Four Mothers

After giving birth to three children in Japan, journalist Abigail Leonard was shocked to return home to the US and understand American motherhood from a new perspective.

Fascinated to learn more about the ways that culture around the world impacts the experience of birth and parenting, especially for women, she starts reporting. Identifying four new mothers – from the US, Japan, Finland and Kenya – she follows them closely through birth and the first year of their children’s lives. Their intimate stories shed a light on national history, policy and gender relations; what is universal and what we can learn from other cultures.

Sarah, Tsukasa, Anna and Chelsea negotiate hospital and healthcare settings; daycare, professional ambitions and religion; complicated relationships with partners, family and friends. Abigail Leonard captures the love and complexity of their experiences in careful detail and compelling prose. Her rich storytelling draws an insightful and international portrait of modern mothering.