WomenKind Collective

This week, Jinty and Lou sit down with Rosie Taylor, award-winning investigative journalist, broadcaster, media consultant, and host of the Mother Bodies podcast. Rosie has spent a decade reporting on women's health and family life for some of the UK's biggest publications. But what sets her apart is this: she hasn't just reported on the crisis in maternity care, she's lived it. Her own experience of birth trauma sent her on a mission to understand what is going wrong in our maternity system, and she has been reporting and campaigning on it ever since.
In this powerful and eye-opening conversation, we explore:
→ How Rosie went from personal anger to understanding this as a systemic failure.
→ Why postnatal care is described as the "Cinderella" of midwifery and why just £250 is allocated per woman postnatally vs £2,800 for antenatal care.
→ The shocking dismissal of women in crisis including one who was told "stop making a fuss, everyone has babies" while suffering massive internal bleeding.
→ The paradox of understaffed maternity wards and newly qualified midwives unable to find jobs.
→ How racially minoritised women, disabled women, and those facing economic hardship are being failed most severely.
→ Whether the 12 recommendations from the 2024 maternity inquiry are being acted upon and why nearly two thirds of maternal deaths happen postnatally.
→ How patriarchal medical systems have systematically stripped power from midwives and mothers.
→ What excellent maternity care actually looks like, and where we go from here
We also chat about our week, including a new film that's just dropped and exactly how much alcohol is being drunk in parliament. Hear us rant! We end with something beautiful to carry you through the week. 🌸
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💬 We love hearing from you — email us your ideas: [email protected]

Pre-Order our book, Tackling Gender Bias In The Healthcare System here - https://www.waterstones.com/book/tackling-gender-bias-in-the-healthcare-system/louise-hockings-thompson/jinty-sheerin/9781805018810

👀 Join us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/womenkindcollective?igsh=ZmxmbGs2d3BjcXA1&utm_source=qr 🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/womenkind-collective/id1557937820 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/42KniEtc5WGQhNvREsN1WP?si=e14a83c93a304bb3
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Thank you for listening. 💛
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Rosie Taylor:
Web: https://www.rosietaylorjournalism.com/
Instagram: @rosietaylorjournalism
Linked In: Rosie Taylor – Freelance Journalist
Substack: Rosie Taylor

For further help & support:
https://www.birthtraumaassociation.org/
https://pandasfoundation.org.uk/what-is-pnd/birth-trauma/
https://masic.org.uk/
https://www.tommys.org/
☕ SUBSCRIBE for honest chats on women’s health, feminist issues, sisterhood & smashing the patriarchy, one cuppa at a time.
💛 Enjoying the podcast? Please share, leave us a review or comment!
If you would like to you can Buy us a coffee at Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/womenkindcollectivepodcast
💬 We love hearing from you, email us your ideas here Jinty & Lou @ [email protected]
👀 Join us on instagram here https://www.instagram.com/womenkindcollective?igsh=ZmxmbGs2d3BjcXA1&utm_source=qr
🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/womenkind-collective/id1557937820
🎧 Listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/42KniEtc5WGQhNvREsN1WP?si=e14a83c93a304bb3
And all your favourite Podcast Platforms
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Link to Pre Order: Tackling Gender Bias in The Healthcare System. What Patient stories Teach Us About Implementing Systemic Change: https://www.waterstones.com/book/tackling-gender-bias-in-the-healthcare-system/louise-hockings-thompson/jinty-sheerin/9781805018810

Our guest today is Neelam Heera-Shergill, founder and CEO of Cysters, a community-led charity with national reach working at the intersection of menstrual health, maternal care and mental well-being.

When we talk about gender bias in healthcare, we're really talking about a system that has historically been designed for men. But what happens when you exist outside that narrow template in more ways than one? Neelam knows that story intimately, and has built something extraordinary in response to it.

Rooted in grassroots activism and collective liberation, Cysters exists to challenge the stigma, systemic barriers and cultural silence that prevents so many people particularly those from ethnically diverse communities from getting the care they deserve. Neelam's work spans advocacy, creative storytelling, policy influence and community building, all driven by a simple but radical belief: that menstrual and maternal care should never be a privilege.

In this conversation we explore:

· How Cysters began with one voice and one lived experience and the moment Neelam knew she had to turn it into something bigger.

· Why the framing of ethnically diverse communities as "hard to reach" says far more about the system than the community and what Cysters' evidence actually shows.

· The real problem at the heart of healthcare inequity: "a lack of listening, referring, believing."

· Through our research for our book, we found that women from deprived areas and marginalised communities are doubly disadvantaged when it comes to healthcare and whether Neelam's findings reflect the same.

· The specific conditions endometriosis, PMOS, miscarriage, menopause where the intersection of gender and ethnicity creates particularly stark gaps in care.

· How Cysters holds space for communities where menstruation carries cultural silence or shame, while still challenging it.

· The ways Cysters has influenced real research and policy, and how a community of voices is making a tangible difference.

· What a genuinely equitable reproductive healthcare system would look like and the two or three things that would need to change first.

· Why "radical love and care" sits at the centre of Cysters' work, and why that language matters in a world of policy documents and research reports.
We also catch up on our adventurous week hiking with Ramble Worldwide and Ageism is Never In Style in the Lake District with a wonderful group of like-minded women and we chat about why pre-orders for books truly matter (did you know we've got a book coming out in September?)
Stick around for some beautiful inspiration to carry you through the week.

☕ SUBSCRIBE for honest chats on women's health, feminist issues, sisterhood & smashing the patriarchy, one cuppa at a time.

💛 Enjoying the podcast? Please share, leave us a review or comment it means the world!

Buy us a coffee at Ko-Fi ☕ https://ko-fi.com/womenkindcollectivepodcast

💬 We love hearing from you: email Jinty & Lou at [email protected]

👀 Join us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/womenkindcollective?igsh=ZmxmbGs2d3BjcXA1&utm_source=qr

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/womenkind-collective/id1557937820

🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/42KniEtc5WGQhNvREsN1WP?si=e14a83c93a304bb3

And all your favourite podcast platforms.

Thank you for listening.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cysters: Web: https://www.cysters.org/
Insta: @cystersgroup

We talked about:
SUP Jo Mosely - jomosely.com
Ramble Worldwide - rambleworldwide.co.uk
☕ SUBSCRIBE for honest chats on women’s health, feminist issues, sisterhood & smashing the patriarchy, one cuppa at a time.
💛 Enjoying the podcast? Please share, leave us a review or comment!
If you would like to you can Buy us a coffee at Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/womenkindcollectivepodcast
💬 We love hearing from you, email us your ideas here Jinty & Lou @ [email protected]
👀 Join us on instagram here https://www.instagram.com/womenkindcollective?igsh=ZmxmbGs2d3BjcXA1&utm_source=qr
🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/womenkind-collective/id1557937820
🎧 Listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/42KniEtc5WGQhNvREsN1WP?si=e14a83c93a304bb3
And all your favourite Podcast Platforms
Thank you for Listening

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This week on Spill The Tea, we're having the conversation the NHS seems reluctant to. We sit down with Jocelyn, who at 36 went into premature menopause, and years later underwent a hysteroscopy a procedure she was wholly unprepared for.
What followed was agonising pain, zero adequate warning, and a long road to discovering she was far from alone. Jocelyn found her way to Hysteroscopy Action, a UK campaign fighting for patients' rights to proper pain relief and informed consent and she's here to help make sure you're better informed than she was.

Together we unpack what a hysteroscopy is, why so many women are still suffering needlessly, and the question we simply won't let go of: if this were a procedure routinely performed on men, would "take a paracetamol" ever be considered adequate?

We also catch up on our week and chat about our new BFF Jane Green and her hotly anticipated memoir Rewilding, out in June one to pre-order immediately. Plus, we close with some beautiful inspiration to carry you through the week. 🌿
Whether you've had a hysteroscopy, have one coming up, or simply want to understand why the gender pain gap is still very much alive this episode is for you.

☕ SUBSCRIBE for honest chats on women’s health, feminist issues, sisterhood & smashing the patriarchy, one cuppa at a time.
💛 Enjoying the podcast? Please share, leave us a review or comment!
If you would like to you can Buy us a coffee at Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/womenkindcollectivepodcast
💬 We love hearing from you, email us your ideas here Jinty & Lou @ [email protected]
👀 Join us on Instagram here https://www.instagram.com/womenkindcollective?igsh=ZmxmbGs2d3BjcXA1&utm_source=qr
🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/womenkind-collective/id1557937820
🎧 Listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/42KniEtc5WGQhNvREsN1WP?si=e14a83c93a304bb3
And all your favourite Podcast Platforms
Thank you for Listening
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Hysteroscopy Action: https://www.hysteroscopyaction.org.uk/
Instagram: @campaign_painful_hysteroscopy
Petition: End barbaric NHS hysteroscopies with inadequate pain-relief: https://www.change.org/p/secretary-of-state-for-health-end-barbaric-nhs-hysteroscopies-with-inadequate-pain-relief

Jane Green New Memoir: Rewilding: Freedom, Friendship and Finding Our Way Home. Release Date: 4 June 2026, pre-orders available: Harper Collins

☕ SUBSCRIBE for honest chats on women’s health, feminist issues, sisterhood & smashing the patriarchy, one cuppa at a time.
💛 Enjoying the podcast? Please share, leave us a review or comment!
If you would like to you can Buy us a coffee at Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/womenkindcollectivepodcast
💬 We love hearing from you, email us your ideas here Jinty & Lou @ [email protected]
👀 Join us on instagram here https://www.instagram.com/womenkindcollective?igsh=ZmxmbGs2d3BjcXA1&utm_source=qr
🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/womenkind-collective/id1557937820
🎧 Listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/42KniEtc5WGQhNvREsN1WP?si=e14a83c93a304bb3
And all your favourite Podcast Platforms
Thank you for Listening

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Link to Pre Order: Tackling Gender Bias in The Healthcare System. What Patient stories Teach Us About Implementing Systemic Change: https://www.waterstones.com/book/tackling-gender-bias-in-the-healthcare-system/louise-hockings-thompson/jinty-sheerin/9781805018810

Welcome back! Series 16 is here, and we're spending the whole series investigating gender bias and misogyny in healthcare, building up to the publication of our book in September.

And what better place to begin than to Spill the Tea with Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Wes Streeting and Women's Health Minister Baroness Gillian Merron? We ask them about the revised Women's Health Strategy that launched in April, and how they plan to tackle misogyny and racial bias at its very core.

We also examine the striking funding figures that journalist Rosie Taylor revealed when comparing the Women's Health Strategy with the Men's Health Strategy launched in November along with our own thoughts.

Plus, find out all about our adventures trekking the Higher Atlas Mountains with a female-led expedition that took us above the clouds and into beautiful villages. And stick around for some beautiful inspiration to carry you through the week.

☕ SUBSCRIBE for honest chats on women's health, feminist issues, sisterhood & smashing the patriarchy, one cuppa at a time.

💛 Enjoying the podcast? Please share, leave us a review or comment!

If you would like to, you can Buy us a coffee at Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/womenkindcollectivepodcast

💬 We love hearing from you — email your ideas to Jinty & Lou: [email protected]
👀 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/womenkindcollective
🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/womenkind-collective/id1557937820
🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/42KniEtc5WGQhNvREsN1WP

Available on all your favourite podcast platforms. Thank you for listening.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Renewed Women’s Health Strategy For England: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69df5d7261d2e8e9b9e42d2e/renewed-womens-health-strategy-for-england-web-accessible.pdf

Rosie Taylor: Instagram: @rosietaylorjournalism
Rosie Taylor Times article: https://www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcare/article/womens-health-funding-less-than-mens-health-6k6l6pljw

☕ SUBSCRIBE for honest chats on women’s health, feminist issues, sisterhood & smashing the patriarchy, one cuppa at a time.
💛 Enjoying the podcast? Please share, leave us a review or comment!
If you would like to you can Buy us a coffee at Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/womenkindcollectivepodcast
💬 We love hearing from you, email us your ideas here Jinty & Lou @ [email protected]
👀 Join us on instagram here https://www.instagram.com/womenkindcollective?igsh=ZmxmbGs2d3BjcXA1&utm_source=qr
🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/womenkind-collective/id1557937820
🎧 Listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/42KniEtc5WGQhNvREsN1WP?si=e14a83c93a304bb3
And all your favourite Podcast Platforms
Thank you for Listening

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

BBC South West journalist Emily Wood first joined us, a few moons ago, to talk perimenopause.
Today, she returns in an entirely different capacity, to share one of the most personal and compelling investigations we've ever heard.
Emily has created True Crime Tuesday currently airing on BBC Radio Devon Daytimes and it’s a deeply personal reinvestigation into the murder of her great aunt, Eva Porter, killed in Clapham in 1935.
What began as her mum exploring the family tree became something far bigger: a cold case reinvestigation, a journey through the London Archives, 83 pages of a coroner's report, and an unexpected thread connecting the case to Devon's most famous daughter, Agatha Christie.
But at its heart, this is about something we care deeply about: women's history. The real kind. Eva was a young woman who left home at 17 with ambitions, who became a single mother doing whatever she had to do to survive, and who was ultimately reduced to a headline about how she died. Emily has spent many hours making sure that is not where her story ends.
Because how many Eva’s are there? How many women's lives were shaped or crushed by the world they were born into, and then quietly forgotten?
In this episode we ask Emily: when did curiosity become investigation? What did 83 pages of a coroner's report reveal? What was life really like for women in 1930s London? What is the Agatha Christie connection? And what has it meant to give Eva her name back?
Stick around for some beautiful inspiration to carry you through the week. 💛
True Crime Tuesday is currently airing on BBC Radio Devon Daytimes.

Emily Wood:
Instagram: @emilys.wood
BBC Sounds: BBC Radio Devon
LinkedIn: @Emily Wood
☕ SUBSCRIBE for honest chats on women’s health, feminist issues, sisterhood & smashing the patriarchy, one cuppa at a time.
💛 Enjoying the podcast? Please share, leave us a review or comment!
If you would like to you can Buy us a coffee at Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/womenkindcollectivepodcast
💬 We love hearing from you, email us your ideas here Jinty & Lou @ [email protected]
👀 Join us on instagram here https://www.instagram.com/womenkindcollective?igsh=ZmxmbGs2d3BjcXA1&utm_source=qr
🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/womenkind-collective/id1557937820
🎧 Listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/42KniEtc5WGQhNvREsN1WP?si=e14a83c93a304bb3
And all your favourite Podcast Platforms
Thank you for Listening

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.