Child of Mine: Original Essays on Becoming a Mother

Child of Mine: Original Essays on Becoming a Mother by Kline, Christina Baker. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780385333023.

Child of Mine is a book of original essays that reveal the many faces of motherhood, and which explore the amazing variety of feelings and changes that women go through in the first year of maternity. The essays--by writers including Susan Cheever, Mona Simpson, Sarah Bird, Naomi Wolf, Meg Wolitzer, and many more--address a wide range of concerns, from changes in your marriage to delivery experiences to body image, to the mother/child bond, to ambivalence about breastfeeding. We see an African-American mother whos conflicted about hiring a Jamaican baby-sitter; we see an urban working mom whos delighted to be back to her job after maternity leave; we see a mothers nightmare journey through a year of her sons colic. And we see the adoption experience with all its ups and downs. Covering an amazing breadth of experience, readers will recognize themselves as they discover that other mothers have felt the same emotions, cried the same tears, thrilled to similar milestones, and suffered the same indignities and heartaches in that challenging first year of motherhood.