Going It Alone, Venezuela, Military children
Woman's Hour
BBC
4.1 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 5 January 2026
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In our new series Going it Alone we are hearing from three women about their experiences of having a child without a partner. These are women who are having donor conceived children, which is different to single mums who may have split up with the child’s father. Statistics show that more women than ever in the UK are choosing to become solo mums by choice. Today Lucy tells us her story. We also hear a discussion about the legal and practical implications of this with Nina Barnsley, Director of the Donor Conception Network and Clare Ettinghausen, a Director at the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.
Today Delcy Rodriguez will be sworn in as Venezuela's president after the capture of Nicolas Maduro, who has been in charge of the country since 2013. And she is not the only woman in the spotlight following this weekend's events. Cilia Flores, who is the wife of Maduro and a political force in her own right, was taken with her husband and is now set to appear in a New York court in the coming hours. Attention is also on Maria Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel peace prize winner. The BBC's South America correspondent Ione Wells and Professor Rebecca Jarman from Leeds University, an expert in Venezuelan politics and history, discuss.
There are over 100,000 children who have at least one parent serving in the British military. Louise Fetigan was a serving army officer when she had her first child in her early 20s. She had been posted to Germany, was looking after a newborn and her husband had been deployed to Iraq. She has set up the charity Little Troopers to provide specific support for the children of military families.
Presenter: Nuala McGovern Producer: Kirsty Starkey
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:05.7 | Hello, you're about to listen to a BBC podcast, and I'm Ed Gamble, host of another BBC podcast, The Traitors Uncloaked. |
| 0:12.7 | But my show is available only on BBC Sounds, just like Ellis and John's Saturday bonus episodes, |
| 0:18.2 | The Pop Top Ten podcast with Scott Mills and Rylan, and comedy specials |
| 0:22.2 | from the likes of Harriet Kemsley, Susie Ruffel and Rommashranganathan. However, and maybe I'm biased, |
| 0:27.9 | it's really all about the traitors uncloked. So for a whole bunch of exclusive scoops and |
| 0:32.6 | podcasts, listen only on BBC Sounds. Hello, this is Neula McGovern, and you're listening to The Woman's Hour podcast. |
| 0:40.0 | Hello and welcome to the programme. |
| 0:42.3 | Well, since the capture of the Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro and his wife Celia Flores over the weekend, |
| 0:48.2 | powerful women have been an integral part of this unfolding story. |
| 0:52.8 | From First Lady, her first comrade, as Celia was known, |
| 0:56.0 | to Delci Rodriguez, the soon-to-be-sworn-in new president of Venezuela. |
| 1:00.0 | Then there's also the opposition leader and Nobel Prize winner, |
| 1:03.5 | Maria Corina Machado, plus American Prosecutor-In-Chief, |
| 1:07.3 | that's US Attorney General Pam Bondi. |
| 1:10.1 | We're going to explore their significance |
| 1:11.7 | this hour. Also today, a new series, Going It Alone. We're speaking to solo moms, those women who |
| 1:18.1 | have made the decision to have a child without a partner. There is a rise in the number of women |
| 1:23.7 | taking this route to have children, and I wonder if it strikes a chord with you. Maybe it's something you're doing or considering. Or perhaps you're on your own and you want children, but have real concerns about doing it this way. I'd like to hear from all of you. You can text the program, the number is 84844 on social media or at BBC Women's Hour Hour or you can email us through our website. |
| 1:45.3 | For a WhatsApp message or a voice note, |
| 1:47.0 | the number is 0300-100-444-4. |
| 1:50.6 | We are also going to look at the challenges |
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