Twinning: Playgroups Are A Life Line
‘Whoremom’ Is Raising Money For A Documentary About How Sex Workers Get Their Kids Taken Away
I Can’t Discipline My Stepchildren
Angelina Jolie Bravely Undergoes Double Mastectomy To Reduce Cancer Risk And Live A Long Life For Her Children
Two Men Raped Six Little Girls In China Because ‘Child Rape Isn’t Rape’
I’m Still Not Comfortable As A Mother
Next week is Labor Pains week here at Mommyish! A celebration of all things laborious — and sometimes painful about those early years in parenting. And we’d love to hear your labor stories! More
Truthfully, my kids are both good sleepers. (Except for when I announce that they’re good sleepers – then they’re up all night.) Sleeping through the night has never been an issue in my house; both girls could go a solid eight hours by the time they were seven weeks old. Getting our kids to sleep, however, was always a nightmare. (Pun intended.)
So, after two and a half years of “winging it” at bedtime and rocking our tired tots to sleep night after night – time that could have been better spent sipping wine and catching up with Dexter – we welcomed a sleep doula into our family. More
We at Mommyish are all about body acceptance and we definitely don’t have a problem with mothers being sexy. Personally, I loved being pregnant. It didn’t make me feel fat or gross, at least not until month eight. I might have snapped a couple pictures of my exposed bump, though they will never see the light of day.
And still, this pregnant bikini contest left us a little conflicted. On the one hand, rock on courageous ladies! These women look gorgeous and happy, bumps and all. On the other hand, it’s still a bikini contest with drunk guys in a tent leering at pregnant women.
We just don’t know which way to go. So we’re asking you, dear readers. What do you think of this Pregnant Bikini Contest? More
Natural childbirth has become a badge of honor for mothers who endure it. Celebrities everywhere tout their natural bonafides in every birth announcement. Miranda Kerr let the world know that she had to work to get that baby by announcing, “‘I gave birth to him naturally; without any pain medication and it was a long, arduous and difficult labour.” Kelly Preston not only refused drugs, she didn’t even speak. Gisele Bundchen famously irked mothers everywhere when she said that childbirth, “didn’t hurt in the slightest”. Even Jessica Alba proved to the world that she was one centered momma by saying, “I didn’t scream. It was really Zen. The labor was more like meditation.”
So does natural childbirth prove that you’re a better or more committed mother? Does it demonstrate just how willing you are to sacrifice your own comfort for your child’s? Or is it just an all-natural, all-organic, I’m-so-much-better-than-you way to prove your “Top Mama” status?
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Birth in film never fails to be exaggerated. Only a few movies come to mind when I consider an authentic depiction of labor, and while some representations are pretty frightening, others are completely comical. More
I was in active labor with my first child for roughly 40 hours. During that time, I never once wished for an epidural or worried that someone would try to force me into the operating room. I felt pain, but at no point did I lose faith in my body’s ability to do what it was designed to do. That’s the gift I got from HypnoBirthing. More
Having a child is usually a happy time in a woman’s life. Unfortunately, as we wait longer to have children, infertility and trouble conceiving can become a part of the family making process. Unbearable addresses these difficulties.
Listen, I can shop for baby clothes. I can help decorate a nursery. I’ll attend every shower your aunts, in-laws and best friends from college want to throw. I’ll talk about names and pre-schools. I’ll even tell you all about droopy vaginas, if you really want to know.
I’ve been pregnant before. I know all about the heartburn, nausea and achy boobs. I’ve completely been there on the swollen ankles. I remember sleepless nights because, “I JUST CAN’T GET COMFORTABLE!” I’m familiar with all of it, so you would think that I could discuss the pains of pregnancy like a normal human being. But I can’t. I’m really, really sorry. I just can’t.
I never paid much attention to my placenta. I mean, I’m sure it came out. I wasn’t paying a whole lot of attention. Little did I know, the placenta can be a big deal. That’s right, afterbirth is suddenly trendy. So here’s a few ideas of what to do with “the only disposable organ.” It’s not so disposable anymore. More
The birth of my first daughter involved an emergency c-section that, I’m not ashamed to report, I actually preferred over a vaginal delivery. That’s right, I willingly kissed my Jillian Michaels abs goodbye and “chose” major abdominal surgery over natural childbirth. My daughter was slow to arrive on the scene and the situation presented to me was this: I had a 50/50 chance that she could emerge the “natural” way or, you know, the other way (via c-section). The choice for me was a no-brainer.
It’s only when I share my birth story with other moms that I get the feeling I had somehow “cheated” myself out of a True Motherhood Experience simply because I wasn’t very good at bearing down on a yoga ball, or squatting in a kiddie pool surrounded by moon cake and mulled wine. More
Stop Faking It! How To Have Orgasmic Sex
Who Is This Newly 1-Year-Old Cutie?
Mother Forces 14-Year-Old Daughter To Get Pregnant
5 Lies I Told Myself Before I Had My First Baby
Parents Must Decide Whether To Let 17-Month-Old With Cancer Die
I’m not sure what’s worse: Packing your child up for her first day of school after Labor Day or packing up your bag for labor. Since I had a planned c-section, I had a lot of time to pack for my daughter’s birth. She was born almost eight years ago and all trips and vacations I’ve taken since, I can genuinely say I’ve packed lighter for the two of us than I did for those two days in the hospital.
Yeah, I remember packing Ann-Marie MacDonald’s The Way The Crow Flies, which, no kidding is, more than 800 pages long. What the heck had I been thinking? That I could somehow start, get into, let alone finish an 832-page novel around having a baby? I seriously didn’t know. More
“I’ll be right back,” I told my friend H. after returning home from my first walk since giving birth. “I just need to grab my vagina – I think I left it on Wychwood a couple of blocks away.” We fell over laughing. Because, as any woman who has given birth can attest, your post-baby vagina feels ridiculously heavy, like it’s dragging on the floor and about to detach from your body.
Sorry, I know it’s a gross visual, but so is pooping on the delivery table during childbirth – and moms are finally warning others that this actually happens. So, in the spirit of womanhood, we’ve rounded up the top five postpartum truisms that few people talk about (until now). More
But despite the various reasons I’ve heard for picking who exactly will be in the delivery room, the reasoning behind keeping husbands and partners out is often pretty ridiculous. Whether it’s a fear of no longer appearing “sexy” or of a tailing mother-in-law, none of them seem to have much in the way of legs.
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One miscarriage into my (sorry, our) quest for a child and I was a wreck. Well, aren’t we all? It’s not the sort of occasion one wants to commemorate, really. But my experience post-miscarriage turned out to be fairly bittersweet. Because once you start coming out with it – murmuring your news to friends, responding to relatives’ foot-in-mouth remarks – it becomes clear you’re not the only one who’s been there. Not by a long shot. More
Being in my 20s rocked. I lived alone, in downtown Toronto, in a small one-bedroom with a giant back deck (lots of good times on that back deck). I was just starting out in my career as a writer, and I was loving life. That’s around the time I met my now-husband. We sat at a College Street bar one night ’til 2 a.m. talking about family, work, music, all our hopes and dreams. It was all very sweet, and oh so cliched. No matter – I was exactly where I wanted to be.
Things got serious and I thought, “I’m going to marry this guy, and have babies with him. We’re going to live downtown, pursue our creative paths and travel wherever – whenever – with our brood.” Oh, to be young and naive! More
