hello

a bit about me

Welcome to A Mother’s Progress

I’m so glad you’re here. Whether you are in the trenches of motherhood yourself, are perhaps looking forward to becoming a mother, are wanting to be able to better understand and support the mothers in your life, or are simply curious, I am grateful that you have chosen to be here.

Earlier this month I hit publish on my first post, Birth of a mother, in a moment of semi panic. I’d been writing it for weeks, and had realised that it was mostly my own perfectionism and tendency to procrastinate that was stopping me from publishing it. So I steeled myself, repeated done is better than perfect a few times, and released it into the world. I’ve been blown away by how many of you have taken the time to read, write very thoughtful comments, and share with others. I’m so thankful, Substack is already my favourite place to be on the internet, and I am a little bit sad I didn’t get here earlier. Because I essentially panic published, I didn’t have my ‘about me’ page written, so I figured I would introduce myself a little here.

I’m Becca, wife, mama of two daughters (ages 2 years & 4 months), and homemaker. We live in a quaint and quiet village in Devon, a few miles from the UK’s famous Jurassic coast. It’s peaceful and sleepy and we can walk to the river and watch the sunset. I love being a mum, it’s been the greatest adventure of my life, and I am pretty much a full time homemaker, but I do run a small wedding coordination business. I only take a handful of weddings per year but it’s something I love and it allows me to get paid for my creativity and organisational skills.

Prior to motherhood, I was very into yoga, specifically Ashtanga yoga, and was meant to go to India for my yoga teacher training in March 2020. You can probably figure out for yourself why that didn’t happen. I have a serious addiction to buying books, and love nothing better than to curl up in an armchair with a big cup of coffee and a good book. Feeding people is my love language, and food is my automatic solution to most of life’s problems. I’m a Scorpio, Enneagram 7, ENFP, & Human Design Reflector, if you’re into any of that stuff (I lowkey am, fellow ENFP’s HIIIII).

I’m a Reformed Baptist pastor’s kid, one of six, was home birthed and homeschooled by my incredible mother, but drifted away from my faith in my 20s, then spent several years literally drifting around the world, living and working in New Zealand & Australia, and backpacking around South Asia, the USA, and Central America.

Since becoming a mother, I have felt pulled to re-explore my faith, and, in a development that is as surprising to me as it is to everyone else, am currently feeling drawn towards Roman Catholicism.

What am I going to be writing about?

This Substack is going to be a place where I explore my thoughts and feelings around motherhood, share parts of my own story, including my birth stories, and how those experiences have impacted my motherhood journey. I’m not sure if I would call myself a feminist anymore (definitely hope to write about this sometime), but I do care deeply about the rights and interests of women, and believe that these are very often overlooked and ignored, so I will be unpicking ideas around that. One of the hardest aspects of early motherhood for me was the feeling of loneliness and isolation that I experienced, so I will be sharing parts of my ongoing motherhood story in the hope that it might make other mothers feel less alone. I also hope to share some of my ongoing spiritual journey. One of the things I’ve most enjoyed on Substack has been discovering other people who have also made the journey from Protestantism to Catholicism, and reading their stories has been immensely helpful for me.

I have lots of questions and can’t promise any answers, but I can promise to try and be thoughtful, nuanced and curious, so if that sounds like your cup of tea, then hit the subscribe button.

I’m still trying to figure out how to carve out time for writing alongside caring for my home and children, but I am hoping to be able to publish something at least a couple of times a month.

Thanks again for being here,

Becca