Episode Details

Four months into maternity leave, Bianca and Rose get properly into the reality of being home with a baby: the loneliness, the loss of structure, baby groups, the strange pressure to be grateful for every second, and why getting out of the house every single day became Bianca’s non-negotiable.

We talk about the things that genuinely help, from finding your people to creating tiny pockets of normality, and why “someone brought me a coffee” is not quite the same thing as feeling supported. Bianca shares what surprised her most, including the unexpected ways maternity leave can resemble lockdown, while Rose brings the research on connection, perinatal mental health and what actually makes support useful.

And then there’s the bigger question: if we know that the first months of motherhood can be psychologically and socially transformative, why is so much of the infrastructure around new mums still basically “good luck, see you in six weeks”?

This is not a guide to doing maternity leave correctly, but a conversation about what might help you feel like you while you become someone new.