MOTHERS UNCOVERED/LIVESTOCK

Creative peer support groups connecting mothers in a non-judgemental safe space

What Mothers Uncovered/Livestock says

We have fixed some sessions and we’ll be adding details of more sessions soon.

A place to explore feelings about motherhood openly and honestly, without judgement. We support mothers in their matrescence (which means the process of becoming a mother). We run a range of groups, led by mothers who are past participants, open to all stages of motherhood, exploring motherhood throughout facilitated discussion and art and writing.

The offshoots of Mothers Uncovered are ‘My Birth’, introduced because of the high numbers of new mothers experiencing birth trauma, often leading to depression, which can become severe.
Frazzled is an online peer support group for parents who have a SEND (special education need/disability) child/ren.
The Teen Years project provides a safe space for parents/carers of older children to talk openly and honestly about the challenges they are experiencing.
Our Younger Mothers project is a peer support group for mothers up to 26, led by young mothers.

We are not offering practical baby-care advice. We focus on the needs of the mother and help her to understand her matrescence.
We don’t provide home visits, but instead create a space where mothers can come together to create a community, a community that often continues for several months or even years.
We are not an informal group run by volunteers. These are excellent if a mother is feeling robust and confident and/or knows others attending, but this is not the right place to explore difficult or painful feelings with people they have just met. Lastly, we are different to services run by therapists and health professionals, who will be experts in their field, but they don't have to be mothers to do their job.

About

After founder Maggie’s second child was born in 2008 and she still couldn’t find facilities to relieve her isolation, she founded the Brighton-based Mothers Uncovered for her charity Livestock.
Maggie works with mothers from a range of backgrounds, who experience low income, single parenthood, LGBTQ+ discrimination or neurodivergence. She is committed to Mothers Uncovered reaching out to all mothers.
Her work has empowered over 3000 mothers, and including past participants who have become facilitators (20 since 2014). It has helped inspire academic work and mothers setting up similar groups nationally, being guided by Maggie’s mentoring sessions. Maggie’s 2023 petition gave a voice to lone mothers claiming benefits (https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/635441).
She led the publication of The Secret Life of Mothers (2018), an anthology of over 50 mothers’ experiences. A book on matrescence is in the pipe line. The Secret Life of Mothers podcast is ongoing and Maggie continuously promotes maternal mental health on social and mainstream media. She’s set up mothers’ peer support groups and leadership training, advocates (www.change.org/SupportMatrescence) for matrescence to be recognised as a life stage for women.
Maggie’s vision of mothers being recognised for the unpaid life givers and carers they are is life-changing: ‘Mothers Uncovered saved me. There’s no other way of putting it.’

Contact

Maggie Gordon-Walker