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Woman's Hour

Family farming with Janice and Matt Baker; New maternal mental health hubs; Author Susan Spindler; Statues of famous women

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture

4.13K Ratings

🗓️ 6 April 2021

⏱️ 43 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What do you do, when your mother is in a spot of bother? You run to help…of course! That’s the situation the Countryfile and former One Show presenter Matt Baker found himself in last summer, when his mum Janice had a serious accident with some sheep, and was unable to continue with the day to day running of the family farm in the Durham Hills. Their story is documented in a four part series currently on More4 called Matt Baker: Our Farm in the Dales. Emma speaks to Janice and Matt.

It's been announced that thousands of new, expectant or bereaved mothers will receive help and support for mental health problems through dozens of new dedicated hubs which are being set up across England. The hubs will bring together maternity services, reproductive health and psychological therapy under one roof as part of the NHS Long Term Plan. Around 6,000 women will receive care and treatment for a wide range of mental health issues from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after giving birth to others with a severe fear of childbirth. Emma gets reactions to the news from Sarah Hughes, Chief Executive of campaigning charity Centre for Mental Health and Dr Alain Gregoire, President of the Maternal Mental Health Alliance.

Another statue of a strong woman has made the headlines. Last year it was Mary Wollstonecraft. Now it's Greta Thunberg. A statue of the 18 year old environmentalist was unveiled in Winchester last week but some think it's a waste of money. Emma is joined by Christine Charlesworth, the statue's creator, who's not only made Greta during lockdown but two other British feminist icons as well.

Susan Spindler's first novel Surrogate tells the story of Ruth who, at the age of 54, volunteers to carry a baby for her daughter, who has just had her seventh miscarriage. But how selfless is Ruth's kind offer? She has done all of the research, taken the hormones, done the tests, thought of everything. What she doesn't know is how being her daughter's surrogate will make her feel and the upheaval it will cause in all of her relationships. Susan tells Emma how she researched the story.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.

0:04.6

My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.

0:08.4

As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable

0:14.3

experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC

0:20.4

makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,

0:24.6

poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.

0:29.7

If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.

0:36.0

BBC Sounds.

0:38.0

BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts.

0:41.0

Hello I'm Emma Barnet and welcome to Woman's Hour from BBC Radio 4.

0:46.0

Good morning.

0:47.4

The time warp that was the Easter weekend is now over.

0:50.4

We've landed on Tuesday together and perhaps it was the first weekend in a while you've seen friends or family

0:55.9

Nackeering isn't it socializing we're all limbering back up, but speaking of

1:01.1

Limbering up and family today. We're in the market to hear your stories of dealing with power reversals in the family.

1:08.0

What has it been like for you and your family as your parents have got older and you need to step in and help out and those

1:14.7

roles start shifting has it gone down okay or has there been tension today we're

1:20.6

going to be talking to the 65-year year old farmer Janice Baker who was trampled by one of her own sheep and now her son whom you may have heard of the TV presenter former co-host of the one show Matt Baker has returned to the family farm to keep that

1:34.7

particular show on the road and while you might not have had quite that experience we're

1:40.0

also talking about a book today called Surrogate by Susan Spindler that covers the theme of

1:44.8

role reversal within families, what happens when you disrupt the natural order.

1:49.8

So perhaps get in touch with us from either perspective if you're thinking about

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