74. COMEBACK - Heart FM's Gemma Hill - Mother Pukka covered my maternity - worry about taking leave - staying in touch reduced my anxiety about returning

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Hello Bright Minds, my guest today is Gemma Hill, a Heart FM radio presenter whose maternity leave was covered by non other than the formidable Anna Whitehouse AKA Mother Pukka but even still she says, maternity leave was still pretty terrifying.

We talk about:

• Not being instantly delighted that you're pregnant
• 3am worries about going on maternity leave
• Having a bl**dy brilliant maternity leave cover
• Miscarriage
• How staying in touch with work can reduce anxiety about going back

Gemma started on air age 20 on stations around the Midlands and the North, before hanging up her headphones to pursue what she calls “a real job.” She was a national sales manager for a construction company for 6 years living in London with a stable job, a pension, maternity pay, but binned it off to chase the dream again when she was offered a job in Birmingham on the Free radio Breakfast show (for which she did her demo in Pat Sharp’s towel cupboard.) After a couple of years she made her move to Heart, where she did the breakfast show across the west midlands for 3 years before moving to Drive. That’s where she is today and where she was when she found she was having a (surprise) of a lock down baby.

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