'My miscarriage made me feel like a failure. I felt like I’d let everyone down.'
'Mummy' bloggers and best-selling authors Sarah Turner, the Unmumsy Mum, and Giovanna Fletcher speak to the Telegraph's Bryony Gordon in the third episode of her new podcast, Mad World, where she interviews guests about their mental health experiences. The pair open-up about miscarriage and the loss of a parent, as well as the pressures felt by modern mothers.
Giovanna Fletcher, author of bestselling Happy Mum, Happy Baby, has said that pregnancy and birth has changed the way she feels about her body forever.
In Bryony Gordon’s new Mad World podcast, Fletcher who is married to former McFly member Tom Fletcher, opens up about having a miscarriage before having hers sons Buzz and Buddy : “I felt like the biggest failure ever. I felt like I’d let us down and I’d let my first child down. I felt like I’d completely failed at being a mum.”
So much fun with these ladies! @bryonygordon @theunmumsymum ❤��xx
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She also opened up about how eventually having children had a positive, not negative, impact on her body image.
“I’d hated my body for decades but I felt sexy when I was pregnant.
“After pregnancy, I stood in front of the mirror and I was like, ‘well how do I feel about this body that actually I’ve hated for quite a lot of my life? How do I feel about it now?’
“I felt, it might be a bit wobbly and leaky out of areas you didn’t know would leak but it’s given me two children and that’s the most amazing thing ever.”
How to listen to Bryony Gordons Mad World podcast
The podcast is timed to mark Maternal Mental Health awareness week (May 1-7) and Giovanna was joined by Sarah Turner, author of the bestselling Unmumsy Mum, who explained how we need need to recognise that all mums feel like they are sometimes failures.
“I was in two minds; I thought, either I’m a massive failure of motherhood and whatever kind of maternal powers are bestowed upon you when you give birth, they missed me, I didn’t get them.
“Or there must be other people that are sat at home thinking ‘What the hell have I done, this is not what I expected’.
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“It’s ok to cry. I cried so much in the first few years of motherhood. I thought it must just be me.”
Turner also spoke about the comments she would receive from others, such as “have you got just the one child?”
“It’s really annoying,” she cried. “I used to want to punch everyone that said that.”
Her husband is a civil engineer, and she said they are “parenting partners.”
“There are things each of us are more likely to do but it’s generally an even split,” she explained. “[Though when he’s out with them alone], he gets, where’s their mum? Because heaven forbid he takes them out on a Wednesday. People say well done for being a hands on dad. Imagine someone saying they’re a hands on mum?”
To find out more about Best Beginnings, the charity mentioned in this podcast, click here.
