‘I regret so much. Not following my mommy instinct. I did my 40-minute walk on the treadmill, hoping it would wake you up.’: Mother writes letter to baby born sleeping, ‘I’m sorry I couldn’t save you’

“The first words out of my mouth as my body flooded with oxytocin were, ‘You are so cute.’ You were perfect, big lips, small button nose, the cutest most perfect feet I have ever seen. I said out loud to your dad multiple times that you just were so quiet in there, and I hoped you were okay. I’m so sorry I couldn’t save you. Looking at you, finally, was the most magical moment.”

‘Wait, you’re not kidding? 30 seconds ago, our life was perfect.’ I suddenly needed him in my arms.’: Mom to son with Down syndrome says ‘you’re not the baby I thought you were, but you’re still MY baby’

“We were on cloud nine: our baby was here, he seemed to be in perfect health. I remember hugging him, saying, ‘Welcome to our family! I’m so happy to finally meet you!’ I commented on his nose and ears, but again, no red flags. Babies fresh from the womb all look like aliens anyway. His face suddenly looked completely different. I remember thinking, ‘This is not your fault.’ From the first moment I met him, he’s been whispering to me, ‘It’s okay, Mom. There’s nothing to be afraid of.'”

‘Things will droop. Little people are watching. The physical features you once hated now define you. Embrace them.’: Mom shares candid lessons on ‘self-love’ learned in her 30s

“People will try to cheapen your self-love with promises of the perfect glow, hair color, or skin tone. Don’t chase the elusive rabbit. Aim for healthy, and you will land on confidence. Little people are now watching. Show them a woman doesn’t have to run herself into the ground to be loved. The woman inside only needs you to love her. No man will make her come alive.”

‘This is it! I’m not going to make it. He’s going be raising our baby alone.’ I said goodbye to husband for the very last time.’: Mom survives preeclampsia and HELLP syndrome, delivers micropreemie who defies odds, ‘She is a sassy fighter’

“A nurse held my hand and whispered a prayer in my ear. That’s the last thing I remember before falling asleep. When I opened my eyes, I was alone. I tried to lift my hands and feet but couldn’t – I was tied to the bed. I began to panic. I couldn’t rest until I laid eyes on my little miracle. She was kicking, flailing her arms. I touched her finger and she grabbed my finger with all her might. It was then I knew, not only would she, but WE, would be just fine.”

‘I mouthed, ‘I can breathe.’ Dark voices started whispering inside my head. ‘I am scared to be a mother.’: Young woman survives near-fatal wreck, beats all odds, ‘My journey isn’t over but I’m starting to feel like ME again’

“I was in a medically induced coma for 17 days. I awakened to some very dark news. The doctors said, ‘You will probably never move more than 2 fingers.’ I am hearing this, but I can’t respond. I could not talk. I wondered why I was still alive. Prior to the wreck, I had long thick hair. They started washing it. Nurses were pulling out glass and other debris. I begged them not to cut it, as it was all I had left of my previous self.”

‘But do you love them as much as your biological children?’ They’re African-American, I’m Italian. My love for them is like no other.’: Couple adopts 5 children from foster care, ‘I wouldn’t have it any other way!’

“We took them in just for the weekend, but quickly fell in love. The longing to birth my own children simply went away. The love I felt for them was so strong. The social worker took us for a wild ride. She gave us an ultimatum. ‘If you don’t take the youngest sister back, I will take all 3 girls and place them in another home.'”

‘My daughter took her final breath. I felt a sudden surge of energy rush into my body. I carried her downstairs to the gurney.’: Grieving father recalls ‘hardest thing’ he’s ever done, ‘Sophia needed her Daddy one last time’

“When the funeral coordinator arrived, I gently picked Sophia up one last time. I carried her down the stairs to the gurney waiting for her. I made sure she was carefully secure as she was loaded into the van to the funeral home. I was lucky to be her daddy. I still have not grieved from watching my beautiful sweet girl die. I write her name in the shower on the glass with a big heart every day. It’s my way of remembering her.”

‘Are you experiencing any stress?’ I hadn’t had a menstrual cycle since I was 15. My husband had testicular cancer when he was 21.’: Mom battles preeclampsia while birthing first set of twins, ‘We need to deliver immediately’

“While I was at the gym, I felt a sudden gush. At first, I thought it was water, but I looked down and saw blood. I panicked, fearing the worst. Everything seemed better. I woke up in the middle of the night not feeling well and went into the bathroom. There was blood everywhere – it looked like a murder scene. Miraculously the babies were fine. I noticed my legs were severely swollen and I had a bad headache. My husband took one look at my ‘cankles’ and said, ‘We need to call the doctor, NOW.”

‘We were miserable. We argued every night. The tension was terrible. And then it was Christmas break. I honestly was nervous.’: Wife realizes being together ‘all day’ was ‘exactly’ what she and husband needed

“My husband and I were literally at each other’s throats. I was struggling with feeling like a single mom because he was so busy with his job. He tried in his own way. I should have voiced things more so he knew how to help me, and I didn’t. I just expected him to know. That wasn’t fair to him.”

‘As our boys stood at the finish line, we saw something ignite inside them. They began jumping up and down!’: Mom finds ‘magical’ hobby for autistic twins after 15 years of searching

“My boys are twins and both severely autistic. They can’t have a job, make friends, or drive a car. But we noticed early on that they had a special gift: running. My husband and I thought, ‘Why are we standing on the sidelines watching them? We want to do this, too!’ Their excitement was contagious.”

‘I promised I’d never divorce him. I was an Evangelical Christian woman. I wasn’t about to give that up because my disturbed husband couldn’t stop screaming at me.’: Woman leaves her abusive pastor husband after 10 years, ‘I never looked back’

“I hid big, dark, angry, broken feelings from the world. If I acknowledged their legitimacy, that meant I had to acknowledge that my husband–the megachurch pastor–was my abuser. And I was his victim. No, thanks! I’d much prefer to pretend everything is fine and our family is blessed.”

‘48 years old, weeks shy of our 25th wedding anniversary, I’m expecting a baby.’: Woman shocked by successful IVF after being diagnosed with unexplained infertility, ‘I can hardly believe it’

“A long, lost friend sent us a beautiful Christmas card. She had given birth to twins. I didn’t even know it was possible at our age. ‘My oldest daughter just started college,’ I told her. Yet, I couldn’t stop thinking about the possibilities. The doctor told me all of the egg donors would be Taiwanese. There was a lot of red tape to endure. Cautiously, I walked out the door. I was so fearful the embryos might fall out of me. I didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize this.”

‘Out comes Cathy. ‘I would never give a child an iPad. That’s just lazy parenting,’ she said, loud enough so I could hear.’: Mom explains ‘the world is very different now’ when raising children with technology

“I went to open my mouth to tell her exactly how I am not a lazy parent and she can piss off, but instead, I smiled. ‘Why do you think it’s lazy?’ Shocked, she replied, ‘Well instead of actually doing things, parents don’t have to parent – they just give them mind numbing devices. Children grow up not normal,’ she said, ever so smugly.”

‘It’s best not to run anymore.’ And just like that, I gave up another piece of me. You bet I’d do it a thousand times over.’: Woman pens appreciation letter for the unseen sacrifices of motherhood

“I’ve said goodbye to perky boobs and stretch mark-free legs. But THIS. It’s one of MY things. We all have them. The little pieces of ourselves we give away so passively when the world isn’t looking. We talk about the big things we give up—our careers, the way our bodies look. But we also give up what make us US. Tonight, I mourn the loss of something I wanted in my life, in exchange for something I want much more.”

‘My mom said I was ‘ballooning.’ I was in 4th grade. She’d implement some new weird food rule for my ‘health.’: Woman is ‘blown away’ by body positive community, ‘I learned to love myself’

“Maybe my mom thought I wasn’t smart enough to hear what she was really saying: ‘My daughter is broken, how do I fix her?’ I was working out. I was doing everything right, wasn’t I? ‘Why am I still fat?,’ I asked myself. I was 10. Eating 500 calories a day, no cheating. But it was there, in that despair, that my life started to change. I came across a plus-size woman’s account and was… blown away.”

‘I got a message on Facebook from our local fire chief. ‘You need to call us immediately.’ My heart stopped.’: Community rallies to help couple after shop destroyed by reckless driver

“‘He was going 90 mph. He hit the trailer, the shed, and drove through the entirety of the 40-foot building, and landed on your desk before fleeing.’ I shivered. If I wasn’t on vacation, I would have been right there, in that spot. ‘How can we survive this catastrophe?’ Soon, a couple stopped us. ‘We’re getting older. We’d like to give you something for free.’ I stopped. My breath hitched. I took a few moments to repeat the words in my head.”

‘Liza, stop crying.’ He headbutted me. I thought our unborn child would make him stop.’: Woman fights for justice from domestic abuser, ‘I will be the last girl he lays his hands on’

“He kept telling me how beautiful I was and how any man would be lucky to have me. I began hearing the rumors from a few people about the girls he’d been with. ‘This isn’t true,’ I kept telling myself. I barely recognized him anymore. I told him, ‘It’s better if we just stay friends.’ He grabbed my head and slammed it into a car window. I prayed to God to keep me safe. I didn’t want to leave my daughter alone. Within 3 weeks, I found out I was pregnant.”

‘Your chest looks so flat. What have you done to yourself?’: Young woman battles with weight, self-esteem after abuse, now uses her voice to protect women

“During 5th grade, at my father’s office party in some big hotel, I went upstairs to play hide and seek. A completely drunk stranger started following us. When the rest of the group hid behind the sofa, the man pinned me down. After he was done, I ran downstairs to my parents. We were all crying and pointing upstairs. All the adults searched for the man, but he had left the premises. I packed more than 33 pounds. They would warn their kids, ‘Stop eating. Do you want to look like her?’”

‘I remember feeling venom shoot through me. I fell into a deep, incoherent state as my veins pulsated into my head.’: Woman celebrates 6 years of sobriety after heroin addiction

“I had 4 children, 3 triplets. Truthfully, none of them were planned. The chaos I created was unraveling at the seams. I was leaving a women’s prison to live in a homeless shelter because not a single person wanted me paroled to their home. If I felt I didn’t belong, I’d draw a line of cocaine. As the need for the next high got more severe, so did the consequences. I wanted the heroin to remove the dirty feeling on my skin.”

‘Look, she’s eating something!’ I hear the whisper. I feel the cold gnawing at the bottom of my stomach. I hate it and I love it.’: After 12 years battling anorexia, ED survivor learns to accept new plus-size body

“My brother makes me a sandwich when he sees I didn’t eat lunch. My bones poke up under my skin. ‘Please eat it,’ he begs. ‘You need to eat.’ It is so sweet of him, so I eat a few bites. But when he leaves, I give the rest to the dogs. They leave no evidence. Nothing in the trash for my dad to find when he empties it, nothing to clog the toilet. I have become clever in the ways of secret self-destruction.”

‘Poor kid, having to pretend two ‘apes’ are family.’ They say we are mixing pure and dirty blood.’: Woman’s second marriage to black man makes her learn ‘people don’t understand the value of love over skin color’

“Women have approached my son at the park with my husband and said, ‘Honey, where is your mommy? Do you know him? Do you need me to help you find your mommy?’ He’s assumed to be a criminal while I’m always viewed as the saint, a woman who adopted black children out of the goodness of her heart.”