surgery

Scoliosis is a disorder that causes a sideways curvature of the spine and often occurs during childhood growth spurts. I am now a bionic woman!

Being re-circumcised is not the same thing as the quick in-office procedure that happens to a newborn. Circumcision a surgery now.

"Cesarean birth is beautiful, powerful, strong, and brave."

Towards the end of last year, I sat in a plastic surgeon’s office discussing the excess skin that falls at my lower belly.

I feel equipped to talk about the intricacies of the body positivity movement; for with all its beauty and empowerment, there are aspects of body positivity that try to control how others view and treat their bodies. Though I understand the intention, behavior like this flies in the face of the ideals the movement is trying to create. Put simply: it's time we stop trying to police body positivity.

Our relationship has been a little complicated. I've loved you a lot, and I've loathed you at least that much, but mostly you've just gone unnoticed. Except for those 5 to 7 days every four weeks when you made your presence quite evident, what with the river of life blood and the random excruciating, and from what I can tell, unnecessary, contractions.

When you go through a difficult, traumatic, or transformative experience, there’s a part of you that wants to hold onto the person you were before it happened. You try so hard to hold onto a simpler time–a time when things weren’t so scary. But you can’t.

CN: mention of postpartum depression/suicidality. Generally, in my experience, people often get so excited about a new baby, that they forget that postpartum women need doting on, too.