This week, I have a guest post for you, written by Lyanne Nicholl, campaigner and author of the new book, Your Postnatal Body: A Top-to-Toe Guide to Caring For Yourself After Pregnancy and Birth (in which I make a small cameo, but don’t hold that against it…) Lyanne interviewed me for a section in the book that […]
A guest post by Katie @withoutottilie Me and my womb aren’t exactly the best of friends. I love being a woman. And yet the one physical organ that defines my womanhood, has caused me nothing but pain. Our difficult relationship started on 28th February 1989, my Mum’s birthday, when I was 11. I knew about periods because […]
A guest post by Carly (@just_another_miscarriage) Sex is everywhere. It’s the go-to storyline in TV dramas, it keeps a whole film industry ticking over, has a genre of books dedicated to it (erotic fiction anyone?), and is tightly woven into the song lyrics we hear on the radio. We’re aware of sex, to a lesser […]
As it’s Baby Loss Awareness Week, I’m going to be sharing a new guest post each day. Here is the first, by Hannah, about the significance of certain items of clothing after miscarriage… Ordinary things, like the clothes in our wardrobes can trigger so many memories. We’ve been taught that what we wear is important. You […]
Now that the schools have gone back, the café feels like neutral territory again. She reclaims her usual spot in the corner, takes out her book, waits for her coffee. In the holidays, it gets too loud for her here; the presence of everyone else’s children oppresses, the noise and sudden movements of so many […]
‘Isn’t she beautiful?’ the advert asks. The subject of its question smiles out at me. Luminously lit in black bra and leggings, she holds her tiny baby close to her face, hands circled firmly around its back, as one pudgy leg dandles down, nudging the soft camber of her stomach, which is rippled with purple […]
And just like that, the due date for pregnancy number three has passed. In my head this was a big milestone. That somehow once it was behind us it would feel like freedom. Release. A neat conclusion to this over-long, unhappy chapter. The end. Fin. But, of course, there is no finish line to this […]
I’m not pregnant, as you know. And we’ve decided not to try again until we’ve been seen at the recurrent miscarriage clinic. This is a bit of a departure from the previous losses. For me the need to be pregnant after my first two miscarriages was over-whelming; all-consuming. I just felt hollow. Literally gutted. And […]
I thought I’d write about something that I’ve not seen given much airtime – even in pieces about pregnancy loss – and that’s body image after miscarriage. Perhaps it’s simply too shallow for words, and that’s why it’s not really mentioned, but it’s definitely been a thing for me, and if that makes me shallow, […]
The Uterus Monologues: Miscarriage, motherhood and me 