Maternity Service: A Love Letter to Mothers from the Front Line of Maternity Leave

(Hardback)

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A heartfelt, reassuring and bracingly honest book about what it actually feels like to be on maternity leave, from award-winning Radio 4 Today programme broadcaster, Emma Barnett. The essential companion for every mother embarking on maternity leave 'In one important sense maternity leave is poorly named, as it involves no actual leave. You are constantly on, even when your offspring is having a nap. There is nothing restful about it. In another sense maternity leave is aptly named, because it's a period of leave from all you know- taking leave of one's mind, body, job, and relationships' When Emma Barnett began her second maternity leave, she realized that, despite having been there before, as soon as her first leave finished the rose-tinted lenses had descended and she immediately forgot what the experience was actually like when you're in it. This collective forgetting, which leads to well-meaning comments such as 'enjoy every minute' and 'treasure this special time', is doing a disservice to women, leaving them unprepared for the more complicated reality of what it means to be on maternity service. In this warmly reassuring, refreshingly honest book, Emma sets out to capture this reality, in real time while on her latest tour of duty. She isn't offering advice on sleep-training or weaning or helping your baby reach milestones. Instead, this book is a celebration and acknowledgement of the work of being on maternity leave, with its soaring highs and challenging lows, and its impact on how women feel about our purpose and ourselves.

Reviews

This book is absolutely excellent. I loved every word * Claudia Winkleman *
I can remember before I had a baby, wondering and wondering what it would feel like to be a mother and have a baby. Maternity Service is a companion for mothers and mothers to be who would like a bit of realistic insight into what it might be like. This lovely book will keep many a new mother company through some of the inevitable long nights of early parenting. * Philippa Perry *
Reassuring, funny and wise A very welcome life raft * Sophie Ellis Bextor *
Women need to be prepared for motherhood, in body and in soul, and I hope Emmas book will inspire mothers to talk about their "maternity service" * Naomi Stadlen, author of What Mothers Do especially when it looks like nothing *

This is the book every woman should read before they take maternity leave.
It explains how to navigate this magical but topsy turvy time in a womans life -whilst still retaining some sense of self-identity

* Anya Hindmarch *
An absolute jewel of a book. Kind, funny, smart, soothing, and radical. I wish I'd had this book in my early matrescence. Emma writes so beautifully and sensitively from the oft-forgotten inside of the tender, wild months of early motherhood, and gives reassuring and practical suggestions. This book is a hot cup of tea, a steadying hand on an arm, a baton passed with care and compassion. And the correct naming of maternity "leave" as a period of service is so sorely needed; Emma has given us a new framing which rightly acknowledges the work and true nature of care-giving. I inhaled it. A true gift for mothers, and an act of service in itself. This book will change lives. * Lucy Jones, author of Matrescence *
When Emma turns her forensic gaze onto a subject, that subject should be very afraid. She is stepping out onto virgin soil here and busting it open in the most comprehensive of ways Attitudes towards Maternity Leave should and will never be the same again. And the first thing that needs to change is its ridiculous name * Emma Freud *
Maternity leave is a no man's land. Often literally. Weirdly so little has been written about it - probably because new mothers are too knackered and dazed. Emma has managed to capture this very strange but magical time and make some sense of it for us all * Susannah Constantine *
Reading Maternity Leave left me smiling and damp eyed. It was the missives from the frontline that I didnt know I needed. My kids are grown. I wish it had been around when they were babies. Its a tender, honest 'love bomb of a read, puncturing the loneliness of motherhood with brilliant lived experience of those early years when you are up at the 3am witching hour figuring out the parts of motherhood no one tells you about. Im giving it to every new mother (and old) that I know. * Abi Morgan, author of This is Not a Pity Memoir *
Emma Barnett is the David Attenborough of the maternity leave world; her writing is as reassuring as her voice is on the radio. Reading this made me want to weep with relief for the woman I was in those early months - this book should go alongside the breast pads and maternity pants in every hospital bag * Dolly Jones *

Author Bio

Emma Barnett is an award-winning broadcaster and journalist. She was named Interviewer of the Year for 2022 at the British Journalism awards and is a presenter on BBC Radio 4's flagship Today Programme, as well as hosting TV interviews and documentaries across the BBC. She has presented programmes that include Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4 and Newsnight. She also presented a global interviews programme on Bloomberg TV, interviewing international figures from across the world of politics, sport, entertainment and technology. Emma pens a bi-weekly newspaper column for the i, and was previously a columnist for the Sunday Times and the Daily Telegraph, where she was also the Women's Editor. After the birth of her first child, she wrote Period- It's about Bloody Time, her first book. Emma grew up in Manchester, and now lives in London with her husband and their two children.