There has been a renewed conversation regarding sex after childbirth following a recent episode of the CBeebies Parenting Helpline podcast which tackled the topic of libido in the time after having a baby. It can be a very confusing time when it comes to your relationship with your body, so how do you navigate those ‘blurred lines’ between your roles as mother, partner, and sexual being. Nuala McGovern is joined by journalist and author Nell Frizzell, who's written about her own experiences, and consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, Dr Karen Joash.Ruby Tui was the star of the last Women's Rugby World Cup, held in her native New Zealand in 2021. She's now regarded by many to be the star of the BBC's coverage of this year's World Cup, held in England. The tournament has broken records, from viewership to ticket sales and reflects the rapidly rising profile of the women’s game. Ruby Tui reflects on the tournament and her own journey to the top of the sport.A form of family violence which receives minimal attention and is arguably the most hidden form of abuse within the home is known as CAPVA. This stands for child and adolescent to parent violence and abuse. Today the charity Action for Children has released a report with insights from their parenting support services, which suggests there has been a marked uptake in need for support on this issue. Nuala hears from Martha Hampson, Senior Policy Advisor on Early Help with Action for Children, and Dr Nikki Rutter, assistant professor in the department of sociology at Durham University and child parent violence researcher.Award-winning actor Juliet Stevenson takes the lead in a new play at the National Theatre, The Land of the Living. She plays Ruth, a UN relief worker in post-war Germany, trying to reunite children stolen by the Nazis from Eastern Europe, with their families. With one particular child it becomes a very personal mission. Juliet tells Nuala why she wanted to play this part.Presenter: Nuala McGovern
Producer: Kirsty Starkey
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Woman's Hour Folgen
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
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Folge vom 24.09.2025Post childbirth and sex, Juliet Stevenson, Ruby Tui
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Folge vom 23.09.2025Annie Lennox, Paracetamol in pregnancy, Liquid BBLs, PhubbingThe multi award-winning singer songwriter Annie Lennox has been part of the musical landscape for almost 50 years, from her days in The Tourists, to the Eurythmics and then going solo. Now at the age of 70, Annie has brought out a book of photographs called Annie Lennox: Retrospective, and talks to Nuala McGovern about her life and career.President Trump has said that pregnant women should avoid paracetamol because of the risks of autism and that US doctors will soon be advised not to prescribe Tylenol, as paracetamol is known in the US, to pregnant women. However he didn't provide any scientific evidence for this. UK health officials have stressed that paracetamol remains the safest painkiller available to pregnant women, and Health Secretary Wes Streeting has told women to ignore Trump's comments. Nuala is joined by Dr Alex Tsompanidis, senior research associate at the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge University and the BBC's Health reporter, Jim Reed.It’s a year since the death of Alice Webb, the first woman in the UK to die from complications after a liquid Brazilian butt lift, a non-surgical procedure injecting filler into the buttocks. You don’t need to have any medical qualifications to carry out the procedure. We talk to Sasha Dean who had terrifying complications after a liquid BBL and to David Sines from the JCCP, which runs a voluntary regulator for practitioners.Are you guilty of ‘phubbing’? It’s the process of snubbing the person you are with in person by looking at your phone. New research shows that these phone snubs can have a huge impact on relationships. Dr Claire Hart, Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Southampton, tells us about her findings and Dr Kaitlyn Regehr, University College London and author of Smartphone Nation, discusses the impact parental phubbing can have on children.
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Folge vom 22.09.2025Driving anxiety, Erika Kirk profile, Marie Antoinette styleJournalist Mary McCarthy has been avoiding motorways for years, even planning her life around how to dodge them. She tells Kylie Pentelow how she discovered it’s a far more common problem than you might think, especially among women in mid-life.England are through to the Rugby World Cup final. They face Canada next Saturday but who will we see lift the trophy? Former player Kat Merchant gives her view.Who is Erika Kirk? Kylie speaks to Anne McElvoy, executive editor at Politico and host of the Sam and Anne political podcast, about the wife of Charlie Kirk, American activist and influencer, who was shot dead on 10 September. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks discusses her new adaptation of The Harder They Come, based on the classic 1972 film whose legendary soundtrack brought reggae to the world. She joins Kylie to explain her process for adapting classic stories and how she rewrote the rules for language and structure in theatre.The UK’s first ever exhibition dedicated to the life of the French Queen Marie Antoinette has just opened at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Marie Antoinette Style explores the lasting influence of the fashionable icon, showcasing more than 250 objects, some of which have never been seen outside of Versailles. So, who was this ill-fated queen and how does her style still resonate with us today?
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Folge vom 20.09.2025Weekend Woman’s Hour: Baroness Hale, Race Across the World, Cryptic pregnancy, Patricia Lockwood, Sudanese women, Susie DentHow well does the law serve women? That’s a question Nuala puts to Brenda Marjorie Hale, The Rt. Hon. The Baroness Hale of Richmond, DBE a former judge who served as the first female President of the Supreme Court. She was the first woman and the youngest person to be appointed to the Law Commission, where she led the work on what became the 1989 Children Act. In 2019 she announced the Supreme Court’s judgement that the prorogation of Parliament was ‘unlawful, void and of no effect’. She discusses her new book, With the Law on Our Side – How the law works for everyone and how we can make it work better.BBC Celebrity Race Across the World will soon be back on our screens as four celebs pair up with a friend or family member and travel from a starting point anywhere in the world to another BUT with no phones or flights allowed and only the cost of the flight as money for the entire trip. Woman's Hour had the privilege of revealing one of the pairings: none other than Woman's Hour presenter Anita Rani and her father Balvinder Singh Nazran.To so many women the symptoms of pregnancy are instant, intense and unmistakeable; however some make it the full nine months without having any idea they’re even pregnant. This phenomenon is known as cryptic pregnancy, and the British Medical Journal suggests it’s more common than triplets. Nuala was joined by two women who have experienced this first-hand, plus Professor of Midwifery, Helen Cheyne to discuss.Patricia Lockwood is a poet, memoirist and novelist whose work straddles the literary world and the wilds of the internet. Patricia first went viral with her traumatic poem Rape Joke, while her memoir Priestdaddy, about being the daughter of a Catholic priest, has been called a modern classic. She talked to Nuala McGovern about her new book, Will There Ever Be Another You, which explores the surreal disorientation of illness, memory and recovery in the wake of Covid.Sudanese women and girls are bearing the brunt of a civil war that is entering its third year. The relentless conflict has triggered the world’s worst humanitarian crisis for 6 million displaced women and girls. Cases of conflict-related sexual violence remain hugely under-reported, but evidence points to its systematic use as a weapon of war. Yousra Elbagir, Sky News’ Africa Correspondent talked to Anita about the impact on women and also the role women play in providing support to the displaced.Are you a fan of words, their meanings and origins? The lexicographer Susie Dent, best known as the queen of Dictionary Corner on C4’s Countdown, has created a whole year’s worth of words, most of which you most probably never knew existed, in a freshly published almanac. It is called Words for Life and each day you can read an entry, digest its meaning and maybe laugh at its sound. Susie gives Anita some examples and explains her interest in words.Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Annette Wells Editor: Andrea Kidd