Mothers' Hood

We should be mothering amongst the stories of motherhood - its complexities, joys and challenges - and we should have been supported and mentored through it, with the knowledge being passed down from generation to generation. But today we mother largely in isolation, away from our families, friends and communities; it was never meant to be this way. Without all of this we lack the reference to make sense of our own experiences and the language to express how we are feeling. It leaves mothers feeling disconnected, lost and believing there is something wrong with them. The Mothers’ Hood Podcast lifts the lid and tells the real, raw and honest stories of motherhood. It celebrates mothers thriving in motherhood and challenges the damaging modern narrative of the perfect mother and intensive mothering.

Mothers' Hood is a society podcast hosted by Samantha Murrell, with 11 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Samantha Murrell hosts Mothers' Hood, a society show with 11 episodes published.

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  Mothers' Hood

  17 - If one More Person tells me to Have a Bath I'll Scream! Self-Care + Why We're Getting it so Wrong. Solo Epiosde.

  Sep 21, 202617 min

  If one more person tells you to just take some time for yourself while you're drowning, this one's for you. In this solo episode, I go off on the self-care industry and why taking a bath is not the answer to your rage, your burnout, or your lack of capacity. Self-care has become another job on the to-do list, dressed up as wellness and sold back to us. And underneath it all? A whole lot of unexamined beliefs about why women can't put themselves first in the first place. I get honest about my own early motherhood and why 'just relax' was never going to cut it. I digs into boundaries and how bloody uncomfortable they are to hold, the people-pleasing conditioning that follows women into motherhood, and the mindset work that actually moves the needle not another bubble bath. Plus: the wellness industry is worth $224 billion in the UK alone, and women's mental health is still in crisis. Sam breaks down why those two facts are connected, and why the answer was never a spa day. In this episode: Why self-care so often means another job, not a break The link between the wellness industry, beauty standards, and money My own postpartum story - anxiety, undiagnosed ADHD, and why baths never worked The mindset and beliefs that stop women putting themselves first What it actually takes to hold a boundary and why it hurts Why the fix was never a spa day If you've ever felt guilty for resting, exhausted by self-care, or like you're failing at looking after yourself no matter what you try, this one's for you. If you're back at work and even thinking about looking after yourself feels exhausting on top of juggling everything else, this one's for you. Ready to stop over-giving and start reclaiming your own boundaries? Book a no-obligation Clarity Call with me and find out what working together actually looks like. Book here MOTHERS’ HOOD If this episode or any other resonated with you, I'd love to hear from you. Email me: samantha@mothershood.co.uk Or come and find me here: www.mothershood.co.uk Instagram: @mothers.hood Facebook: @mothershoodtribe LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-murrell-03966132/

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  Episode #16

  16 - Maybe I'm not Cut out for Motherhood? With Laura Greenwood

  Sep 7, 20261h 14mS2

  This episode was recorded back in 2022 when the podcast first started. Since then, Laura has continued her work with hundred of mothers and also her own self-discovery, so I feel that an update of motherhood and life from Laura is needed here - watch this space! In this episode, Sam is joined by Laura Greenwood, psychotherapist, mother, and founder of her own private practice in Yorkshire, for an honest conversation about the early years of motherhood. Laura shares what it was really like becoming a mother to her son Owen, who struggled with allergies, colic and reflux from birth and how quickly the instant bond she expected gave way to overwhelm, isolation and a creeping sense that she wasn't meant to be a mother. Having lost both of her parents at eighteen, Laura talks candidly about how motherhood forced long-buried grief back to the surface and how a later miscarriage, paradoxically, became one of the most healing experiences of her life. She and Sam talk about matrescence, the pressure to perform contentment as a new mother, the fear of losing loved ones, learning to trust her own instincts over other people's expectations, and what it actually looks like, in practical, everyday terms, to build a life that lets her thrive as a mother, a partner, and a person. In this episode: Laura's early experience of motherhood, and why breastfeeding struggles and medical battles left her feeling dismissed Why the early monotony of newborn care was harder than any high-pressure job she'd had Discovering the concept of matrescence, and how it changed everything Processing the resurfaced grief of losing both parents at eighteen How a later miscarriage helped her finally grieve her parents properly Anxiety, intrusive thoughts, and the fear of losing the people she loves What thriving actually looks like day to day, boundaries, self-employment, and doing things her own way, even when others don't understand Laura's message to her younger, overwhelmed, newly postpartum self

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  Episode #15

  15 - Stop Calling it Baby Brain! What Really Happens When You Grow a Human Being.

  Aug 24, 202615 minS2

  ‘Baby brain.’ We've all said it. We've all had it said to us, usually with a little pat on the head and a ‘bless her.’ In this episode, I'm calling it out for what it actually is - a lazy, patronising insult dressed up as a joke, and I'm bringing the neuroscience to prove it. Because here's the thing, while we've been told for decades that pregnancy turns our brains to mush, the research tells a completely different story. Your brain isn't declining when you become a mother. It's being rebuilt to make you a more attuned, more responsive, more brilliant version of yourself. And yet less than 0.5% of all brain imaging studies since the 1990s have looked at women's health at all, let alone what happens to the maternal brain. We'll go to the moon before we'll properly fund research into what happens to the woman who just grew a human from scratch. In this episode: Why "baby brain" isn't cognitive decline, it's a biological transformation The landmark 2025 Nature Neuroscience study that MRI-scanned one woman's brain 26 times across pregnancy and postpartum, and what it found What's actually happening inside your brain - the pruning process fine-tuning you to your baby and why it explains everything from letdown reflexes to picking your baby's cry out of a crowd The 2025 study showing measurable grey matter changes in first-time mothers and the areas of the brain it affects, including memory and decision-making Why mothering today is harder than ever, according to trauma expert Dr Gabor Maté, and what that's got to do with a brain that's already working overtime The uncomfortable stat on maternal mental health that should be front-page news, and isn't The surprising long-term upside - what having a baby might do for your brain decades down the line If you've ever felt stupid, foggy, or less than since having a baby, this one's for you. Because you didn't lose your edge. Your brain did something extraordinary, and it's about time we started talking about it that way.

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  Episode #14

  14 - Having a Baby Doesn't Mean Derailing your Career, with Ashley Chang

  Aug 10, 202621 minS2

  Here's a plot twist for you: Ashley Chang built a business for working parents before she was a parent herself. Ashley is the founder of Sundays — an executive assistant service that pairs working families with (mostly) mum-run support, both at work and at home. She spent years deep in the research, talking to exhausted parents, watching the drop-off that happens the second ambition meets a baby. Then she had her own son, four months before we recorded this and got to test every assumption on herself in real time. I loved this one. It's rare to talk to someone who studied the juggle or parenthood from the outside and then lived it from the inside. We get into: - Why she scrapped her plan to build an app and built a team of humans instead, because parents didn't need another system, they needed capacity - The "make impact vs. save your life" framework her husband uses, and how she's learned to slide up and down that scale instead of picking a lane forever - What actually changed for her once she had her son – it wasn’t a big philosophical shift, just a much harder line around what's worth her time at work - Taking two months fully off her own company and having to trust her team to run it without her - The coaching question that cracked her open before maternity leave - Why she went into leave trying to just be present, instead of chasing another goal to hit There's a line in here about how the messaging we get is that having a baby derails your career for years — wait until they're at school/secondary school/the kids have left home. Ashley's four months in and already proving it doesn't have to be that way. Not because it's easy, because she's decided she gets to choose. If you're in the season where you're trying to work out how much of you gets to stay you and chase your own career goals while you're also somebody's whole world, this episode is for you. You've Had a Baby, Not a Lobotomy is an independent podcast, produced by Decibel Creative.

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  Episode #13

  13 - Why Flexible Working isn't Working - solo episode

  Jul 27, 202621 minS2

  In this episode I'm calling out the PR stunt for what it is. Flexible working policies were never going to be the holy grail on their own and the stats prove it. Careers After Babies' 2024 report found a 32% reduction in women in managerial roles after becoming a mum, alongside a 44% increase in admin roles. Brilliant, capable women, moving backwards, not because they've lost their edge, but because nothing around them was built to hold them through the change. This isn't a logistics problem and it never was. You can't fix an identity crisis with a hybrid working policy. In this episode: Why flexible working policies look great on paper but are failing mothers in practice The stats behind the 32% drop in women reaching managerial roles after having a baby What organisations need to do instead to support and nurture their working mothers and what else needs to change in order for mothers to get the support and resources they need and deserve. If you're the brilliant mother back at work after maternity leave and being managed around rather than championed, book a Clarity Call. Let's talk about what proper support actually looks like. MOTHERS’ HOOD If this episode or any other resonated with you, I'd love to hear from you. Email me: samantha@mothershood.co.uk Or come and find me here: www.mothershood.co.uk Instagram: @mothers.hood Facebook: @mothershoodtribe LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-murrell-03966132/

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