"Last week, someone asked me, "Did you always want to be a mom?" My instinct was to say yes - but then I paused. Sitting on the floor with my 15-month-old daughter, I realized I'd never actually asked myself that question before. I'd always imagined what kind of mother I'd be, but not whether I wanted to become one. Motherhood, I would soon learn, has a way of undoing everything you think you know about yourself."
"When I gave birth to my daughter in January 2020, I expected exhaustion, maybe some tears, and the cliché "nap when the baby naps." What I didn't expect was the complete disorientation that came afterward - the fog, the bleeding, the body that no longer felt like mine. I had a healthy baby, a supportive husband, and a good job. On paper, everything was perfect. But inside, I felt broken."
A new mother experiences unexpected and profound disorientation after childbirth, confronting fog, bleeding, and a body that feels foreign despite a healthy baby, supportive partner, and stable job. Anticipated exhaustion and minor tears give way to feelings of being broken and unrecognizable in the mirror. Postpartum is framed as a messy rebirth rather than simple recovery. A reliance on control leads to returning to work email two days after birth as a way to feel competent; the attempt to stay connected masks a deeper fear of losing professional identity and relevance.
Read at Business Insider
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]