For episode 30, the first episode of Bits of Me with two guests, I spoke to Fiona Dunkin and Aoife Frances, two friends who created a zine about fertility, motherhood and beyond earlier this year. We talk about their own experiences of the above, from early activist ventures including a campaign to make the morning-after pill more accessible, to Fiona's miscarriages and Aoife's surprise pregnancy, traumatic birth and struggles with early motherhood. They explain how this spectrum of experiences inspired the creation of a zine, exactly why it became a zine and not a blog or a website, what they're hoping that the zine might achieve, what they themselves got out of it, and what cacao has to do with it... But we talk about so much more – from the 12-week rule to the implications of thyroid function on fertility, from Earth Mama narratives to sleep deprivation and much, much more.
You can pre-order your own copy of the next print-run of Aoife and Fiona's zine, Waters and the Wild, on the zine website, where you can also read the zine in full in a digital version. You can also follow them on Instagram for updates. Bits of Me is on Instagram too, as well as on Twitter.
If you like the podcast and believe in the mission of keeping these conversations going, there's a Patreon to help cover the running costs. Could you spare a few quid a month and, in return, get early access to episodes, monthly pieces of writing and a Bits of Me badge? If you can't help financially, tagging friends, sharing episodes on your socials, subscribing to the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and rating and reviewing it helps a lot too.
Music: Ice and Snow by Icreage, licensed by Soundstripe.
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