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Woman's Hour

Being the 'other' mother, CMV

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture

4.13K Ratings

🗓️ 3 September 2019

⏱️ 48 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The comedian Jen Brister talks about what it was like becoming a non-biological mum. She had twin boys with her partner Chloe four years ago after several rounds of IVF, and it was Chloe who gave birth. She talks about the reaction of friends and professionals, and what she felt like herself having babies in this way - experiences she has written about in her book The Other Mother. With the rebel alliance of MPs attempting to prevent a no deal Brexit before parliament is prorogued next week, who are the women to watch, what are they thinking and how will they act this week? We're joined by Helen Lewis, staff writer for The Atlantic and Katy Balls, deputy political editor of The Spectator to discuss. Why a targeted screening programme for a common virus could help new born babies with hearing loss. It's called CMV. Most of us have had it, harmlessly...it feels like a cold but if you're pregnant it can have serious consequences - most commonly deafness. It's more common than Down's affecting 1000 babies a year in Britain but few health professionals know about it. Paediatrician, Dr Tamsin Brown has gathered health professionals together in the East of England and set up a targeted screening programme which she hopes will support the case for nationwide screening. Another in our series about young people at risk of getting into trouble and the people trying to help them. At a busy private stables in rural Worcestershire Steph works with girls who have been excluded from mainstream education – they have been offered a Changing Lives Though Horses course run by the British Horse Society as alternative way of educating/reaching/calming them. Jo Morris met Steph and the riding teachers Dan and Karen there with Britney, Emma and Libby. Presented by Jane Garvey Produced by Jane Thurlow Reporter Jo Morris Interviewed guest: Helen Lewis Interviewed guest: Katy Balls Interviewed guest: Jen Brister Interviewed guest: Tamsin Brown Interviewed guest: Anna Hope

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC sounds, music, radio, podcasts.

0:06.0

Hi, this is Jane Garvey, and this is the Woman's Hour podcast Tuesday, the 3rd of September,

0:10.5

2019.

0:11.5

Today, the pediatrician who has a mission to help children born with hearing loss.

0:16.4

She wants to do something about a very common virus called CMV.

0:20.4

It was new to me, and you can hear all about that on the podcast today.

0:24.0

Or chat to the comedian Jen Brister, who's had twins with her female partner, and there's

0:28.1

more from Jen at the end of this podcast as well.

0:31.7

But we start today with politics.

0:33.9

Where else can we start?

0:34.9

Really?

0:35.9

MPs are going back to Westminster this afternoon, that's Tuesday afternoon.

0:40.4

Now in the most simple terms imaginable, the Prime Minister says he doesn't want another

0:44.2

general election, but he will be, quote, forced to have one if MPs block a no-deal Brexit.

0:51.4

Boris Johnson has said he will not put off Brexit under any circumstances, and indeed he's

0:56.1

taking it to the wire.

0:57.1

He's threatening to expel conservative rebels from the party.

1:01.1

So we chewed the fact this morning in the company of Katie Balls, the deputy political editor

1:05.3

of the spectator, and Helen Lewis, who is now a staff writer at the Atlantic.

1:11.2

I put to them that it all seems a bit testosterone-driven all this, and I asked Katie whether she

1:17.1

would say that was true.

1:19.1

I mean, I wouldn't use those exact words, no, definitely, in a gamer chicken.

...

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