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childbirth

An anonymous woman diving into the water at night.
Posted inUncategorized

Final Girl, Terrible Place

by Lesley Finn July 5, 2022November 8, 2022

I was expecting a handy theory. What I found was a way of seeing that would help me decode a script I’d been stuck in for much of my life.

Posted inEssays & Criticism, Feature, Featured, Story

How to Survive a Vivisection

by Rachel Somerstein October 7, 2019January 20, 2023

After a traumatic experience with childbirth, Rachel Somerstein struggles to bond with her newborn daughter.

Posted inEssays & Criticism, Feature, Featured, Nonfiction, Story

After Three Children, Reclaiming My Body and My Mind

by Ukamaka Olisakwe September 11, 2019January 27, 2023

In the wake of childbirth and postpartum complications affecting her mental health and her marriage, Ukamaka Olisakwe picks herself up and starts over — in grad school.

Posted inEditor's Pick, Essays & Criticism, Featured, Nonfiction

In a World Full of Cruelty and Injustice, Becoming a Mother Anyway

by Eliza Margarita Bates July 26, 2019October 19, 2022

A visit to Auschwitz makes Eliza Margarita Bates only more determined to have a baby, despite her painful chronic illness.

Posted inEssays & Criticism, Feature, Featured, Nonfiction, Story

In a World Full of Cruelty and Injustice, Becoming a Mother Anyway

by Eliza Margarita Bates July 26, 2019October 19, 2022

A visit to Auschwitz makes Eliza Margarita Bates only more determined to have a baby, despite her painful chronic illness.

Posted inReading List, Unapologetic Women

Labor Pains: A Reading List

by Sara Benincasa January 28, 2019October 19, 2022

No one ever said expelling a tiny human our of your body would be easy — or if they did, they shouldn’t have.

Posted inEditor's Pick, Essays & Criticism, Featured, Nonfiction, Unapologetic Women

A Birth Plan for Dying

by Hanna Neuschwander September 28, 2018October 19, 2022

Hanna Neuschwander grapples with ending a wanted pregnancy, and finds that “right” or “wrong” fail to describe the moral reckoning.

Posted inEssays & Criticism, Featured, Nonfiction, Story, Unapologetic Women

A Birth Plan for Dying

by Hanna Neuschwander September 28, 2018October 19, 2022

Hanna Neuschwander grapples with ending a wanted pregnancy, and finds that “right” or “wrong” fail to describe the moral reckoning.

Posted inCurrent Events, Story

A Frustrating Year of Reporting on Black Maternal Health

by Danielle Jackson June 13, 2018October 19, 2022

Stories of women of color dying of childbirth have dominated headlines — but little has been done to change postpartum care.

Posted inNonfiction

Walking Through the Past Into New Motherhood

by Aaron Gilbreath April 27, 2018October 28, 2022

A new mother struggles to make sense of intergenerational trauma, biological memory and the guilty privilege of passing as white even though she is Jewish.

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