Monday memo #8: Pregnancy
Each day The Browser recommends five or six of the best pieces of writing that we can find anywhere online. The more diverse the better.
The Monday Memo reverses that approach. It brings together four pieces of outstanding writing with a common theme.
This week: Pregnancy
If there is a particular theme that you would like us to address in a coming Memo, please reply to this email.
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Gravity (http://blog.longreads.com/2015/07/09/gravity)
Elizabeth Bachner | Longreads / Hip Mama | 9th July 2015
Diary of a pregnancy. "My daughter doesn’t have a father, or, she has two fathers, since I don’t know which man her father is. One of her fathers says it’s like Schrödinger’s cat in there — right now, both men are fathers of hers at the same time. But when I’m cut open, or when I’m emptied, when she comes out of the box, only one man will be her father, and the other won’t be anything. The other father says, It’s like a Dutch auction" (2,200 words)
The Babies In The Freezer (http://www.psmag.com/navigation/health-and-behavior/the-babies-in-the-freezer-neonaticide-pregnancy-denial-mental-illness-95639)
Nabeelah Jaffer | Pacific Standard | 8th December 2014
Can you carry a baby without knowing it? It's complicated. Mothers who kill their newborn babies "usually claim to have been in denial about their pregnancies". In cases of pregnancy denial "the enlarged stomach is often absent". A "surprising number of pregnant women" — about 1 in 2,500 — deny the pregnancy even to the point of birth. They "turn up at the hospital with labor pains that they describe as stomach cramp" (4,490 words)
I’m 41, Single And Pregnant (https://medium.com/theli-st-medium/im-41-single-and-pregnant-9b2da840a45a)
Rachel Sklar | Medium | 29th October 2014
"Sometimes, at 41, after lots of great relationships and some less-great relationships and optimistic plans to explore fertility treatments, girl gets unexpectedly knocked up. That’s what happened to me. I had a lovely summer romance, and got pregnant. The relationship ended, the pregnancy did not. I know how it looks: At 41, single and pregnant, I’m a sad, lonely outlier. But it’s 2014. I’m not" (1,490 words)
I’m Pregnant, So Why Can’t I Tell You? (https://medium.com/the-archipelago/im-pregnant-so-why-cant-i-tell-you-271659d03f36)
Abigail Rasminsky | The Archipelago | 15th October 2014
The hardest part of the first trimester is morning sickness. The next-hardest part is keeping it all a secret. And why? "From what I can gather, this code of silence is meant to protect you, the pregnant woman, from the (supposed) shame of reporting back to your community that this pregnancy is not to be". This is doubly wrong. There is no shame in a miscarriage; and in pregnancy you need the support of your friends (2,220 words)
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