Baby Chronicles: The Madness of Motherhood

Part I: The Madness of Motherhood

Pregnancy is not beautiful. It’s barbaric. Your body is host to an alien. Every part of you prioritizes another life.

You’re sick, you’re weak, you’re vulnerable. In some cases, you’re risking your own life. At the very least, you’re putting your core, pelvic floor, hair, breasts and vagina at risk.

Birth tears you open. It literally tears you apart. Postpartum and breastfeeding breaks you down. You’re now prioritizing another life that is outside of you, that needs your milk to survive. Your body and mind are traumatized. Screaming for recovery. But your time is not your own. You sleep when the baby sleeps, you eat and shower in the little windows you find.

And yet, this new life needs you, it wants you. It looks at you with adoration, it smiles at you when it can do nothing else. You are their world, and they don’t hide their love or vulnerability. And you will do anything for this child, again and again, because what does your own body or sleep matter in the face of this?

Becoming a mother doesn’t weaken you. It strengthens you. It teaches you patience, resilience, selflessness in a way that nothing else can. You are a better person because of it. And now you know you can do anything if you can do this.