Maternity Service

Women need to be prepared for motherhood, in body and in soul, and I hope Emma’s book will inspire mothers to talk about their "maternity service"

Naomi Stadlen, author of What Mothers Do – especially when it looks like nothing

An absolute jewel of a book. Kind, funny, smart, soothing, and radical. I wish I'd had this book in my early matrescence. Emma writes so beautifully and sensitively from the oft-forgotten inside of the tender, wild months of early motherhood, and gives reassuring and practical suggestions. This book is a hot cup of tea, a steadying hand on an arm, a baton passed with care and compassion. And the correct naming of maternity "leave" as a period of service is so sorely needed; Emma has given us a new framing which rightly acknowledges the work and true nature of care-giving. I inhaled it. A true gift for mothers, and an act of service in itself. This book will change lives.

Lucy Jones, author of Matrescence

When Emma turns her forensic gaze onto a subject, that subject should be very afraid. She is stepping out onto virgin soil here and busting it open in the most comprehensive of ways … Attitudes towards Maternity Leave should and will never be the same again. And the first thing that needs to change is its ridiculous name

Emma Freud

Reading Maternity Leave left me smiling and damp eyed. It was the missives from the frontline that I didn’t know I needed. My kids are grown. I wish it had been around when they were babies. It’s a tender, honest 'love bomb’ of a read, puncturing the loneliness of motherhood with brilliant lived experience of those early years when you are up at the 3am witching hour figuring out the parts of motherhood no one tells you about. I’m giving it to every new mother (and old) that I know.

Abi Morgan, author of This is Not a Pity Memoir

Wise, compassionate, funny and honest, Maternity Service is a wonderfully sisterly guide to an often-misunderstood time. An essential companion for the overwhelming days of new motherhood.

Charlotte Runcie

Emma Barnett is the David Attenborough of the maternity leave world; her writing is as reassuring as her voice is on the radio. Reading this made me want to weep with relief for the woman I was in those early months - this book should go alongside the breast pads and maternity pants in every hospital bag

Dolly Jones

This book is absolutely excellent. I loved every word

Claudia Winkleman

Maternity leave is a no man's land. Often literally. Weirdly so little has been written about it - probably because new mothers are too knackered and dazed. Emma has managed to capture this very strange but magical time and make some sense of it for us all

Susannah Constantine

I can remember before I had a baby, wondering and wondering what it would feel like to be a mother and have a baby. Maternity Service is a companion for mothers and mothers to be who would like a bit of realistic insight into what it might be like. This lovely book will keep many a new mother company through some of the inevitable long nights of early parenting.

Philippa Perry

This is the book every woman should read before they take maternity leave. It explains how to navigate this magical but topsy turvy time in a woman’s life -whilst still retaining some sense of self-identity

Anya Hindmarch

Maternity Service is like a very honest, reassuring and lucid friend throwing their arm around you and telling it like it is, so you can enter this wilderness armed with self-knowledge, compassion and a sense of humour about the hard bits. The handbook women everywhere have been waiting for

Claire Cohen

‘Reassuring, funny and wise … A very welcome life raft’

Sophie Ellis Bextor

A caring, funny, real book that holds your hand when you are holding everyone else’s in perfect nap time chunks. I wish I’d had it when I was in the service. Next time I’ll know where to go

Jessica Brown Findlay

After the birth of her second child, BBC Radio 4 broadcaster Emma Barnett set out to candidly and compassionately chronicle the reality of maternity leave in real time, hoping to capture the rollercoaster ups and downs of this unique time in a parent’s life, and how it can impact a woman’s sense of identity and purpose

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