Dee and Kathleen reconnect on MWA after a long absence as life in the second year of the pandemic has been H-E-C-T-I-C! We use the episode to catch our breaths and catch up with each other. We speak about the importance of routines for kids but probably more so for adults, some of the pros of the pandemic, choosing schools and young boyhood. Dee and Kath find that they have entered a new phase of settling in and bedding down, the next chapter so to speak of cementing more of our familial identities. We speak about a long hiatus in our chats both on and offline and the importance of building ritual year after year. The episode is punctuated with a few words on Christmas plans and creating special traditions which are specific to our families such as Christmas tree trimmings and ways to find space to connect and be gentle with ourselves and our families and those we love.

Kathleen (@kathleenwriting) and Dee (@phdee_vay) chat to Ashley Whitfield, founder of the Johannesburg Family Gathering and the Johannesburg Family Co-operative (@johannesburgfamilycooperative). They connected on the crucial need for community when mothering and what it means to actually do the work of care. The conversation also touches on how notions of success (and failure) can change through parenting and the need to adopt a non-linear and non traditional approach as one navigates oneself and family.

In episode 19 of MWA, we chatted with Eilat Aviram (@if_ilovedmyself), psychologist and author of ‘If you loved yourself what would you do now?’. Dee (@phdee_vay) and Kathleen (@kathleenwriting) chat about self-care and meeting your needs while mothering. In 2021, many of us continue to work from home while we mother, except that we have a seemingly less tenuous relationship with the complexity of it all. Eilat traverses being with our children and our partners, and helps us think through what it looks like to be ok in the messiness of it all. Eilat comes to MWA with all the fire (and humour) of learning how to genuinely engage with oneself, how to understand and own your needs and most profoundly, how to show up and meet them often, even if not always.

Kathleen (@kathleenwriting) and Dee (@phdee_vay) are joined by boss mama and lone zapper, Kate Goliath (@kategoliath) in this easy and fun episode. Kate talks about her mothering experience to her two boys and wisely reminds us not to take it all so seriously. It’s a refreshing follow up to some of the hard conversations and dilemmas when raising kids but a necessary one. Kate parents through intuition, love, humour (naturally!) and with loads of support. We thoroughly enjoyed this episode and hope you will too!

In this episode Dee (@phdee_vay) and Kathleen (@kathleenwriting) chat about the transition from one to two kids and goes into real talk about having two humans who take up all headspace and capacity. Dee speaks frankly about the complete crazy that is her life now that she has had her second child. Having one kid and going through matrescense is certainly one thing but with two kids suddenly, there is a whole new dimension, one that seems to radically ommit any care of self, forget wellness and wellbeing. Dee laments how she feels she simply never stops moving, working, waking, sleeping. The feeling of utter depletion are incomparable and Dee and Kathleen sit there, in that moment and can agree on a few things: both have never been more shattered than early baby phase with the second one, both note a close affinity between second baby life and being like a shark - lurking the waters, ever alert and perhaps also scary and hungry, and lastly, a brand new understanding of the word and meaning of capacity and that it, like everything in motherhood, is seasonal and dare we say, fleeting.

Kath (@kathleenwriting) and Dee (@phdee_vay) chat with artist feminist Sharlene Khan about the project of mothering. Khan chats with the MWA mamas about how she mothered, how she was mothered - both biologically and in other aspects of her life - and how these experiences have made her who she is today. Khan speaks about how mothering is about making something happen out of nothing and about the many emotions and experiences that make a mother, some unexpected. The episode takes on a different tone than previous ones with many moments of Kath and Dee transfixed by Khan's beautiful and sometimes sad and jarring stories.

Kath (@kathleenwriting) and Dee (@phdee_vay) reconnected with Alex (@alex_fitzmia) six months after her birth to her son. We meandered through Alex’s gorgeous birth story from her and her partner stealthily gliding the car out the driveway so as not to alert both grannies to a swift empowering birth. We also chatted about 50/50 parenting, returning to work during lockdown from maternity leave and the complete commitment required in order to breastfeed.

Kath (@kathleenwriting) and Dee (@phdee_vay) had an early morning Zoom call with Thando Moleketi-Williams (@andbathandwa) to chat about her pregnancy to her second child during a global pandemic. Thando spoke about her TOLAC (Trial of Labour after Caesarean) journey. We chatted about care, community and how these have changed during a pandemic. The conversation was broad and meandering – often, the best kind – in exploring post-partum care and self-care. We also touched on finding black birthing practitioners in Johannesburg and South Africa. MWA would like to welcome Sampa Cynthia Amandla Moleketi-Williams into the world – we know that you, Sampa, will ‘sing your greatest song’.

Kath (@kathleenwriting) caught up with Dee (@phdee_vay) 37 weeks into her second pregnancy to talk about what it has been like being pregnant and preparing for a birth in a global pandemic. Dee chats about her birth preparations like finding her birthing team, being ready to change expectations and arrangements to accommodate the world’s crazy, partnering and parenting in lockdown and gearing up for a homebirth. Dee has since given birth to the newest member of MWA. We welcome baby Zawedde Rainbow Marco-Morgan into the world. The world is a crazy place but Akani, Tau, Amukelani and Zawedde give us hope and light to build (and demolish) for a better tomorrow.

Dee (@phdee_vay) and Kath (@kathleenwriting) had the pleasure of sitting down with poet and fellow mama with attitude, Megan Ross (@megan_ross_). Megan has been intentional and vocal about documenting her mothering journey through her debut anthology of poetry, Milk Fever, and her short story, Farang. The conversation was an eruption of shared joy in creativity and claiming space to create and practice feminist mothering.