alex Bollen is a researcher, writer and postnatal practitioner. She was previously a director at the research agency Ipsos MORI and is now self-employed. She qualified as a Postnatal Practitioner with the NCT and has been running groups for new mothers for more than a decade.

Her book Motherdom: Breaking Free from Bad Science and Good Mother Myths was published by Verso in 2025. The Washington Post described Motherdom as “a thorough investigation into the intense pressures mothers face” and TheNew Yorker praised the book for being “irascible, informative.”

www.matrescence.uk

Audra Phelps founded Mama Audra to help moms unravel the web of old beliefs after leaving the LDS church to discover her own identity as a woman and mother. With over 15years of experience in international education and coaching, she discovered her passion in supporting moms grappling with grief, mom guilt, and identity loss after a faith crisis. When she finally made the life-altering decision to leave the church, she found herself sinking in uncertainty, lonelier than she'd everbeen before, and constantly feeling like she was failing her children.

Through years of coaching, she has walked the path to uncovering beliefs that resonate,building relationships with her children based on love and trust, and navigating the loneliness that comes from starting all over again.

She is now focusing her work on the unique challenges that ex-Mormon moms are navigating, helping them feel confident in who they are and blaze their own path, on their ownterms.

https://mamaaudra.com

Audra is offering podcast listeners a 50% discount on their first individual coaching session. You can find out about one-on-one coaching at https://mamaaudra.com/oneonone<https://mamaaudra.com/oneonone>  and book a free consult (mention PODCAST on our call for the discount). This is open to any woman navigating faith transition after leaving a high control organisation(not just Mormons).

www.matrescence.uk

www.matrescence.uk

www.maggiegordon-walker.com

Eve Canavan is the Co-Founder and Coordinatorof Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week.

Having experienced Postpartum Psychosis after the birth of her son, Eve began blogging about her experience and established the voluntary group Perinatal Mental Health Partnership anddevised the Awareness Week, a free yearly global resource, highlighting Perinatal Mental Health, how to access support and focusing on the organisations and services that support recovery.

She is the UK Coordinator for Postpartum Support International and a media volunteer for Mind and Action on Postpartum Psychosis. She also shaped the character Stacey Slater's postpartum psychosis storyline on #Eastenders.

Eve received the British Empire Medal for Services toMental Health in Her Majesty’s New Year Honours in 2017. 

Insta: @eviecanavan

Madhu Senaratne is a lecturer, researcher and writer. She holds a PhD, and her work focuses on voice, power, and ethicsin storytelling. She currently lectures in areas of humanitarian reporting, and media and development. She has previously worked as a journalist and with the United Nations in conflict and post-conflict contexts. She has published numerous academic and creative pieces.

Her debut poetry pamphlet Mother Self explores the everyday realities of motherhood, focusing on identity, care, andthe emotional complexity of that experience, capturing both its vulnerabilities and its strengths.

Instagram: motherselfstory

mothers_uncovered

Elaine Gregersen is an award-winning writer, public speaker, and podcast coach based in the North East of England. She writes and speaks about baby loss, caring, grief, and creativity. In 2025, she won the Allyson Kent Prize for Fearless Writing. She has also been shortlisted for the Bath Flash Fiction Prize and the Curae Literary Prize. Her pop culture podcast, The Honeymoon Period, reaches listeners in over 60 countries and has beenfeatured in The Guardian and Film Stories.  

Instagram: elainegwrites

Chloe Saunders is the Director of The Afterbirth Club, a community supporting parents through the messy, in between stages of parenthood.Alongside this, she works in cyber security, balancing a structured professional world with advocacy, podcasting and community building.

She brings an honest perspective on motherhood lived in the often overlooked space of not quite a young mum, but not quite anything else either.

At her core, Chloe believes that no act of kindness is ever wasted, and that showing up for people, consistently and without judgement, matters.

Insta: theafterbirthclub

www.mothersuncovered.com

Re-releasing this episode from April 2023.

Maggie interviews Ali Norell, who tragically lost her baby daughter Romy at 4 months old due to a rare condition.

Even though Romy's life was short, she changed Ali's life (she believes for the better) and led to the work she does now.

#alinorell #grief #maggiegordonwalker