Being a mum is great, but it can also be relentlessly challenging and impossibly difficult. Not to mention that from the day they're born, you know you'll eventually lose your children to adulthood.

In her late 30s, writer and actress Michele Winstanley gave birth to a much-wanted child, and quickly realised that mumming wasn't the sugar-coated dream she'd been sold. And so she wrote a play about her own experiences and those of others at different stages of their motherhood journey.

A decade on, Broken Water is now playing at the Arcola Theatre. Our Jen caught up with Michele and director Nicola Samer to talk about the highs and lows of being a mum, the losses we incur along the way, and, when it comes to representations of motherhood, how much (or little) has changed in the last ten years.

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SIM Ep 939 Chops 286: Broken Water, broken nights, and the highs and lows of mumming