Mother Ship: a podcast about prematurity

Hosted by Francesca Segal and brought to you by VINTAGE Books, Mother Ship is produced by Leena Norms•www.instagram.com

During the fifty-six days that her premature twins were in hospital, Francesca wrote a diary. That diary became a book, Mother Ship, and the incredible letters and emails from readers that began – and haven’t stopped – inspired this podcast. In each episode, Francesca will talk to friends and medics, parents and professionals about their experiences, so that new parents of premature babies feel supported and less alone. This is a place for the free exchange of stories, humour and support and information about prematurity and its consequences.

Mother Ship is brought to you by VINTAGE Books and produced by Leena Norms. We'd love to hear what you think - please rate and review to spread the word and follow us on social media

https://www.instagram.com/francescasegal/

https://twitter.com/vintagebooks

Find out more about Francesca's book at http://bit.ly/MotherShipBook.

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Episodes

Happy Ever After

However much you long for the homecoming when your baby is in NICU, going home can be a shock. No monitors, no nurses to consult. Suddenly it's just you and your baby, the way it was always meant to be - but adjusting can be difficult. I was wild about potential infections when my girls came home, to the point of mania; one friend picked up her floorboards to check for mould; another purified the air with a bag of charcoal. Sometimes it's only after a trauma that one allows oneself to feel the e...

Apr 09, 2020•31 min•Season 1Ep. 6

A Doctor’s View

On this podcast I’ve tried to give voice to the mothers, and to make sure that all prematurity stories are told, even the hardest. But what’s it like from the other side? What is life like as a doctor, working in the perpetual crisis of a neonatal ward? Today Dr Roly Blumberg talks about the differences between planning a pregnancy and planning a birth, the rollercoaster ride of NICU, and what he wishes all his patients knew.   Mother Ship is brought to you by VINTAGE Books and produced by ...

Apr 02, 2020•17 min•Season 1Ep. 5

Empty-handed

This interview with my friend Jess might be one of the hardest of my career. Going home empty-handed is everyone's greatest fear when a baby comes too early; but for Jess and her husband Pete that fear became a reality.  I’m so grateful to Jess for sharing her experience. She told me all about her beautiful little red-haired boy, Rafi, from celebrating all that he achieved in his life to sharing the ways in which she and her family remember him today. It's our hope that anyone who has exper...

Mar 26, 2020•31 min•Season 1Ep. 4

The Long Haul

This week is all about the journey – the new normal, when your baby is in hospital. I talk to the amazing Inga Warren, who has devoted her fifty-year NHS career to nurturing that vital, living, invisible thing – the bond between parent and baby. Inga is full of practical advice, and she is also full of reassurance, which is equally important.  My second guest is a nurse, Zowie, who knows more than most about life on our side of the incubator. Zowie ha...

Mar 19, 2020•33 min•Season 1Ep. 3

The Milking Shed

Mother Ship is a memoir of the fifty-six days my premature twins spent in hospital and, when it came out, readers sent me some incredible messages. Women wrote with their own stories of prematurity, sent photos of their beautiful babies, confided their fears about their children’s on-going battles, triumphed at what their preemies had overcome. And, over and over, the messages were about the beloved friends I met when we were expressing in the hospital milking shed. Some readers had made friends...

Mar 12, 2020•40 min•Season 1Ep. 2

The Beginning

Prematurity is much more common than you’d imagine, but it’s so hard to find honest and open discussion about how it really  feels  when your baby is born too early. And so it was a particular honour to talk to singer-songwriter Sophie Ellis-Bextor, whose first two children were both premature. She and I talked about what happens when your birth story doesn’t unfold the way you’d imagined, what it’s like to go back into neonatal intensive care with a second baby, and all sorts of reall...

Mar 12, 2020•18 min•Season 1Ep. 1

Introducing Mother Ship: a podcast about prematurity

This podcast is about a pregnancy that doesn’t end the way it should; about what happens when your baby is born too early to survive alone. It’s about the parents, the babies, and the doctors who save them. Hosted by award-winning novelist Francesca Segal, whose memoir, Mother Ship , inspired this podcast. During the fifty-six days that her premature twins were in hospital, Francesca wrote a diary. That diary became a book, Mother Ship , and the incredible letters and emails from readers th...

Feb 27, 2020•2 min