Bracing for the Silence of an Empty Nest By Michelle Cruz Gonzales Feature As her son finishes high school and prepares to leave for college, Michelle Cruz Gonzales looks back on his early years as a pianist and anticipates a future without the sound of his playing filling the house.
Wonder Woman By Longreads Feature Of all the genes parents pass down and values they instill, how does one take hold so much stronger than the others?
Everything is Fine By Sara Fredman Feature Sara Fredman thinks about the voices in her life as she raises young children and reckons with her fading father.
Mothers of the Future By Thea Prieto Feature In a new memoir, Sophia Shalmiyev attempts to reunite with her missing mother through scraps, signs, and surrogates.
Labor Pains: A Reading List By Sara Benincasa Reading List No one ever said expelling a tiny human our of your body would be easy — or if they did, they shouldn’t have.
A Reading List to Celebrate World Breast Pumping Day By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Reading List Here’s a reading list to celebrate World Breast Pumping Day on January 27.
What He Left Behind By Kira Martin Feature Kira Martin struggles through her connection – both emotional and physical – with her troubled and destructive son.
The Indignities of Poverty, Compounded by the Requirement to Prove It By Longreads Feature In an excerpt from her debut memoir, Stephanie Land recalls being poor, and moving with her young daughter from a homeless shelter to transitional housing.
Motherhood: ‘Thank God I think I love it??’ By Krista Stevens Highlight “We are experts in our own lives, but ignored by the world at large.”
‘She changed my heart. And that changed my mind.’ By Krista Stevens Highlight “There was so much I could have given her, but it pales in comparison to what she gave me.”
Dress You Up in My Love By Doree Shafrir Feature Doree Shafrir reflects on how Halloween changed for her after struggling with infertility.
A Birth Plan for Dying By Hanna Neuschwander Feature Hanna Neuschwander grapples with ending a wanted pregnancy, and finds that “right” or “wrong” fail to describe the moral reckoning.
Mega-drought and Me By Zoe Fenson Feature As California gets drier, a woman entering her 30s reflects on PCOS, pregnancy, and her desire to have children.
An Introduction To Death By A.M. Homes Feature Raising a teenager of her own offers author A.M. Homes a glimpse into her mother’s experience of raising her.
The Slow Regard of a Difficult Past By Krista Stevens Highlight “In my family, love was the slow accumulation of moments in which I was not subjected to great harm.”
How to Stay Married After Your Baby is Born, or, I’m not Divorced Yet By Longreads Feature An excerpt of ‘Now My Heart is Full,’ Laura June’s memoir, about the challenges new parenthood placed on her and her husband — and their marriage.
A Frustrating Year of Reporting on Black Maternal Health By Danielle Jackson Feature Stories of women of color dying of childbirth have dominated headlines — but little has been done to change postpartum care.
The Painful Resilience of Hope By Michelle Weber Highlight How do you bring yourself to plan for a baby after three miscarriages in a row?
A Motherless Daughter, Mothering By Ashley Abramson Feature An unexpected pregnancy not long after her troubled mother’s passing forces Ashley Abramson to navigate a kind of dual citizenship she couldn’t have anticipated.
Walking Through the Past Into New Motherhood By Aaron Gilbreath Feature 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.
A Certain Kind of Mammal By Meaghan O'Connell Feature Meaghan O’Connell on the joy, the triumph, and the prison of breastfeeding.
The Cities in Me By Sorayya Khan Feature Novelist Sorayya Khan maps her path from Islamabad to Solvay.
A Muslim, a Christian, and a Baby Named “God” By Rachel Pieh Jones Feature Rachel Pieh Jones, a Christian American living in Djibouti, reflects on her friendship with a Muslim woman there, and the more universal aspects of faith.
Black Women’s Maternal Mortality Rates in the US are Staggeringly High By Danielle Jackson Highlight Shalon Irving was educated, insured, and well-supported by family and friends. She still became a casualty of missed opportunities and neglect by healthcare providers.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Monster By Michelle Weber Highlight Does art exist in the world of personality and petty grievance and predation, or does it float in a morally-neutral ether? Depends who you ask.
Mothering Is Not the Enemy of Creative Work By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Journalist Erika Hayasaki uses science to show how motherhood can improve creativity.
Twelve Truths About My Life With Bell’s Palsy By Pam Moore Feature After giving birth to her second child, half of Pam Moore’s face became paralyzed.
Between Mom and Stepmom By Sarah Menkedick Feature Sarah Menkedick reflects on the very different—and complementary—ways in which her mother and her stepmother have nurtured her.
The Wait: Is There Such a Thing as a Good Miscarriage? By Krista Stevens Highlight Jessica Grose recounts the agonizing waiting period after an inconclusive ultrasound, and considers whether there is such a thing as a good miscarriage.
