We were thrilled that West End singer Tabitha Webb was able to join us at our first motherhood day together (2nd October 2021). Tabby has performed the lead roles in Phantom of the Opera and Les Misérables, and was also in the 2012 movie with Hugh Jackman. She co-wrote and directed the show Love Beyond, performed at Wembley Arena in October 2014.
But for us, she talked with passion, conviction and heart-rending honesty about her own motherhood experiences. Tabby shared how she was affected by postnatal depression, and about the long and difficult journey back to good mental health. Many women hearing her said that her openness and vulnerability felt like being given permission to share more deeply about their own experiences.
Themes that emerged from the day included the idea of expectations, how we’d imagined things would be (birth experience, for example) compared to how things actually went. Another major theme was the recognition that difficult things, such as the physical problems and isolation, need to be talked about and that women might need to find ways to be supported.
Here are the highlights of her wonderful talk, sharing about her own experiences of postnatal depression:
Although she was visiting us as a speaker rather than a singer, she even spontaneously sang us one of the songs from her musical Love Beyond, which was amazing!
Thanks so much, Tabby!
At the end, she asked us what pieces of motherhood advice we’d been given that had helped. Here are some of those comments:
“You just have to be good enough.”
“Trust your instinct.”
“We need someone to say ‘you look so natural, you are meant to be a mum, you are a good mum’.”
Empty Nest 