World Mental Health Day Matrescence Matters

post written by Ruby Thompson, Director of Baby Brain and Co-Artistic Director of The Herd.

This is the image used on the poster for Baby Brain. It's me and my baby when she was 3 months old.

It’s World Mental Health day on 10th October.

I’ve co-wrote and directed a show called Baby Brain that is being performed today in the Parks Family Hub in Hull.

There’ll be 20 babies and 20 of their parents in a small hall right about now watching a story about having a baby, growing a babies brain.

I hope the babies are fascinated, excited and entertained by the show. I hope the mothers are entertained too, but I also hope if they are experiencing some of the more complex things about becoming a mother, I hope they feel seen in the show and less alone in the watching.

It’s a story based on my own experience of my brain changing as I had a baby. I was shopping in Tesco 20 weeks pregnant when I had my first ever panic attack. What followed was 3 months of not being able to leave the house because of prenatal anxiety.

When my baby was born these symptoms didn’t go away. It wasn’t just a hormonal phase I felt forever changed by the experience.

5 years on and after the help of therapy and an understanding of the science of matrescence, I can reframe my experience as very understandable. I still have difficult periods but I’m more accepting with understanding and so they have less impact on my life.

Maternal brains rewire in pregnancy and the postnatal period. This rewiring is a superpower, capacity for empathy grows, ability to read your babies cues, and a hyper sensitivity to keep your baby safe.

However it also increases your fear response (I always thought my mum was daft for not being able to watch scary stuff on telly, I completely relate now), and temporarily reduces your grey matter in the short term making you more forgetful. In the long term I feel like I exist with a whole new compartment in my brain for my daughter. Returning to work felt very strange initially almost as if I had 2 brains in my head that I had to go between.

The above changes are not disorders they are a the effects of a healthy, changing brain, that happens to everyone in matrescence.

But this rewiring period also leaves maternal brains very vulnerable. If experiencing matrescence whilst going through a difficult life event for example, or past traumas can resurface, or conditions can come when there can be no clear ‘reason’. This rewiring can be a huge, complex, life changing thing to navigate.

Motherhood is also a process barraged with guilt. My struggles were not just in experiencing a panic disorder, but also in the accompanying shame for so long around it. I felt I was broken, that it was my fault for being weak, not a ‘good mum’ for having let myself experience it.

Now I understand so much more. I understand the inevitability of change in motherhood, and I understand that it is not under our control if mental health conditions come up.

I hope that people in watching our show Baby Brain people who may be experiencing these things can better understand this too.

Making the show has been a form of art therapy for me. In sharing my experience with other mums in the creative team who completely get it, and in sharing it with audiences and seeing mums moved by the story as they completely get it, I have felt validated. It’s a sort of gift to my former self. You were changed Ruby, not broken.

I came across an NSPCC programme for prenatal anxiety called Pregnancy in Mind and I wanted to share.

https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/services-children-families/pregnancy-in-mind

It’s about sharing the science and tools to understand what you might be experiencing.

And I’ll leave this blog post with the lyrics from one of the songs in Baby Brain written by Yssi Wombwell and Sam Caseley as I think it describes what I’m talking about best.

It’s changed in here

It’s changed in here

It’s changed in here

It’s changed in here

You made a shift

You formed a rift

A rift I tried to fix in here

I thought I’d broke

Could mend the fault

But there was something that I missed in here

There’s something new

There’s something new

That something new is me and you

There’s space for me

There’s space for you

We’ve been building something new

A million ways I feel like I have changed

And I’m not, broken

A million ways I’m not the same

But I’m not, I’m not broken

A million ways I feel like I have changed

And I’m not, broken

A million ways I’m not the same

But I’m not, I’m not broken

There’s space for me

There’s space for you

We’ve been building something new

There links to more suopport and resources on our Baby Brain webpage too

https://www.theherdtheatre.co.uk/babybrain

Support and inspiration from POETRY

We are delighted to announce our partnership with British fashion brand POETRY who are supporting our mission to make creativity and play a part of every child’s life. This partnership between The Herd and POETRY is also one of shared values around the preciousness and importance of natural materials.

The financial support from POETRY to The Herd will enable us to deliver around 50 days of play activity or theatre to families in the UK in a year. This partnership will extend our reach, bringing more opportunities for joy, connection, and imagination to families who need it most. This is huge for us at The Herd.

POETRY is driven by a desire to make clothing that is a positive choice for customers, people, partners and the planet. Long before sustainability became a mainstream concern, the brand embraced the philosophy of “buy once, buy best”, encouraging customers to invest in timeless, high-quality pieces rather than disposable trends. It uses only natural fabrics – including linen, silk, cashmere hemp and organic cotton – supporting the use of renewable resources and the growth of millions of plants. 

The company sends no waste to landfill and prioritises recycling. No clothing is ever discarded: returns are inspected and resold if suitable, repaired in-house where possible (2,493 items in 2024), and donated to charities. Surplus fabric is repurposed to ensure nothing goes to waste.

POETRY tote bags which have been made with surplus fabric.

POETRY donated props and fabrics from ex-display items in their London stores to our 2025 project REPLAY for Bradford City of Culture. These materials were repurposed for play in our installation made entirely out of waste and recycled materials. The project keeps going and is currently on in London until 12th April 2026. So far, we've have over 14,000 children and their families through the doors, getting joy out of these materials. After the installation, the materials will then feed into our wider play programme of weekly activities in Hull. When things are worn or broken beyond repair for play, they will be recycled.

POETRY has been working in this way since it was founded over 20 years ago. We're hugely inspired by this. REPLAY has changed everything for The Herd. When making art for children, it's impossible not to think about the future and about the moment when these children become adults. A moment that looks increasingly under threat because of the climate emergency. We don't want to scare, or burden children with a problem they played no part in causing, but we know that so much of children’s play provision - toys, soft play, technology - has no consideration for a world with finite resources. We don't want to be part of that, and we want environmental responsibility to be at the heart of what we’re doing.  We now ensure at least 80% of materials we use across all our projects and shows are recycled or from waste.

The Herd Theatre has won the Audience Impact and Innovation Award in Fantastic For Families Awards 2025

The Herd Theatre recognised by the national Family Arts Campaign for their outstanding contribution to family-friendly arts and culture in 2024-25.

The Herd Theatre are thrilled to share that they have won the Audience Impact & Innovation Award in the Fantastic for Families Awards 2025 for Counting Sheeps. These national awards celebrate outstanding opportunities created for families and older audiences to access creative opportunities and enhance wellbeing through arts and cultural activities. Award-winners were selected out of over 135 applications, initially shortlisted to 26 organisations from across the United Kingdom. Each of the shortlisted projects were recognised and celebrated by the Family Arts Campaign through sharing their Stories of Family Arts engagement, ahead of the winners being announced.

The Audience Impact & Innovation Award recognises the achievements of creative organisations or cultural event organisers who have demonstrated innovation and adaptability to reach and make a difference to families in need. The judges for this category were Zoe Dennington, Education Director at Open City, and Karla Barnacle Best, Lecturer at the Institute for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship, Goldsmiths, University of London.

The judges said: “We are delighted to recognise Counting Sheeps as this year’s winner. Its beautifully crafted, sensory-led performance was matched by an impressive co-production process and a truly innovative hyper-local audience development strategy; so successful that 40% of families returned to see the show again! It met every part of our award criteria with clarity, creativity and care.”

Anna Dever, Executive Director of Family Arts Campaign said: “The 2025 Fantastic for Families Awards have once again showcased the remarkable creativity, inclusivity, and dedication of organisations across the UK. This year’s winners stand out for their thoughtful, collaborative approaches and their commitment to ensuring everyone can experience the joy of the arts — co-creating imaginative, inclusive experiences that make a real difference in people’s lives. Congratulations to all our 2025 award winners!”

Ruby Thompson, Co-Artistic Director of The Herd says: “We are over the moon that Counting Sheeps has been recognised for its care for our audiences and for innovation in reaching babies, children and their families. Our priority is reaching children who don’t always have access to excellent artistic experiences. We know Hull doesn’t have long runs of shows like this at its theatres, or much opportunities for early years arts more widely. We spent a lot of time working with babies to make this show, and have a team of dedicated, incredible performers who really cared about the experience of every little one that came. A huge thanks to all the families that came to see it (and especially those that came back to see it again!)”

Fantastic For Families Awards are given by Family Arts Campaign, which is the largest national, cross-art form initiative to increase access to arts and culture for families of all ages. The Family Arts Campaign is funded by Arts Council England and is a National Portfolio Organisation within the national Let’s Create strategy.Visit www.familyarts.co.uk/awards-winners-2025 to find out more and see the full list of Fantastic For Families Awards winners.