Back in November, just as most sensible people were gearing up for the Christmas onslaught of office parties, lunchtime mulled wine, and endless oh-go-on-then prosecco, I decided to stop drinking. I did 30 completely dry days to start with. Then gave myself a bit of leeway for a couple of parties and work events, but […]
There’s a meme that surfaces on social media in January: I can’t believe it’s been an entire year since I didn’t become a better person. Well, the new year is almost here and I can’t believe it’s been an entire year since I didn’t become a mother. Last January was, ironically, the first January in […]
A few pages into Trying, I had to close it and put it down. Not because it wasn’t good. It is. Really good, in fact. But it was painful, too. The flashes of recognition hit me with a force that was almost like being winded. I needed a second to catch my breath. As you […]
As some of you who follow me on Instagram will know, we had our first appointment at the recurrent miscarriage clinic a few weeks ago. And while it’s a bit of a blogger cliché to say ‘a lot of you have been asking: blah blah’, a few of you have been asking how it went. (Thank […]
Today is my mum’s birthday. So this is a little note for her. But you should read it too. Everything I think I know about motherhood comes my own brilliant mum. If I do ever get to follow in her footsteps, it is a pretty dazzling trail she has blazed for me. She is not […]
When it comes to fertility there a limited number of stories women are told, in the mainstream. The first and shoutiest is how you need to get cracking NOW before you’re 30/your ovaries shrivel to raisins. Invariably these stories originate with unhelpful fertility experts who just happen to be offering private fertility MOTs or egg-freezing […]
‘Clear your diaries, get the time booked off… I’m not sure how much news this really is, but anyway, it’s April.’ With these wry words the BBC’s Simon McCoy announced the due date of the Duchess of Cambridge’s third child. April. I took a deep breath. Why did it have to be April? My baby was supposed […]
Words matter. Words can hurt, but they can also heal. Back in August, the brilliant people at The Miscarriage Association launched an equally brilliant campaign on what to say when someone you know has a miscarriage. Everyone’s different, of course, but based on real-life experiences they’ve put together a list of what’s helpful to hear […]
The problem with miscarriage is that as well as being silent – i.e. no one really talks about it – it’s also invisible. Often there’s been no pregnancy announcement, there was no visible bump, no scan pictures, no ‘gender reveal’; no evidence at all, in fact, that there ever was a baby. And it’s hard […]
