Podcasts are a great way to listen in to conversations you may otherwise never hear. In this new Season of Holding Time podcasts, we hear a remarkably varied range of stories from Bradford mothers as they talk about the realities of adoption, pregnancy, free-birthing, milk donation and so much more.
To coincide with Creativity and Wellbeing Week we are releasing a week of podcasts from the Bradford project. Each day, three episodes will be released, with more videos on the Youtube channel daily also. Subscribe for all the latest!
With a uniquely local ear, this podcast examines the local picture of breastfeeding in Bradford as one part of a wider Creative Health programme co-created with mothers, local infant feeding teams and community partners.
Each episode podcast addresses the issues faced by new others from diverse backgrounds as they wrestle with the challenges and triumphs of motherhood and breastfeeding. Mothers share stories of donor milk, preterm babies and birth trauma. Breastfeeding is seen as one part of a continuum of experiences that shape motherhood and in some cases, define it. Alongside some familiar themes of a motherhood podcast, this honest examination of the subject does some deep diving into obscure and poorly understood experiences of infant feeding such as the Islamic traditions behind wet nursing – known as ‘milk mothers’, free-birthing, Facebook donor groups, full term toddlers feeding shame and hiding your expressed milk in the work fridge.
As an experiment in Public Health, the Holding Time challenges the usual methodologies of Health Education, working with a small team of creatives across the country to help to shape a refreshingly new feel to a subject that can feel dauntingly impossible to shift. The project has travelled across the UK from Brighton to Coventry, Cheshire and Merseyside to Bradford, gathering pace as the audience and voices grow, the project combines digital content with live events, art and marketing, public art and intimate groups.
Other elements of the Bradford project include a huge stone sculpture created out of a collaboration between Better Place Bradford, Lisa Creagh and local sculptor, Dan Jones. The idea of the Chair is to take time to listen and reflect – literally ‘Holding Time’. Visitors are invited to download the podcast, share their own story or watch a ten minute ‘mindful’ Holding Timepiece – another piece of the Holding Time puzzle.
The chair and podcast are part of a series of Holding Time events taking place in Bradford to coincide with Bradford City of Culture 2025. With an emphasis on maternal wellbeing and infant health, the project includes an outdoor photographic walking tour of mother portraits across Better Place green sites, exhibitions in Bradford Infirmary hospital and Family Hubs. Follow our socials for updates at
https://linktr.ee/holdingtimeproject
This project is supported by Bradford District Care Trust, Bradford District Care Hospitals Charity, Better Start Bradford, Better Place Bradford and Arts Council England
Read more about the Project here
80% of women in the UK have babies and only 1% of them are exclusively breastfeeding at 6 months. Given that the majority want to breastfeed, we really need to listen to mothers to understand what’s happening. We are living through a crisis in public health, a mental health crisis and a pending crisis of dropping birth rates. We know that breastfeeding goes a long way to mitigate birth trauma, poverty, inequality and so much more but mothers find themselves ever more isolated. We all need to listen to mothers and work out how we can all do a better job of supporting them.
And I’m hoping that isn’t the end of the project in Bradford.
Together with curator Aamta Tul Waheed I’m working on a small festival called Another Mothering, designed to look at the ‘Caring Economy’. You can read more about this proposal for 2026 here: Another Mothering
With Thanks to our Funders and our Partners
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