Brett Cooper

She writes, then we went home from the hospital and everything was a nightmare.

During the birth, I had had an incision that left me unable to move from the pain.

I breastfed my daughter, but I couldn't pick her up.

My husband had a month and a half of paternity leave, but the only helpful thing he did during that time was change her diapers, though he did it with a reluctant expression on his face.

I had the feeling he never believed how much pain I was in.

My mom helped, but she didn't like being disturbed at night and even during the day was afraid of holding the baby or changing her.

This mom says, I hallucinated from a lack of sleep.

It felt like I had been tricked into this.

Everyone who wanted me to have a child, my husband, my family, her mom, earlier in the story, she's saying my mom was encouraging me to have the baby, knew that they weren't going to lose much while my freedom and identity went down the toilet.

She goes on and she says, Again.

It seems very valid.

You get married.

You choose to have a baby with somebody.

He's not helping.

Your mom says, I want you to have a baby, and then doesn't want to help at night when the baby is up crying every 30 minutes.

You feel totally alone.

You're dealing with postpartum anxiety.

You feel like your baby is going to die at every moment, which a lot of mothers experience.

Those are real things.

That is the point I am trying to drive home here.