My cousin Rachel encountered complications as she sought to nurse her first child, Reid, in the fall of 2008. When she switched to formula, a close friend scorned her decision, suggesting that formula would turn Reid into a fat, lazy and sick child. This added an unnecessary layer of guilt
Read more →Moms who nurse their infants longer than six months experience greater financial setbacks than moms who nurse for less time, or not at all, according to new research. Tom Jacobs writes in the Pacific Standard: A study of 1,313 American women who gave birth between 1980 and
Read more →Shortly after my daughter’s arrival, I considered having another baby. Syma’s birth was so triumphant, I wanted to relive it. Nevermind 10 months of little or no access to some of my favorite foods and beverages. Or those last pregnant weeks of myriad aches and severely distorted sleeping positions. Even
Read more →My son Noah turned three today. We celebrated in the heart of Chicago, visiting the neighborhood where we lived when he was born. Our jaunt left me wistful. City life holds the secrets of my salad days, when life was relatively unfettered. Our Streeterville high-rise was a stone’s throw from
Read more →Some days I’m swallowed by a sea of diapers, dishes and laundry. When I wake and before slumbering, I pump extra breast milk, lulled by the pump’s monotonous whoosh-puff. Until my husband interrupts my stupor. He moos like a cow. The stale joke makes me bristle. I
Read more →Summer was in full-and-glorious bloom when last I wrote here. So was my belly, nearly 40 weeks full of my darling daughter. Nine days later, I gave birth. I settled into a self-imposed hiatus from writing, and suddenly it’s winter. Or so the calendar says. Most of North
Read more →As I ventured through my first pregnancy, everything was new, including the way people talked to me. Strangers, family and friends sometimes let their opinions fly, no matter how insensitive. I recently shared this with a nurse in my OB-GYN’s office, a woman with extended experience caring
Read more →The day we deliver our first child, we deliver a new self, as well. In an instant, our identity expands to include motherhood, from the mundane, everyday tasks to the long-term planning needed to raise another human being. But it will take us a lifetime to grow
Read more →Last week I toured the suburban Chicago hospital where my daughter will be born. It would be a breeze, I thought, approaching the tour as if I were on a fact-finding mission. First, examine the layouts of the labor and delivery and recovery areas, and then ask
Read more →In his book Writing for the Soul, Jerry B. Jenkins mentions a category of writers who write because they can’t not write. I’m one of them. If I’m not working on a writing project, my soul begins to fester. Writing is what drives me and helps me
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