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I wondered how long it took for a baby to become yours, for familiarity to set in. Maybe as long as it took a new car to lose that scent, or a brand-n...more

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There are legions of us, I realized. The mothers who have broken babies, and spend the rest of our lives wondering if we should have spared them. And ...more

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Annie turned away, her eyes glittering. 'Here's what no one tells you,' she said. 'When you deliver a fetus, you get a death certificate, but not a bi...more

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Was it the act of giving birth that made you a mother? Did you lose that label when you relinquished your child? If people were measured by their deed...more

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Maybe mothers - consciously or subconsciously - repelled their daughters in different ways.

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Motherhood is a Sisyphean task. You finish sewing one seam shut, and another rips open. I have come to believe that this life I'm wearing will never r...more

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I cannot admit this out loud. In the first place, we are expected to be supermoms these days, instead of admitting that we have flaws. It is tempting ...more

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I close my eyes, thinking that there is nothing like an embrace after an absence, nothing like fitting my face into the curve of his shoulder and fill...more

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I wonder if all mothers feel like this the moment they realize their daughters are growing up—as if it is impossible to believe that the laundry I onc...more

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In my previous life I was a civil attorney. At one point I truly believed that was what I wanted to be- but that was before I'd been handed a fistful ...more

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(24/7) once you sign on to be a mother, that's the only shift they offer.

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As Lacy waited for her turn to speak on Peter's behalf, she thought back to the first time she realized she could hate her own child.

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Sometimes when you pick up your child you can feel the map of your own bones beneath your hands, or smell the scent of your skin in the nape of his ne...more

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Being a mother gives you a singular sort of vision, a prism through which you can see your child with many different faces all at once. It is the reas...more

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When you're pregnant, you can think of nothing but having your own body to yourself again, yet after having given birth you realize that the biggest p...more