Brett Cooper

Next mom, I married young at 22.

My husband couldn't wait to have a baby, but I told him I wanted to wait and enjoy our marriage.

Then in her late 20s, the baby plans went back into motion and fear hit me like a brick.

Did I know what I was getting into?

My mother, who had always wanted grandchildren, promised help.

That's the mother that didn't want to help at night and was too afraid to hold the baby, by the way.

Anyway, then third mom,

My husband and I met in middle school.

He was always interested in having a big family.

I told him I wasn't quite sure.

Unfortunately, it took me seeing a positive pregnancy test at 25 to realize that it was not for me.

Okay.

So what you have here are three women that in different varying degrees didn't actually want this life.

We're not sure.

We're not prepared.

We're not excited about the sacrifices that they and their bodies were going to be making.

And then at the tail end received very little support once they entered this period of their life.

And

All of this, it just pisses me off because rather than actually helping or trying to have a conversation about that, one side of our culture just shames them for those feelings.

And then the other one exploits them publicly in the media for their own agenda.