Pregnancy is all too often treated simply as a gateway—something to get through on the road to the real event, the baby’s birth; not as a momentous, life-altering, and emotionally and physically treacherous event in and of itself. When I was 14 weeks pregnant, my husband and I flew halfway around the world to spend […]
Because of what we publish about ourselves online, we assume a level of comfort and familiarity that is not only potentially insulting, but misses the real point of connecting. The other day I posted a photo from my recent wedding on Facebook. Unlike many couples, whose 450 shots are plastered and tagged the day after the vows have […]
When a woman conceals the first trimester of pregnancy, who is she trying to protect? These days when I leave the house, I take the refrigerator with me. For a three-hour-long journey, I pack two peanut butter sandwiches, two yogurts, an apple, two oranges, crackers, water, and ginger ale. For a shorter trip — to the bank, […]
What I really wanted to write on the birth announcement was, “I love my daughter, but I miss my husband terribly. There is a hole in my heart where our twosome once was. What have we done?” The lie started with the birth announcement: “We are already very much in love.” This was the script; what we were […]
