Four Mothers: A Year in Motherhood Around the World

*A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025*

'Public interest journalism at its best - powerful human stories peppered with well-chosen facts ... A compelling case for a fairer society'
SUNDAY TIMES

'An absorbing, moving, and beautifully composed exploration of motherhood and mothering across the world . . . a gripping, vital, and utterly compelling book'
Elinor Cleghorn, author of Unwell Women

AS THE YEAR TURNS, FOUR WOMEN GIVE BIRTH.

In Japan, Tsukasa's government-funded hospital room overlooks the mountains and she spends seven days there, before resting at her mother's house for a month. The day after giving birth in Kenya, Chelsea returns to her flat in the city, far from her extended family, and her friends help her settle in. Anna, who has already been on maternity leave in Finland for a month, delivers her baby in a midwife-lead birth centre, a tradition dating back a century. In America, despite her insurance, Sarah pays $3,000 from her savings for an uncomplicated birth, before heading home, excited and overwhelmed.

Four Mothers follows these women over the next twelve months, through their first year of parenting. Through immersive storytelling and deep reporting, Abigail Leonard brings to life the policies that shape the experiences of both parents and children: access to healthcare and parental leave, community and workplace support.

Both intimate and international, we see what is and what could be.

'Eye-opening and cathartic. It is a love letter to parents and a clarion call for better policy'
Eve Rodsky, author of Fair Play

'Exquisitely reported and intensely readable ... Once I started Four Mothers I could not put it down'
Darcy Lockman, author of All the Rage