I’ve been sitting with this title for a long time. No Country for Mothers.
Say it out loud. You already know it’s true.
American moms have asked ourselves for years why motherhood is so hard in this country. Why we’re exhausted. Why we’re blamed. Why nothing ever seems to change no matter how loud we get. So we did something about it.
We teamed up with @culturehousemedia and we made a film to find out.
No Country for Mothers is the documentary I wish existed before I became a mom. It’s the reckoning we deserve. And it’s finally here.
Watch the trailer, then comment MOTHERS below and I’ll send everything straight to your DMs. Screenings are coming to a city near you.
Let’s go. 🎬
From @culturehousemedia@momsfirstus@frenchtuckmedia , @bobbie
Director: @raeshem
Executive Producers: @reshmasaujani@djsinger@mols885@tanfrance Donna MacLetchie @nicgski@carritwigg
Producers: @cynabuni , @ashleyyorkhere
Cinematographer: @iseeflicks
Editor: @cjflee
But go on, keep blaming women for ruining the workplace. 🙃
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(Video: @aspenideas 2024 panel, ‘The Dilemma of Modern Parenting,’ hosted by @jennabhager )
When moms shared their stories with us, one theme kept coming up again and again: pumping.
Different jobs. Different states. Different bosses. Same story.
There’s a federal law now: the PUMP Act requires most employers to provide break time and a private, non-bathroom space. That’s real progress.
But a pumping room isn’t paid leave. If moms had the time they needed at home, they wouldn’t be scheduling their bodies around back-to-back meetings.
It’s past time for the system to catch up.
America keeps asking: why aren’t women having more children?
Almost no one asks: why have we made having a child so dangerous?
More than 2.3 million women of childbearing age live in maternity care deserts. Hospitals are cutting labor & delivery units. And in the South, Black mothers are dying at devastating rates from causes we know how to prevent.
We actually know how to fix this. Some states already are. Swipe to see the full picture. 👉
This post is based on today’s First Word — our newsletter breaking down the policies and realities shaping mothers’ lives. Subscribe at the link in bio.
Four years ago, I said maybe it’s time to flip the question.
Not what you can do for your country, but what your country should be doing for you.
Because here we are: still struggling to pay off student loan debt, still fighting for paid family leave and affordable childcare, and still fighting for autonomy over our own bodies.
Are you kidding me?
(Throwback to my @yale grad speech, 2022)
This Mother’s Day, we got a masterclass in how politicians use motherhood as a political identity — not a lived experience that deserves real investment.
And I have...thoughts. Comment “GOV” and I’ll send a deeper dive, straight to your DMs.
1 in 4 mothers in the U.S. return to work within 2 weeks of giving birth.
There’s no sugarcoating that. But there IS an opportunity hidden inside it: when you’re starting from a place this broken, you get to dream big.
So let’s not settle for 2 weeks, or 6, or even 12. Let’s reimagine what real parental leave looks like — paid leave and childcare support, together, as a baseline, not a benefit.
Voters are ready for this. Leaders and policymakers need to catch up.
In the meantime: our tool PaidLeave.ai helps parents navigate what they’re already entitled to, state by state.
We’re debating lifestyles in the comments while paid leave and childcare stay out of reach.
Thank you to @thestephanieramos and @abcnews for having me on to talk about @momsfirstus ’ new documentary @nocountryformothers , out June 2026.
It’s time to stop defending our choices and start fighting for them.
The mic drop heard around the CAKES Childcare Summit 🎤 A Mother’s Day reminder that mothers deserve more than praise — they deserve to be heard.
To learn more and take the #CAKESchildcaremovement visit /CAKESchildcaremovement
We asked the kids of Moms First what their moms do for work. The answers did not disappoint. 🥹
Happy Mother’s Day from the moms and mom allies of Moms First. 💌
