Sarah Menkedick writes that “[m]othering, radically defined, is the glad gifting of one’s talents, ideas, intellect, and creativity to the universe without recompense.” We refuse to allow obstetric violence to diminish that gift, the gladness with which it is given and the better world it will birth.… Read More Roses are Red
I’ll be honest: since I became a mom myself, I have found that Mother’s Day is not my fave. It stands as an annual reminder of how little has changed for mothers, and how they are still expected to hold up half the sky without support, taking comfort only in flowers and cards and burnt toast. Don’t get me wrong – I love being a mom. My children are the loves of my various lives. But I am acutely aware of all of the ways in which motherhood comes eas(ier) to me because of my privilege. And, in spite of that, it is still enormously difficult.… Read More The Choice
Maybe it’s the spirit of tough love tacitly encouraged by the BFHI. Maybe it’s the health system still recovering from the damage wrought by COVID-19. In this story, I saw a little bit of my own lonely, isolated moments of motherhood reflected. A combination of a system that assumes there is a singular way to teach mothers to feed their children, and a society that expects so much of mothers and asks that we bear the burden of tasks in private, in silence. … Read More Mother-Friendly
We deal in possible worlds, yes. But not to the complete exclusion of present worlds. What’s the point of forecasting a perfect future for mothers if you don’t acknowledge current imperfections?… Read More Odd Futures and Possible Worlds
A good mother, I think, can only be made when her life, her health and the enormous responsibility placed on her person is acknowledged. A good mother, with her life respected, her journey supported, and the freedom to choose motherhood every day.… Read More Pro-Choice
The rich tapestry conjured up by the term ‘star stuff’ is lost in the pieces, and along with it, the nuance and complexity that make this life worth living after all. As a mother – or a child becoming a woman with children – my saving grace has been finding spaces in which to explore the nuance without guilt or caveat. The rooms I am most comfortable in are the ones in which I can gather all of myself together and share it with other whole mothers. Other spaces – the ones that require me to show up as just my breastfeeding journey, or my birth story, or my unalloyed delight at every moment of my children’s existence – are deeply uncomfortable at best, downright hostile at most. But the hardest rooms are the ones in which I am alone with the contradictions of motherhood. … Read More An Edible Woman
My six-year-old, Sam, wants to know if it’s hard being a grown-up. Or rather, being a parent. He says being a kid is hard, with respect to having to do what your parents say. So, I imagine that he wonders about my end of this raw deal.… Read More The Long View
Listen. I like my comedy kooky. I firmly believe that the weirder the set-up, the smarter and funnier the punch line. I’ve long been a fan of Celeste Barber, an Australian comic who is famous for spoofing some of the more ridiculous expressions of glam culture. She shares most of these spoofs with her huge audience on Instagram and captions them #CelesteChallengeAccepted. … Read More The Guilty Pleasure of #CelesteChallengeAccepted
Behind every breastfeeding mother must be a village of support. Can we count on you?… Read More All I Want for World Breastfeeding Week…
They are so big. They forgive me all of it, cuddling up to me and squishing their little faces right up against mine.… Read More Bigger than my body
Rumbi Writes 
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