I had been taking Citalopram for ten years when I decided to take a break. At 18, I was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, a constant and persistent sense of worry about everyday things. I think of GAD as inchoate and needy, willing to attach itself to any normal set of circumstances regardless of whether there is actually a threat.
Postpartum depression is the moon landing, because even though you are like 99% sure people have walked around up there (I mean, we have dirt, right? Moon rocks? Why would science lie about this?), one day some person will come up to you and tell you that it's not real, which means that it never happened to anybody, least of all you.
Previously by Carly Lane. Growing up, I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t surrounded by birth. I’m rarely a latchkey kid who frequently comes home to an empty house at the end of a school day. My little sister and I make the trek home from the bus stop, let ourselves in, and ease our backpacks from our aching shoulders. Our mother greets us from wherever she was in the house, asks us about our…
I’ve always loved the sound of the words Fertile Delta. The liquidic sound of the vowels coupled with the l, the hard D of delta, Greek for change, speaks to the power of a seasonal, shape-shifting body. Fertile Crescent makes another lovely pair. Crescent, so soothing, this half-moon, this womanly way to describe the cradle of civilization. Fertile, crescent, cradle, delta. The opposite of these words: barren.
With grateful thanks to Toast reader Alicia for the idea. Chapter 1: Before You Conceive
Conditions Of Absolute Reality Remember To Use Stones • Stand By Yourself Against The Hills • Are You Walking Toward Something You Should Be Running Away From?
Chapter 2: Just What's Inside Of You?
God! Whose Hand Were You Holding? Strangers Have So Much To Be Afraid Of • A Pretty Sight, A Lady With A Book • She
Chickens are contained, caged, squished, bred, anti-biotic’d, fed other chickens. They put the word “processed” right on the package. Chickens are turned-out, rendered, butterflied, quartered, fileted and tendered. The genetic acrobatics it took to go from red guinea fowl from Peru to two legs and a breast in your KFC meal is a testament to the human capacity to transform the world to suit us. Chicken suits us all. It’s the number one meat cooked for dinner.
Aubrey Hirsch's previous Loco Parentis columns for The Butter can be found here. Look, it’s not rocket science. Pregnant people just want to be treated like people. But too often, I’ve found that my distended belly somehow signifies open season on body commentary and intrusive questions from strangers. With close friends and family members, I don’t mind talking about my pregnancy. But sometimes I just want to get in and out of the drug…
In the hospital, they give me what one of the nurses calls “flu in a bag.” The description fits. Magnesium sulfate, or mag, truly makes me feel awful. I’m seasick, and I can’t eat solid food, and my hospital room has no window, and my baby might be in danger. They give me the mag to stop my 14-week-early contractions, which it does, but they can’t keep me on it for more than a couple…
Aubrey Hirsch's previous Loco Parentis columns for The Butter can be found here. Let me start by explaining that I have a bit of an empathy problem. I have a lot of it. Way too much. When I was a little kid, my sister pretended that my favorite doll had a broken leg and I felt sick to my stomach for a week. Once a stuffed animal I won at a carnival flew out…
Previously: The Comment Section For Every Article Ever Written About Intimate Grooming and Tipping and Recipes. 1. I'm 36 weeks and ready to EXPLODE, I need self-induction tips. I've tried rough sex, pineapple, bumpy roads, walking, evening primrose oil, castor oil, eggplant, nipple stimulation, the Coffee Potty, reflexology and I spend four hours a day on my exercise ball. Ladies, help! 2. Who else is getting their boy circumcised? NO NEGATIVE COMMENTS PLS.
Previous installments of Feel the Burn can be found here. “Working Out in Your First Trimester” is here and "Working Out in Your Second Trimester" is here. I quit the gym today. I had planned to go until next Tuesday, when I'd be 36 weeks pregnant and ready to slide blissfully into holiday-related indolence and two different kinds of stuffing, but I knew yesterday that I was done. Or rather, I…
So you’re thinking about - or perhaps already planning on! - welcoming a new life into the world, but you’re not sure how a baby will fit into your novel. Well, dear reader, wonder no more.
1. Babies are an adorable and efficient way to make sure your relationship with your husband is running as smoothly as possible. Telling him you’re pregnant or taking your delicately conditioned self on a reckless horseback
Marissa Maciel's previous work for The Toast can be found here. One clue that you may be having emotional difficulties in your pregnancy is when you tell people “I’m pregnant,” and their first reaction is to say, “Oh, is that ok?” No matter how planned my second pregnancy had been (trying for months, taking prenatal vitamins in advance, storing hand-me-downs from our first child for years), whenever I told anyone I was pregnant, I…
