The article reflects the author's discomfort with being called 'Mom' during pregnancy and after her daughter's birth. Instead of feeling endearing, being referred to as Mom felt dismissive and infantilizing. The author expresses a desire to maintain her individual identity, emphasizing her frustration with medical staff addressing her by the title rather than her name. This loss of identity post-birth further contributed to her crisis, as she grappled with her new responsibilities and felt reduced to just being a mom, losing aspects of her individuality in the process.
During pregnancy, people started referring to me as Mom. While some other pregnant women seemed to find this cute or sweet, I didn't.
I wanted them to look at my chart and call me by my first name. It seemed like just another thing about the experience that was centered on the baby.
After my daughter was born, I was suddenly no longer a writer, a reader, a wife... I was a mom, and my responsibility was to care for my daughter.
It felt like my identity as a person had been snatched away from me. And being called Mom instead of my name merely amplified that feeling.
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