Rebecca Schiller on her new book – Your No Guilt Pregnancy Plan. “It’s my way of countering some of the judgement, bullshit, guilt and narrow representations of motherhood that are out there.”
childbirth
Work Life
Motherhood may impact a woman’s career but it doesn’t have to destroy it. In fact, The Early Hour’s editor, Annie Ridout, found hers blossomed after giving birth. Here, she argues against the idea that babies are a barrier to your career…
Family
The early years of your child’s life are integral to their later happiness, so why are we told so little about them? Claudette Anderson – mother, and co-founder of Holding the Baby; a new kind of antenatal class – discusses the support parents need during these formative years…
Family
With the natural birth movement challenging the more medicalised model of birth, new mothers are feeling as if they’ve failed if they have an epidural, or need medical intervention during childbirth. Emma Svanberg explains why this is a feminist issue…
Wellbeing
Samantha Valentine was recovering well after childbirth until she started bleeding heavily. Following emergency surgery for a postpartum haemorrhage, Samantha developed PTSD and is now in the grips of postnatal depression. She talks us through her daily thoughts…
Family
With hypnobirthing classes on the rise and the NHS pushing for more mums to have homebirths, there’s a pressure to ‘achieve’ a so-called natural birth. But it’s not the only way. Annie Ridout discusses her highly medicalised births, and why she’s happy they panned out that way…
Wellbeing
Childbirth elicits fear in most first-time mums – will it be painful? How will I cope? This is why hypnotherapy classes, promising drug-free pain relief, have taken off in recent years. Juliet Forsyth puts forward her argument for personalised hypnobirthing…
Wellbeing
Concerned that she still looked pregnant after giving birth, Annie Ridout sought professional advice. It turns out she had a common – and treatable – condition called diastasis recti. Here, she reveals her midriff for surprising before and after shots (and shares some advice)…
Wellbeing
Women and girls are often told that their worth is based on appearance. Beauty alone is seen as a sign of success. But Annie Ridout wants her daughter to believe that she can be active, involved and powerful – no matter what size her waist is…
Wellbeing
Running a half marathon in the rain, on broken sleep – four months after giving birth – left Annie Ridout ill and exhausted. She realised that new mums, like her, need to listen to their bodies and slow down…