“We somehow survive on minimal sleep, and just when we reach the point where we think we can’t give any more, we do. We are teachers, healers, therapists, safe places, comforters, givers, lovers, and friends.”
‘We have our stomachs cut open before us. We spend weeks recovering while still caring for a totally dependent new life, bringing joy to the world.’: Mom says you are ‘powerful, strong, and brave’
‘There is no such thing as ‘my body before pregnancy’ and ‘my body after’ it’s simply, ‘my body.’: New mom discovers postpartum body ‘may look different now, but I haven’t changed bodies like an outfit’
“I was ignorant about how my life would be reshaped in the days and weeks to follow. Your emotions soar to new heights and dip to new lows. ‘Have we rushed into being parents? Our lives were so easy before our son – now look!’ You don’t know how it will be until you’re ‘in it.”
‘I got with my boyfriend in July. By November, I was pregnant. We had been ‘irresponsible.’ We dealt with it. I convinced myself I’d killed my baby. I couldn’t look at my daughter without crying.’
“The thing is, I also got pregnant many years before at age 24. It was the first time I’d had unprotected sex, and I had split up with the father. Having a termination was my only option. This has hugely troubled me the past 3 years, but I’m not ashamed to talk about it.”
‘She was born with her umbilical chord around her neck, her face blue from lack of oxygen. She came into the world feet first. She always goes about things her own way, birth was no exception.’
“I had no idea what was happening, but I knew my mom was behind a cold, closed door that I wasn’t allowed to go through. I wish I could’ve held her hand – she needed it.”
‘Nothing prepared me for my wife’s cesarean. NOTHING. Birth was the most frightening thing I’d ever seen.’: Husband praises ‘stoic, strong, powerful, dedicated’ wife for ‘bringing children into the world’
“Reaching from a gaping hole in my beautiful wife’s stomach was the head of a bloody, powder white, child-like creature. I recall Mel lying naked in front of the doctors; her stomach like a deflated balloon. But nothing shocked me as much as the next day. She was the most badass person I knew.”
‘He may leave the hospital with a baby, but not his wife. He needed to prepare himself.’: Woman survives traumatic birth after HELLP Syndrome diagnosis
“My husband and I arrived at the hospital and settled in to await the arrival of our baby boy. I had no idea that the very bed I was settling in would soon become my death bed. I became frantic. I told my husband to find help immediately. I felt like I was dying, and indeed, I was.”
‘The story of a girl, a baby and her first ever C-section’: Mom’s HILARIOUSLY CANDID, all-too-real birthing experience
“I get into the operating room and it’s got more people than an over-30’s nightclub. Everyone is introducing themselves and what they do, but I only paid attention to the person with the drugs, her name was Emma. (I think.)”
‘I was raped by my pastor and got pregnant. I looked at him like my father.’: Mother-daughter duo is determined to ‘inspire’ and ‘be grateful’ despite cerebral palsy, strokes, Crohn’s disease
“When I saw her, I realized she wasn’t his, she was mine. I knew I had to protect her, so my ex-husband stepped up to be her dad. We both knew my pastor would destroy her. I was also terrified of what he would do to me if I told anyone. She was born 2 months early with cerebral palsy. She was so pretty and helpless, and my body destroyed her. I knew I would do anything I could to give her the best head start possible.”
‘LOOK! PRINCESS!’ After visiting daughter in NICU, emotional mom thanks real-life prom princess in diner for helping family ‘forget all the troubles of the day’
“Thank you for restoring my faith in strangers… thank you for making my kids happy. And thank you to your prince charming for loaning you to us.”
‘This too is beautiful. This too is a miracle.’ Birth photographer empowers C-section moms to realize their births are not ‘diminished, reduced’
“I hope these photos are shared and embraced for all of us mothers who didn’t get the ‘ideal’ birth, who thought that our bodies were broken, who didn’t get to see our child take his or her first breath.”
