Sharing holidays; Commonwealth sportswomen; Supporting mothers when children end up in care

Women who’ve had successive children taken into care are a small group with a range of complex problems. Poor outcomes for their children and the cost to society make it crucial to help them but they’re stuck in a cycle. In Hackney in London the Pause Project seeks to help women stop getting pregnant and losing their children again and again. To be eligible, women must use long-acting contraception and in return they get support from a key-worker, access to services and even days out. Jane Garvey meets Sophie Humphreys who developed the project after years of experience of taking children from their mothers. And, talks to a woman we’re calling Helen who is trying to turn her life around after having losing her four children because of her drug use and chaotic lifestyle. 

From shooting to judo, boxing to badminton, the Commonwealth Games will bring together an international array of elite competitors all going for gold in Glasgow. After Olympic success for top sportswomen for Team GB in 2012, who are the medal contenders from Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland this summer? Ahead of the opening of the Games, Jane Garvey talks to BBC sports correspondent Karthi Gnanasegaram about the women to watch.  

The history of Botany - the study of plants - is the focus of new Radio 4 series, in partnership with the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, to be broadcast over the summer. It chronicles the evolution of Botany, from Carl Linnaeus, to Beatrix Potter and the fight for botanists, men as well as women, to be taken seriously in their field of science. Prof Kathy Willis, Head of Science at RBG Kew, who presents the series, joins Jane to talk about this untold story.

'Plants: From Roots to Riches' is broadcast on Radio 4 weekdays at 1.45pm 

It seems like the perfect plan – going on holiday with another family. The children will have other children to play with. You’ll have proper time with your adult friends. In Lizzie Enfield’s new novel, Living with It, four couples who’ve been friends since university go on holiday to France with their children. One couple's baby daughter contracts the measles virus from another couples sixteen year old daughter. The baby is left profoundly deaf. Huge recriminations follow. This dramatic fictional example captures perfectly the consequences of different parenting styles in a holiday setting. Author Lizzie Enfield and Annalisa Barbieri who writes an advice column on parenting in the Guardian join Jane to discuss the pitfalls and pleasures of going on holiday with other families.

Living with It by Lizzie Enfield is published by Myriad Editions.