birth

We are already so hard on women, and women are so hard on themselves. We shouldn’t set them up to feel like any birth that ends in a healthy child is a failure.

"Cesarean birth is beautiful, powerful, strong, and brave."

What I was not prepared for was this. When it was time to give birth to the placenta, gross thing really, it just kind of flops out and they drop it into a bucket. Splat.

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The way we as a society discuss genitalia is already messed up and confusing. When the word “vagina” is used to mean everything from, well, “vagina” to “vulva” to “the entire female reproductive system — yes, even including the ovaries,” it’s no freaking wonder we don’t know how to talk about this stuff.

I was lucky enough to avoid a great deal of body negativity growing up.

In the final weeks of pregnancy with my second child, I went to a group appointment alongside other mothers-to-be and their partner

When my husband and I began trying to conceive, I was anxious about how my antidepressant medication would affect a pregnancy, especially after reading terrifying pseudo-scientific articles and judgmental, paranoid commentary lurking in The Seventh Circle of Hell known as mommy boards.