NOT QUITE TO PLAN

Motherhood is a challenge. A global pandemic is a challenge. A military coup is a challenge. All three together make for an extraordinary story. 

Yangon was Milla Chaplin Rae’s adopted home for six wonderful years; she met her husband there, had her baby there and even enjoyed waiting out the pandemic there. But on 1 February 2021, everything changed when Myanmar’s brutal military ousted the elected government, throwing the country into turmoil and the family’s plans to stay there into question. Only two months into motherhood, suddenly Milla wasn’t thinking about nappy changes and sleep patterns, she was wondering if it was safe to go outside. The family’s scramble to find an alternative life to the one they had built in Yangon takes them from Myanmar to India, via Ireland, Jersey and Australia. 

Told with honesty, humour and humility, Not Quite To Plan is the story of Milla’s first year as a mother - a year in which she was as reliant on her baby for emotional support as he was on her for survival.