Any woman who has birthed a small human out of their body – and please note, this writer is not yet one of them – can tell you there’s a whole lot social media gets wrong about being a new mum.
Like the perfectly styled nurseries and colour coordinated matching outfits, or the home-cooked, perfectly balanced meals. Well, at least not for everyone.
Thankfully, the ABC’s new TV show, The Letdown gets it so right.
Set in Sydney, The Letdown follows the lives of several women who meet at a mothers group.
Sorry, parents group, as we’re reminded in the opening scenes.
Australian mums – and non-mums too – were hooked after the series’ first episode, seeing themselves in lead character, Audrey (Alison Bell), a new mum who feels like she’s failing at the one job she should be innately good at.
But it’s a particular moment of honesty in episode two that’s both helpful and empowering.
LISTEN: The Binge discusses why The Letdown is by no means a letdown (post continues after audio…)
After seeing a movies at a mum’s and bub’s midday session with Audrey and parents group characters, Barabara (played by the hilarious and talented Celeste Barber) and token stay-at-home dad Ruben (Leon Ford), Lucy Durack’s character Sophie realises she’s wet her pants in the cinema’s lobby.
It’s not the first time a woman who’s given birth has run into some trouble with incontinence. In fact, women have almost a 40 per cent chance of experiencing incontinence after having a baby.
But it is the first time we’ve seen the extremely common medical condition causing so many women to feel like their bodies are ‘broken’ or failing them shown on the telly. The decision to portray this on screen, as well as how the charters handle it, was brilliant.
In one three-minute scene, The Letdown managed to show what we already knew to be true - new mums are women first. Smart, funny, vulnerable women who, on occasion, need other women to hold them up, or lend them their shirt when they pee themselves.
So thank you, The Letdown, for making mums feel like they're not in this thing alone.
You can watch The Letdown on Wednesdays at 9:35pm on ABC, or catch up on ABC iView.
LISTEN: Catch the full episode of The Binge below...