Like a Mother: A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy

“Living in a world of wonky shirts and jeans and pants that don’t fit a new lower belly makes me feel defeated. My new body also stole all my heels. My new feet only fit my ugliest clunky work shoes and some sneakers. I’m trying to remember that it’s temporary.”

wonder why we need new mothers to look like we did before we had babies. Why we push ourselves to “get our bodies back.” My body will never go back to what it was; it’s made a person, traveled to another dimension, and given birth to another world. The journey has left more than a few marks. I want to embrace that.

Pregnancy brings about the birth of not one but two new beings. Mother is not a fixed identity; we are dynamic and grow along with our young. The

But we know that 80 percent of new mothers report a range of mood changes, and that as many as one in seven mothers will experience postpartum depression and/or anxiety.

“A whopping 6-plus percent of DNA [in a mother’s blood] in the third trimester can be fetal,”

Fetal cells have been found in breast tissue and breast milk, hinting that they could have a hand in increasing their own food supply.

She wondered if the fetal cells that interacted with a woman’s body during pregnancy might play a role in the development of autoimmune issues decades later.

The reality of microchimerism requires us to reconsider our concept of “self” entirely. We are never alone; we never have been.

Any time we were able to go out for dinner or drinks alone, we made a rule that we couldn’t talk about the baby.