Disfigurement, Adoption, Darning

Available for over a year

Disfigurement is defined as having your 'appearance deeply and persistently harmed medically'. But what if you hide a disfigurement? We hear from Sylvia Mac who has scars on her back, tummy and leg from a childhood accident. She used to cover them up, but not anymore. What's it like being a new mum when you don't have a new-born baby, but an adopted three or four year old? How easy is it to make friends with other families who have birth children and where do you go when everything doesn't go to plan? Jane is joined by Emma, a Woman's Hour Parenting Podcast listener and mother of two adopted children, John Simmonds, Director of Policy at the adoption charity, Coram and Professor Beth Neil, Director of Research at the School of Social Work at the University of East Anglia. We have the ninth of our Woman's Hour Craft Prize finalist. She's Celia Pym who works with textiles, sometimes making items from scratch but much of the time darning worn clothes, using the stories behind them as part of her narrative. She joins Jane in the Woman's Hour studio. Our Craft Prize is in partnership with the Crafts Council and the Victoria and Albert Museum.