Category: birth
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Should We Share Our Birthing Stories Online? Absolutely!
There has been a backlash recently against new mothers who share their birthing stories online. Some people don’t like this latest version of “oversharing” because they think it traumatizes pregnant women. Although, not as much as the birth… I hasten to quip. I have to admit that I always felt a bit cheated after the births…
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Rule No. 1 Of Feminism: Never Bleat About How Hard It Is To Have It All, When Fighting To Have It Al
It appears to be the fate of women in search of equality that we’re damned if we do and we’re damned if we don’t. And that’s why I loved Serena William’s honest proclamation in her speech after losing the Wimbledon final. “To all the mums out there, I was playing for you today,” she said.…
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I Must Thank My Son For His Mental Illness
The boy turned twenty-one last week, and while part of me wants to scream and holler with excitement, pride, and relief, the other part wants to sit in a corner, rocking and licking my wounds. Many of you will be familiar with our journey with Kurt, our son. It was one of the reasons I…
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Royal Baby #3
I like to think that I am a good person, but fundamentally, I must be a bitch, (as well as a hypocrite if you look at my last post about women supporting women), because I can’t help feeling a tad jealous about the way Kate squeezed out another heir, seemingly without a perfectly-coiffed, soft-curled hair out…
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A (Sort of) Birth Story For Easter
I’ve been caught up in between worlds these last few weeks – the worlds of back pain, Easter chocolate and that of my characters, as I put my final touches to my manuscript. I’m not the best multi-tasker, so I find it difficult to tackle other writing projects when I’m so invested in these four…
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Concessions for Women
Hats off to Fu Yuanhui, the twenty-year old swimmer, for mentioning the P word at the Olympics. And I’m not talking about the P in Phelps. When asked how she felt after her race, she responded with: “My period came last night and I’m really tired right now … but this isn’t an excuse, I…
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Farewell Dear Ovaries, You’ve Served Me Well
I went through this stage at the tail end of my forties where I had this recurring nightly dream that I was pregnant and something would always go wrong – not necessarily with the pregnancy, but either the old man would leave me, or the baby would turn out to be some animal or my…
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And The Oscar For Mother Of Worst Toddler/Toddler Of Worst Mother Goes to…
Those photos of poor Charlize Theron trying to deal with her son’s tantrum in the full glare of the media made me wince painfully the other day. In a kind of sentimental way, really, because we’ve all been there, and they weren’t much fun when you’re a nobody from suburbia, let alone a Hollywood celebrity…
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Everyone Needs A Token Baby Jesus At Christmas
I’ve got earache. The Princess was too mature to adorn the silly moustache. Obviously, mine is real! It’s either payback for jumping into the pool for that revitalising swim on Christmas Day, (sometime between dessert and cheese), to celebrate the end of a glorious lunch that finally made it to the table in spite of…
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Self-Doubt, Writing and Giving Birth To Book Babies
I’m nearing the end of the ‘book’ I’ve been writing, for what seems like the whole of the last century. I don’t really like to call it ‘a book’, because that sounds arrogant, and couldn’t be further from the truth of how I feel about my latest creation. This ‘book ‘of mine is, in reality,…
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The True Meaning of Charlotte: We Can Get Back To Our Lives Now
Princess 1 Taken by Chrissy and found on http://www.flickr.com Forgive my withering cynicism, for believe it or not, I am as clucky as the next person at the sight and smell of a cute newborn, but do we really have to dissect the origins of the name Charlotte from every historical angle for the next…
Louisa Simmonds 