What readers have said about What Mothers Do:

Janet Balaskas, mother, grandmother and founder of the Active Birth Centre
‘It’s a wonderful book and a great affirmation for mothers.’

Ruth Barnett, mother and psychotherapist
‘I suspect What Mothers Do will become an enduring classic.’

From Margie Chadwick, mother
‘By noting all the things a mother does Naomi is lifting their status, and giving them a voice so that they can be understood.’

Rachel Gwilym, mother
‘Since reading What Mothers Do I have been challenged to think more about how motherhood can be embraced by the feminist movement to allow women to flourish as women and bring up children with presence and energy.’

Sheila Kitzinger, mother and grandmother, childbirth educator
‘Naomi Stadlen writes with understanding, deep insight and humour. This is truly woman-to-woman.’

Sanja Oakley, mother and psychotherapist
‘When I read Stadlen’s book I cried with relief. All those years when I thought I was incapable or lazy – or even sick, because I felt permanently exhausted – I was actually busy mothering.’

Dr W. J. Stephen, father, grandfather and doctor
‘I have read it with great interest and enjoyed it. As so many people have said – why has it taken so long for sanity to reach the bookshops?’

Phoebe Tait, mother
‘I’m halfway through your book, close to tears most of the time. I’m totally moved by it, by the depths of love that mothers have for their babies, and the great achievements that mothers do on a daily basis that go unacknowledged most of the time.’

Kate Wood, mother and journalist
‘I have just been reading it in the bath (until the baby woke and I had to get out, of course.)... It deserves to become a classic. I feel so relieved someone is saying all these things – at times I was on the verge of tears – that you are honestly acknowledging this amazing and mysterious thing that we do as mothers.’

Richard Skues, Principal Lecturer in Social Science, London Metropolitan University
‘Naomi Stadlen breaks new ground in capturing those aspects of the experience of modern motherhood that are often overlooked or denigrated in the standard literature.’

Thomas Szasz, father, grandfather, author, psychoanalyst
‘I love this book. A work from a pure heart and informed head. It is at once simple and profound, as is the subject it addresses.’