Understanding Motherless Motherhood: How Workplaces Can Support Women in the Grief that Changes Everything
TalentMapper
56:08
Hosted by The Motherless Mothers Charity in partnership with TalentMapper. A live conversation for individuals, managers, and organisations.
Becoming a mother while grieving your own is one of the most isolating experiences a woman can face. And yet, so often, it's a grief that others around them simply don't know how to reach.
Why we need you to listen
1 in 3 mothers experience motherhood without support from their own mother, and the impact on their mental health is a serious one. 95% feel isolated or unsupported, over 70% report anxiety, and 67% experience depression. Perinatal mental health conditions affect motherless mothers over 3 times more than the UK average (The Motherless Mothers and Peanut, The Hidden Crisis of Motherless Mothers, October 2025).
Hear real stories
You’ll hear lived experiences from motherless mothers navigating pregnancy, parenthood, and milestones without the guidance, care and support from their own mum.
The workplace experience
What meaningful change actually looks like for employers, HR teams and managers and the research to prove this.
How you can benefit
Hear more about the tools we offer to help:
1) create a more inclusive, empathetic environment which improves employee satisfaction scores
2) learn how to train people managers (/all employees) to better deal with employee grief.
3) You will also hear and have a chance to participate in our upcoming workplace research
This webinar is for you if you are...
- Someone who is navigating motherhood without a mother due to bereavement, illness, estrangement or another reason where maternal presence is absent and wants to feel seen and supported
- An HR or People professional looking to build more compassionate policies for women affected by this often overlooked, widespread issue
- A manager who wants to respond to grief with empathy and confidence
- An organisation that wants to create a more human, inclusive workplace
- Anyone curious about the unique experience of maternal grief
- Someone who has team members/friends or family members who have experienced this loss and want to understand how best to support them
Speakers
Martin Mason
Founder & CEO @ TalentMapper
Martin Mason is Founder & CEO of TalentMapper, a technology platform that enables people in their companies to navigate their career path and close their skills gaps to progress their career. Martin and his team partner with organisations and charities across the globe to support them in removing systemic barriers to improve talent management, performance and inclusion. Prior to founding his businesses over the last 4 years, Martin led global Talent, Learning and Inclusion functions in companies such as The Body Shop, Ferguson and Halfords, where he designed and delivered inclusive talent strategies and systemic changes to talent management, inclusion and performance.
Lou Kirby Jones
Co-Founder Motherless Mothers
Lou is Co-Founder of The Motherless Mothers (TMM) and a Senior Copywriter at the University of Leeds. She lost her mum suddenly 3 days before her 21st birthday. She is a toddler mum to one and attributes a bumpy career path to double parent loss in her 20s. She is channeling her feelings of inauthenticity, insecurity and anxiety at work into something bigger and hopes that the work The Motherless Mothers is doing in the workplace gives a voice to many who are currently juggling a career and one of the hardest types of grief a woman can carry.
Emily Allen
Motherless Mothers
Head of Learning and Delivery at Avado and a TMM volunteer. Emily's mum was diagnosed with Alzheimer's 16 years ago and has been in constant decline. She is a mum to a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old. Pregnancy brought grief and a confronting reality that she never got to know her mum as an adult, and now, a mum herself. After her first maternity leave, there was no meaningful conversation at work about her grief and what she was going through. Hearing others talk about maternal or grandparental support triggers her and she believes this has a huge impact on confidence, career choices and state of mind at work. Emily advocates, not for special treatment, but for understanding for this group of women.
Anne Kirby
Motherless Mothers
Anne is a Secondary Teacher, a University Counsellor and a TMM volunteer. She is mum to 2 girls, both born in France, and lives away from family with no mum (or dad) around. When Anne became a mum, she didn't realise that what she was feeling was grief - let alone that it might be something relevant to share at work. It was only later, when she started hearing about workplaces offering extra childcare days or more understanding around transitions back to work, that she realised how different her experience could have been. Anne is passionate about changing this through TMM.
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Understanding Motherless Motherhood: How Workplaces Can Support Women in the Grief that Changes Everything
56:08