Secret Mum Club with Sophiena - The Aisle Birth

Episode Date: October 2, 2025

We asked for your car birth stories and you lot delivered… literally. From lay-bys to supermarket aisles, Soph and Emma react to the most iconic births in Secret Mum Club history. Plus, one listener shares her perimenopause journey, from hormonal mysteries to the great cardio vs weights debate. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's William and Jordan here from Help. I texted my bus. And on the latest episode, Jordan's got a big bulbous spot that's vying to be my new co-host. It's been brewing, I reckon by the end of this. When we finish this, it might be ready to burst. You want to come and watch me get it. I do not want to watch you burst your spot. No, I don't. And we give a lesson in urinal etiquette.

I had a wee next to Chris Martin once. And when you look down, was it all yellow? Very good. It's the podcast where manners meet Mayhem. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, this is The Secret Mum Club, I'm Savina. And I'm Emma. And welcome to your Thursdays episode where we get to squeeze in all the extra bits and bobs from the wheat.

Squeeze your bits. Squeeze your flannel. Listen to the last episode if you don't know what we're talking about. All of your comments, thoughts, questions and fun stories. Keep you going through the weekend. Show a jump on in. It's time for another Correspondence Corner

I need it to be like I'm a celebrity get me out of here because it's coming. I thought you were doing the ring announcer again. In the red corner We've got the correspondence corner. You'd be called like, it's Safina the Smash. Safina with the fire in our mouth. From last week's episode, if you didn't hear it,

go back and check it out. So Emma, let's have the first one please. Okay, this says, hi, Safina and Emma. I've listened from the very beginning and follow you both online. You're always brightened my day. Oh, God, you cheer. When Sof mentioned blood tests for perimenopause, I really related. Yes.

After my second baby at 32, I never felt quite myself. By 37, my periods became horrifically heavy, just like Sof described. And over the years, I developed hair loss, anxiety, memory problems, low mood, constant fatigue and rage. Do you have that? Sometimes. Sometimes. No, I wouldn't say I'm raging. Rageful?

No. Depends who's pushed you are? Depends, yeah, depends where I'm. I wouldn't say you're raging. No, I'm not really raging. But you just say anxiety, fatigue. So fatigued. So, it says I tried the implant, the mini pill and iron tablets, but nothing worked.

At 41, I finally started HRT and it was life changing. I'm 45 now and wish I'd started sooner. Something I learned is that blood tests aren't always reliable. What helped me was keeping a symptom diary for appointments. I completely understand how exhausting heavy periods are. We're so often told to just put up with it, but we shouldn't have to. One tip, strength training with light weights really helped me. Cardio raises cortisol, which peri bodies struggle with.

So swapping it for low intensity strength training made a big difference. Sending lots of love, Emily. Oh, I do do a lot of cardio. Yeah, because you've been walking, haven't you? We do walk loads. I mean, we know about the weights thing. Again, Liz Earle was saying about she does weights for menopause. And we know how it can help you deal with it.

I didn't realize swapping it out for cardio. And also you only need to do light weights. Which is so weird, isn't it? Because there's such a divide that we see on social media is that we should be doing cardio. Cardio releases all happy hormones and so forth. But isn't it funny when you actually really think about your body and what is impacting your hormones, things you eat, how you move your body? All of these things are changing our hormone. I think it was because for ages.

back on my lingo. I've signed up for my lingo. Are you for the glucose monitor? I think it was because for ages we were told that like the aim of exercising was to lose weight. And that's why everyone was like, you must run, you must cardio, you must sweat it out on the treadmill. It's not about. I just want to regulate my hormones. Yeah.

That's all I want to do is regulate my hormones. Again, we don't know what's, we're having my thyroid checked, we're having everything checked to see if there's anything that we can. But obviously I was on a, I was on metformin years ago now, which helped regulate my, hormones to obviously for one day to have a baby um so i was on a tablet that regulated my hormones but i just think i just don't know what's going on with me but it's that's really good to know it is good to know isn't it yeah some light strength training but i'm glad i'm not crazy you know when you just think is it just because i'm just me yeah but she's right though like when people are dealing with like heavy periods and you're like oh well this is just normal this is my life now

should just get on with it yeah like you shouldn't have to just put up with that And it's mad that, like, it could all be internal and hormone-related. So you can do as much as you want on the outside. Nothing's going to change. But if your hormones are all messed up, then... You're not going to feel any different. You're not going to feel any different. No.

That's really interesting. Thank you so much, Emily. Yeah, thank you. I'm glad you've just solidified that I'm not crazy. Yeah. I was slightly concerned that I might be. I mean, there is still chance. Well, it's a little bit of crazy, but also a little bit of all the other things as well.

A little bit of everything else. Yes. Well, that's reassuring, isn't it? Good to know, isn't it? Thanks, so much. All right, we've got another message here. It says, hello. In response to your roadside delivery episode, I thought I'd share my story. We're all ears. In July last year, I gave birth to my second.

We need to recap. We need to recap. Weard delivery is having a baby in the car on the way to the hospital. Or in the car park, in the lobby, in the wherever, everywhere, bar on what's categorised as normal, in a bed or in the hospital or whatever. Yeah, whatever. Okay. So we asked for your story.

So this says, in July last year, I gave birth to my second baby in my partner's mom's car on the side of the A-14. What? A few days before my due day, I was having the odd pain but thought nothing of it since my first labour had lasted over two days. We carried on as normal, even did the Tesco shop. When we got home, I started timing contractions and called the hospital. That's when I found out the maternity unit was on divert and couldn't take me. It's like because they're too full. You have to go somewhere else.

They tried to refer me elsewhere, but hospital after hospital said no. What? Eventually, I was told I'd have to go to one an hour away. By then, I was in tears, convinced I wouldn't get the water birth I'd hoped for. Oh, my God, how stressful. So stressful. My partner's mum came over to look after our two-year-old, but ended up driving us instead. About 20 minutes into the drive, my contractions ramped up, my water's broke, and within minutes I knew the baby was coming.

We pulled into a labour, I called an ambulance, and my partner looked down to see our little boy crowning. A couple of pushes later. baby Jude was born Impatient but perfect The paramedics arrived quickly Clamped and cut the cord And I carried Jude into the ambulance Before we left

They even let my two year old hop in to see us He was there He was in the car Because their mother-in-law had come over To take them to watch the two-year-old But instead drove She'd gone in the car I just assumed someone else was looking after the two-year-old

He was there throughout the whole thing Oh my God Which he still remembers as the best bit Whenever I tell the story People say how awful it must have been But honestly, compared to my first labour, days of contractions and a four-steps delivery, this one was quick and almost easier. The only slightly traumatising part was my partner's mum seeing me give birth, yeah, it's a bit weird. But she says she felt honoured to help deliver her grandson.

Oh, I now think if we had another baby, I'd probably opt for a home birth. I thought she was going to say, probably opt for an A-1. I was going to say, oh, hit up the A-1, the A-34? A-147. Fuck it, we're doing the M-25. Let's do it at all. I was thinking, I don't know if you can orchestrate that again. Like, like, just sit on the, camp out on the side of the motorway.

Just at the moment of delivery, can we make it to the hard shoulder, phone the ambulance, like. I'd opt for a motorway delivery anyway. You can't plan that. She said that, up for a home birth, which I never would have considered before. Thank you both for always making me smile and laugh on my commute to work. Camille. Oh, Camille, this is beautiful. What amazing story.

Oh, and a little boy getting in the ambulance. Oh. That is adorable, isn't it? At some point you must have been terrified. Yeah. Terrified. But how wonderful. But also just the awful experience of being like no hospital can take you.

That in itself is so stressful. Where are you going to go? Where are you going? That happened to Roxanne, didn't there? Did it? Yeah, because she went to have Everley, her fourth one, and the hospital was busy. All of the hospitals. So she had to go and have her at another hospital and she basically, her contraction stopped.

And, well, she says she thinks she stopped her contractions. I don't know if there's any truth in that method. But she refused to have the baby at a different hospital. So what happened? She had her the next day. So the contractions completely stopped. And then the next day they started again. And she was allowed into the hospital?

The hospital to quite a day. Where would she have to go? Just one really far away otherwise? I think it was Portsmouth. Yeah. She was like, I'm not having three in the Princess Anne. And then my fourth baby in a different hospital. Obviously, because we were born in the Princess Anne.

She wanted her to be born there. Yeah, she wanted all four babies born in the same place. She could have had her on the 8-14. She could have on the M-25. You know. Oh my goodness. I mean, it's a bit far up for us. Maybe I'm 27.

Yeah. We live in the M27. But it all worked out all right in the end. There we go. Oh my God. Well done. He's a motorway baby. I wonder if he's going to love cars.

Also. I wonder if he'll love the motorway. Yeah. Love ambulances. I'm home. Honey, I bet Jude will not stop talking about that as well. Because when Joseph went in an ambulance recently for his bad neck, he brings it up all the time.

Is that remember when I went in? ambulance to my neck. And what he loved just as much was he came home in an Uber and he'd never been in a taxi before. So like the ambulance is the exciting bit. Like you can go in a taxi anytime. Ours is awful, isn't it? Because ours was the car crash. Oh, when you're, that's a bad memory. That's about when we got in a taxi. To be fair, Joseph's wasn't a great memory. Like he was in loads of pain with his neck. Yeah. But his most favorite part of the story is and I came home in a taxi. I'm like, wow. Wow. You are living. Wow. Cool. Taxi or Uber. I mean, if you're gone in a taxi. It wasn't even a black cab. It was just in like a Prius. It was like,

I came home in a taxi, you know. I'm like, wow, I get one of those every day, but cool. I'm not going to take this from you, Georgia, because you are only three. I know, yeah. Oh, thanks, Camille. Oh, thank you, Camille. That is beautiful. Congratulations.

Yeah. Also, what we're skipping over is, like, people that are given birth on the side of the road, they're doing it with no pain relief. Nothing. Nothing. Absolutely heroes. On the side of the motorway. Yeah.

With her mother-in-law there. Yeah. And her two-year-old. Yeah. That's wild. That's what a woman. That's a lot. I mean, we're not going to scoot over this.

this is absolutely phenomenal. This is phenomenal. Phenom. Yeah. All right, one last message here. It says, hi, Safina and Emma. So on the topic of car birth stories, not another one, not another word. I don't think you're ready for this one.

With my fourth baby, my waters broke at home. I only had mild pain, so after a call with the midwife, I went to get checked. The hospital said I was only two centimetres, so to go home, walk around and come back later. On the way back, my partner thought it would be a good idea to quickly pop into ASDA for snacks. The hospital to ASDA was only a 10 minute drive, so I thought I'd be fine. But as we were walking around the store, my contractions suddenly ramped up. They got so intense that I didn't even make it out of the shop. I gave birth to my baby boy right there in the middle of the aisles.

No, surrounded by staff. The staff were incredible, shielding me to give me some dignity while I delivered. I would be like front row seat, mouth wide open. Please tell me you've got a gold card for Astor. You have delivered free shops for life. Fully delivered a baby in Aster I would you know what right This is one thing that I hope happens to me

I really want someone to go into labour Tesco Sains Free I'm not picking Where you are Wherever we are I would love to be in the middle of a store And someone's gone into labour Yeah me too

Can you imagine Oh my I wouldn't be able to like not stop and stare Please tell me you've gone back to that Asda And gone oh do you remember me It's me again I'd say they roll out the red carpet

Every time she comes She's staff trying to give us some Oh she says And, of course, I had to name our beautiful boy. Imagine she's like, Asda. George. Asda Smith. And of course, I had to name our beautiful boy, George.

At least it's like a normal name, not like, you know. She seems to go to George or something. After the Azda clothing, perhaps it felt very fitting. I was full term, but I never imagined he'd come that quickly. Loving the pod, M. Oh, I really hope it was in the baby aisle. What oil was it, M? Yeah, I want to know.

Please tell us. I was in the frozen aisle. Oh, chilly. Chill. Really chilly. Really chilly. Holy moly. That's amazing. She fully had a baby in Astha. I need to know if anybody listened to his podcast that worked in that ASDA.

Yeah. Can you imagine? Yeah. Can you imagine we find one person that's worked in the ASTA while she was given birth? Or if someone's giving birth in your ASDA. Yes. It might have happened more than once. Maybe it's happening in multiple ASTA.

Or not just ASDA. We'd hear from Sainsby, Morris and Tesco. Every time we meet a George now, I'm going to be like, were you born in ASDA. Yeah. I bet when he says to people when he's older You know I'm named after Georgia, Asda They're going to be like, yeah, right. No, I am.

No, I really am. I really am. Yeah. A birther. Yeah. Oh, you are, honestly, that is heroic. Sorry, also, on the birth certificate, you put the hospital where they're born.

Did you have to put Astor? Did she have to put, like, Asda, Manchester or like... Asda, Southampton, Charlest Ford. And the car as well. A-14. Like, what do you put?

You do have to put the hospital down? Well, I imagine she would have gone to the hospital after. Can you imagine going back and just be like, oh, you know you saw me 10 minutes ago? Well, I've just actually given birth in Azda, so you shouldn't really have sent me away. Can you imagine the hospital when she's walked back in with the baby? Yeah. I'm the one you sent away 10 minutes ago. And here I am.

Here's George. That's Astor Price. Tap tap. That is phenomenal. Amazing. I absolutely adore that story. That is up there with being, you've really. really made it in life. That is an incredible memory. Incredible story. Yeah. No one's

going to believe you. No one. We believe you. We 100% believe you. Can you, has there anybody that's heard that story and doesn't believe you? I really need to know. I'll, what number aisle were we in? Yeah. Dairy means. What were you looking at while you were giving birth? Like, how was your partner in the process of all of this? Yeah. Do you still stay in contact with any of the workers from Asthma? Did they evacuate the store? What did you put in birth certificate? Yeah, did they evacuate the store? Gosh. You'd have to get some of those wet floor signs, wouldn't you?

Because it was... Slippery. Really slipperate. Caution. Caution. Caution. Caution. After birth.

Sorry. Wow. Caution. I don't think I'm ever going to get over this. Amazing, isn't it? This is incredible. It almost makes me want to have another baby so that I can have like an exciting birth story. Yeah.

You'd have to call, oh, here's my baby, Tess. Tesco. Florence and what is it called? Fred and Flo. These are my new twins, Fred and Flo. Why did you call them that? Gave Bath and Tuskeye. You didn't, no.

No, no, I did. I did. Oh, incredible. Incredible. So thank you for your messages. If you have any comments, thoughts, or birthing stories, why not get in touch? Email us hello at secret mumpod.com or with Secret Mumpod on TikTok and Instagram. Next, it's time for one of your secrets.

Are you? Piped down. Calm down. And get a grip. If you're as sick of hearing these words as we are, we've got a little podcast by you. Get a grip. With me, Angela Scanlon. And me, Bickey Patterson.

We're tired of staying quiet about the realities of womanhunt. So we're being loud, proud and unapologetically ourselves with a sprinkling of unhinged laughter and a bit of celebrity and a bit of celebrity. Basically, it's the group chat we've all been waiting for. Get a grip every Thursday and Tuesday. Watch on YouTube and listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome back. We love a secret on the secret mum club. And you are all so good at sharing. I don't think there's anything that can top today's hair. So Emma, take it away. All right. This comes from Hannah from Buckinghamshire. Oh, Hannah. She says, hi ladies. I've listened to your podcast right from the beginning and it's been such a needed bit of respite in my week. Oh, God bless you.

I'm a mum to two girls. Oh, I love these names. Oh, ready for some name porn. Otty 16 months Name porn Can we say that about baby's names Otty That's a beautiful one Otty 16 months and Elsie

Four weeks Adorable Four weeks Wait hang on That's a small age gap That's Oh 15 month age gap

The problem is We can't go through a meal time Without Otty throwing the majority of her food Out of her high chair To make it worse She stares at you directly in the eyes When she's doing it We've tried ignoring her

And not reacting But it hasn't seemed to make a difference She likes the food that we're giving her she's eating it before. Any advice would be great from one frustrated mama. I would just pick up my own plate and launch it back at them. Hopefully it lands all over them. Then they cry and they're like, should we just not do this again? No, that's, I'm joking. Don't do that. She's very diddy. She's 16 months, two months younger than Sadie. And I would say Sadie did that. Did Renley? It still does it. I got a, I got the IKEA high chair at the table now, but we got the catchy.

Oh, to catch all the food on the floor. To catch all the food. So what I do is he loves to drop his food. I've embraced that, bought a catchy. I now scoop it back into the plate. Give it back to him. He thinks it's a whole new meal. Yeah. Doesn't. Doesn't realize it's just his regurgitated food.

This is just what you've just thrown on the floor. Give it to him the next day as well if he doesn't mean. I do give Sadie her food off the floor because I know my floors are clean. I just think there's so much stress on us to feed them. Sometimes at this age, well, maybe something I'd maybe tell myself is that it's very much sensory for them at the moment. Although obviously she's at an age where she's having. all of pretty much every meal is food now. Sometimes I think it's more of a sensory.

And if she's teething, she's not on her food, just feeling it. I think sometimes is quite good. So that is, for me, I would just take it as a bit of sensory play. Yeah. I am somebody who gets really stressed out around food. Like, I don't think I've ever been stressed about them. I don't like the mess. I don't like the waste.

And I don't like the thought of them not being full. So I'll be really like insistent. Like yesterday, I gave Sadie lasagna. which I know she likes. She's had it before, but she's just a bit off her food at the moment. So she just, like, was refusing it. Like, she puts her head back.

Like, are you feeding herself? She just closed her eyes sometimes. Goes, no. Not having it. She's like, if I can't see this food, I don't have to eat it. If I close my eyes long enough, she'll go away.

She'll go away, yeah. She's a combination of we let her feed herself, but also I help her out of the spoon as well because she's fucking chaotic. Rennie is full fed himself. Doesn't like to be fed. She's a mess though. I've told you before.

She tips the spoon upside down as it goes towards her mouth. So nothing gets in her mouth. Got you. I feel we are really lucky with Renner's because he loves to do it on his own. And he does great. I do recommend that catchy mat because I've got no food on my floor. It's hands down genius.

My neighbours love it. Yeah. Because she's got older children now that she's like if this was around when we had them. Yeah, yeah. So I do recommend that. Also, sometimes when he doesn't eat food, if I'm worried, I'll go for my old faithful slice of toast or a brioche. It's a carb, it packs them up. And then he feels like he's one.

But in turn, actually, you're like, well, I know your form. Yeah. They do do this though, like with stuff that they, like you say, you know they like it because they had it before. They had it the day before. But sometimes they just look it and be like, no, gave Sadia corn on the cob with her lasagna last night, which I know she loves. Yeah.

She just like wasn't really eating it. She was throwing it on the floor, playing around with it. Also, it does help if we sit with Renley, or at the table, you really loves it when everybody sits at the table. So I try and make an effort at the moment with some nights we're eating at five o'clock, but everyone sits at the table and everyone eats together. which then I think because he's watching Dottie and Colby eating which is why I think again he does so well with eating independently

is because he wants to be just like them so definitely even if you're not eating sit at the table with her or eat your dinner with her because again once they're watching you and nine times out of ten if I have a plate of food that I'm eating Rennelia then wants mine so I'll just be sat next to him and I'm like oh you can you can help yourself if you want mine even though we've got exactly the same dinner

and his is just chopped up more. I just cut a bit up and he'll just poke his spoon into mine and then I'm like, oh well, he's eating. Elis he's eating. Yeah, yeah. So sometimes I think we just need to take, make it more fun.

Take the stress out of it. And I know it's stressful and you're never going to get rid of that feeling of being completely stressed and tapped out at dinner time because it is a lot. But yeah, if you can change a few things, spice it up a little bit.

Yeah, and just try not to worry. Like, I just think like with Sadie, I'm like, if she doesn't want to eat it, If they're hungry, they're going to eat. And also, I find that, like, leaving her, she's really, she's a really slow eater. Me and Stefan are terrible. We're like, right, let's get dinner done because then it's on to the next thing. Then it's tidying up.

Then it's bath. Then it's bed. So I like, like, Stefan especially, he'll try and, like, put a spoon in her mouth. I'm like, she's got a mouthful of food already. Like, you can't rush her. And then, like, yesterday with that lasagna, she didn't want it when I was feeding it to her. And then I left her in a high chair for about half an hour. And eventually she did eat it all.

Because they'll just come back to it. They just plod. But first of all, she might want to throw it on the floor or squish it for her fingers or, you know, they're disgusting. Babies are disgusting. It needs time. Yeah. You've got to allow yourself enough time. But they will get over it.

Yeah, they will. But I think, yeah, just give her time. If you can sit with her, sit with her. It's good for you to make yourself a cup of tea and sit next to her and sit at the table with her. If you can eat with her as well. Those kinds of things. But I think it's a lot of sensory. Yeah.

Yeah. You've just got to be really patient, which I'm not really. And it is, and it's hard. It's easy for us to sit here and be patient I will go home tonight and inside I will be crying Oh yeah I'm just like just eat this thing that I know you like

I'm always you're gonna wake up hungry at the night I know Do you know what might also be going on here She's got a four week old sister So she might be doing things a little bit To get attention so try not to react too much Because then she'll just keep doing it It's a lot of change

She's got a lot going on And you're doing you're doing incredibly well And I think the reason you're feeling frustrated Is because it's because you're scared It is frustrating She cares. She cares so much what she wants to eat and making sure that she's fed great. But there is a lot of change in your home. And also, you've just given birth.

Yeah. Just had a baby. Yeah, let yourself off. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you're doing fantastic. So go you, Mama. But keep us posted.

Any good tips for food throwing babies, then please do let us know. You can email us hello at secret mumpod.com or with Secret Mumpod on TikTok and Instagram. And we'll be back. First thing, see you next Tuesday. and we'll have more of your messages on our next Thursday episode. And we'll see you next time on the Secret Mum Club. Jordan's got a big bulbous spot that's buying to be my new co-host. It's been brewing. I reckon by the end of this.

When we finish this, it might be ready to burst. Do you want to come and watch me get it? I do not want to watch your burst of the spot. No, I don't. And we give a lesson in urinal etiquette. I had a wee next to Chris Martin once. And when you look down, was it all yellow? Very good. It's the podcast where manners meet mehem.

Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts.