Four Mothers

An Intimate Journey through the First Year of Parenthood in Four Countries

By: Abigail Leonard

Narrated by: Eleanor Caudill

In the tradition of Three Women and Hidden Valley Road, international reporter and radio producer Abigail Leonard's page-turning work blends reporting, research and history as it follows four women—Anna from Finland, Tsukasa from Japan, Sarah from the U.S., and Chelsea from Kenya—through the first year of motherhood.

Tsukasa in Japan grapples with memories of a difficult childhood as she tries to chart a new, healthier path for her own daughter while balancing onerous cultural expectations. Chelsea in Kenya endures a devastating loss just before she gives birth and finds that without the traditional support of previous generations, motherhood can be grueling – but it can also provide emotional healing. Anna in Finland navigates a complicated relationship with her child’s father, but the country’s robust family policies allow her to still pursue the kind of parenthood that she envisioned. Sarah in the US leaves the religious community that raised her in order to create a less traditional family of her own only to find she’s largely confronting motherhood alone.

Utterly moving and propulsively readable from page one, Leonard interweaves these stories with a critically researched exploration of how parental support programs evolved in each country—and why some provide more help than others. As nations around the world debate programs like paid leave, universal daycare, reproductive healthcare, and family tax incentives, Four Mothers offers a uniquely intimate, moving portrait of what those policies mean for parents on the ground—and considers what modern families really want.

Critic reviews

“With all the gifts of a novelist, reporter Abigail Leonard chronicles the lives of women around the world during their first year of motherhood, to make you feel their joy, their fear, their exhaustion, and their fierce love for their children. This is real motherhood on the page, bolstered by rigorous research to explain why our current systems have failed families and offer insights for a brighter future.”—Jo Piazza, bestselling author of How to Be Married

"Abigail Leonard's Four Mothers is the exquisitely reported and intensely readable story of how women from four corners of the world navigate early parenthood. Despite vastly different social systems and relationships, the strains and joys of motherhood are similar across cultures and familiar to anyone who is a parent. Leonard paints compelling portraits of each woman, her partner and her world, and I needed to know how everything would turn out. Once I started Four Mothers I could not put it down." —Darcy Lockman, author of All the Rage

An eye-opening look at the inequities of motherhood

This book was an eye-opening examination of the contrast between the supports provided for motherhood in four vastly different countries. Alternating between honest and intimate narratives about individuals and broader introductions to federal policy and social structures, it was a well-paced and engaging read. I highly recommend it.

Fantastic, inspiring, everyone should dread this book!

This book is a masterclass in purposeful nonfiction and will change anyone who reads it. It should be mandatory reading for anyone who is around kids or might have kids AND every single elected leader should be required to read it. Bravo, Abigail Leonard on such a gorgeous debut, I look forward to what’s next.

I’m blown away by this book, and want more!

I loved this book, it’s such a necessary, beautifully written, exploration of motherhood in different contexts. It helps situate where we are socially and culturally in America in a greater context, and why parenthood is actually really hard here and doesn’t need to be. If only we had real support for parents: universal paid family leave, third spaces for young families, and cultural norms of equality.