This is the Second Shift. In this first episode, you’ll meet Amanda Leon-Joyce, a new mum with a lockdown baby, enjoying a hybrid maternity leave/furlough. What’s different about Amanda is the shape of her family: she’s in a polyamorous relationship, so her baby has two dads as well as a mum. We talk about how this came about, what it meant in the context of pregnancy in lockdown, and Amanda shares her homebirth story.
Amanda is on all the social media – you can find her instagram @mandaleonjoyce and that’s a good place to start.
This is the Positive Birth hypnobirthing digital pack that she used: https://thepositivebirthcompany.co.uk/digital-pack
I asked her after the recording to recommend any other resources on polyamory, which is just not a well-documented or much talked about subject. Here’s our reading list:
Polyamory and Pregnancy, by Jessica Burde
For a more general book on polyamory, Opening Up, by Tristan Taormino
‘'There’s zero evidence that it’s worse for children': parenting in a polyamorous relationship’ - Guardian article by Lucy Fry, Feb 2020
The Second Shift
The Second Shift is a podcast that seeks, ambitiously, to explore lots of different life experiences, find out the facts, and understand new perspectives. From matrescence to menopause, I'll be talking to expert speakers and people with lived experience, because stories are such a great way to understand the world. I hope you'll find something interesting in this slightly eclectic collection of conversations!