#mamas-too

#mamas-too

"[After] years of holding pain, you become really tight in yourself...you hold yourself tight and you don't want to take up space."

Sofii Lewis described her experience, stating, "I knew I wasn't safe. But I didn't think I was out of control." This highlights the confusion many face with postpartum psychosis.

Parents and grandparents of trans youth, plus their therapists and medical providers, are fed up after years of health care bans and hostile rhetoric. Those feelings are driving them to do things they've never done before - like plan to get arrested at a protest.

You're allowed to enjoy nice things. Both elements—the nice things and being allowed them—were equally important. She was a fervent believer in the restorative power of a treat, taking herself out for solo breakfasts most weeks (a bacon muffin and a cup of coffee in the cosseted calm of Bettys Tea Rooms), ordering chips at the slightest provocation, staying in chic hotels she had a pre-internet gift for ferreting out and being coaxed by department store salesladies into buying expensive unguents.

The viral trend - where people share Chinese lifestyle hacks, from wearing red for luck during Lunar New Year to banning outdoor shoes indoors - felt like watching the world embrace the culture I grew up with. Around the same time, another phrase was everywhere: "You met me at a very Chinese time in my life." The line went viral after Hong Kong-born stand-up comedian Jimmy O Yang posted a video of himself singing the well-known Chinese song "Yi Jian Mei" on Instagram in November, with those words splashed across the screen.

"I remember sitting in the ultrasound room," Mornhineway, 30, tells TODAY.com. "Our hearts dropped. They said there was nothing to be done. Most people terminate."

We'd been working together for years to make my medication regimen-treatment for schizoaffective disorder-safe for potential pregnancy. Under her care, I was tapering off an antidepressant known to cause respiratory distress and hypertension in a newborn. I'd been experiencing wild mood swings, even suicidal thoughts. My beloved doctor's eyes were sad. "I'm saying no to a pregnancy, Meg." Even in the moment, I understood her priority as a physician was to keep me safe. Still, part of me hated her.

It sounds like those friendships have ended. You've demoted the people with whom you went to high school (or they demoted themselves) to longtime acquaintances. I'm not making judgments here: It's clear they let you down, and you'd hoped for more from them-I'm not suggesting you not be hurt, or resentful that they're turning their attention to you now, when they need you.

Kids don't owe you gratitude for doing your job as a parent. You signed up for this. You chose to have them. Taking care of them isn't some favor you're doing-it's what you're supposed to do. The parents who get this stop keeping score. They stop waiting for recognition.

"The smartest women with the happiest relationships are the useless women," Dianna Lee begins in her video. "As you can probably tell, I'm a highly capable woman. I'm capable throughout all areas of my life, through my schooling days, to my career, and I attacked my marriage life in exactly the same way. I just executed. I was fast, efficient, and I knew exactly what needed to get done. And in retrospect, it was so wrong."

I wouldn't have to answer to anyone or for anything. Not requests for snacks or one more backrub. I wouldn't have to sit rigid, wondering if one of my three kids was creeping out of a bed that wasn't theirs. Or defend my parenting style while my oldest yelled about how life wasn't fair and we must all really hate him,