11 May 2021

As homage to this year’s Mother’s Day, Choppies Botswana hosted a webinar to address the journey including the challenges surrounding motherhood. 

The webinar, held under the theme:  Motherhood Shift, had a panel of six phenomenal women who discussed and engaged on their childhood experiences and how they affected their parenting skills, especially during the digital stage of social media.

Giving a background on what inspired the Mother’s Day webinar, senior marketing officer at Choppies, Ms Katlego Gaborone said the discussions would be helpful to every mother as it was expected to deliberate on issues that mothers went through every day.

She expressed that as part of the webinar discussions, Choppies supported the six panelists with P2 000 each to give back to the community through the charity organisations of their choice.

For her part, renowned poet now turned entrepreneur, Ms Keotshepile Motseonageng said the wellness and wellbeing of a woman after having a child was an issue that had to be addressed.

Berry Heart as she is popularly known said she experienced a bout of postpartum psychosis after giving birth to her son.

“I experienced the most difficult moments of my life after I gave birth. 

As an extrovert, I missed the simple and mundane tasks such as interacting with others, working, and even visiting the gym,” she said.

However, she said with the support of her partner and her aunt she was able to regain her normalcy. 

Ms Heart urged the need for counselling and support as post-partum depression was real and if not treated adequately would result in dire consequences for both the mother and the baby.

Mascom chief communications and public relations officer, Ms Tebogo Lebotse-Sebego expressed that motherhood was a construct of patriarchy as it placed the responsibility of child care more on mothers than fathers.

She said motherhood was an intense role that was unmatched while finding the balance between work and home life was important.

She said sacrifice to find the balance between one’s personal journey as a woman and accommodating motherhood while  striving to be the best was essential. 

“As such, I am very selfish about taking time out for myself now and then away from my children.

Society plays a limited role in how I raise my children,” Ms Lebotse-Sebego said.

Commenting on raising a child with special needs, Ms Peo Maine, who is a banker by profession and a young single mother of a daughter with Autism, said it was difficult in the beginning to accept that her child had a form of disability.  ends