My book – Life, Almost: Miscarriage, Misconceptions, and a Search for Answers from the Brink of Motherhood – is published on Thursday. I can hardly believe it. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about sharing it with the world (as I tried to express in my most recent newsletter). And yet, at […]
Tag: Mental health
Five things I’ve learnt in five years
It was my birthday this week. Dan surprised me with a trip away – staying in a hotel in Marbella old town that we’ve been to before and loved. The last time we were there was five years ago, just after my third miscarriage. Which made me realise that it’s also now been five years […]
Pregnancy after loss – a (gentle) survival guide
By the time you read this, it’ll have been more than a year since I was pregnant. This is only the second time this has been true in – what? – five years, now. The last time I could say it was when we took an extended break from trying to conceive after our fourth […]
Any day now
Will this be the week I give birth? Could it be tomorrow or later today, even? One way or the other, it will be this month, at least. Somehow, I still can’t wrap my head around the idea. My mum messaged me the other day, checking in, and said how this time last year I […]
Guest monologue: ‘I felt like a fraud’ – pregnancy after recurrent loss
A guest post by Cerys I had my first miscarriage in November 2017. An early private scan, just because we’re naturally cautious, showed at seven weeks that we had an embryo measuring just five. Going private (as the NHS won’t scan that early without specific reasons) made the experience so much worse: we didn’t know […]
Pregnant again: What I did (and didn’t do) differently
Let’s get something out of the way first, as I appreciate the post heading here is rather click-bait-y, this isn’t going to be a post that offers easy answers. Yes, I’m pregnant again, and, yes, we’ve made it to 22 weeks so far (and counting…every agonising day and tremulous kick). But there’s been no ‘a-ha!’ […]
On disappointment
Sometimes I wonder if everything that’s happened has changed my personality in some fundamental way. In particular, I’ve noticed that my reflex these days is to expect things to go wrong. Not just pregnancy related stuff, but all my stuff: work, home, life admin. All and any of my carefully laid plans. I will get […]
Guest monologue: A rainbow – and the clouds that linger
A guest post by Zoe (@motherof__pearl). In the darkness of night, I wake, sweating, my heart hammering. The room is silent. I try to place myself for a second, but my body is already in motion, leaning over, turning on the lamp, peering at his chest before my mind has caught up, watching for that […]
How to be sociable (when you really don’t feel like it)
I’ve got a piece in this month’s Red magazine about socialising – specifically, how to be sociable when you don’t feel like it. I’d pitched it after seeing one too many ‘I’m sorry I’m late, I didn’t want to come’ memes, thinking that it would be interesting to delve into why we’re all apparently so […]