“The camera was planted upside down and was sitting on a brown bookcase, hiding between books in my room. My thoughts began to race.”
‘What the heck?’ I was staring at a naked picture of myself on my father’s computer.’: Sexual assault survivor speaks out parental abuse, ‘I finally have power again’
‘Ten weeks. That’s when I found out I was having twins. 11 weeks, when I was guaranteed I wouldn’t be having twins. ‘Baby B is not going to make it. You’re putting Baby A in serious jeopardy.’
“They must’ve thought I was crazy. I didn’t cry. I didn’t even hardly react, other than to adamantly stick with my gut. I was pregnant with 2 LIVING babies. I sure as hell wasn’t going to just cut the cord because it sounded like a good idea.”
‘My fingers were numb, but I blamed the cold weather. I had feelings of rug burn across my legs. ‘Mommy, my chest feels funny.’ Those were the last words she would hear me say.’
“My mom held me and then boom! I was crying ‘mom’ as I hit the floor. I took her phone and typed, ‘Pull the plug.’ She cried and cried, and I remember her saying, ‘I’m not gonna let you die.’”
‘My kid’s school had a lockdown. I saw this on her arm. ‘In case the bad guy got to us and I got killed, you and daddy would know I love you.’: Mom shares daughter’s heartbreaking reaction to school lockdown
“I cried as I watched her innocence get stolen away. To know my 7-year-old was put in a position to think that thought is absolutely gut wrenching and it’s killing me inside.”
‘Been trying a little experiment for the last 2 weeks, putting breast milk on one side of my stomach. I can’t believe the difference!’
“I rub it into my tummy while nursing and lather it on so it’s almost dripping off. I let it air dry and just pull my shirt over after. I put it on every time I nurse.”
‘I was head over heels for a man with ‘a past.’ We were an on-and-off again couple, and I thought sex would fix what was broken. I gave in.’: Young ‘sterile’ woman gets pregnant with ‘wrong man’, re-discovers love
“This decision didn’t fix anything. Instead, it all came crashing down. When he moved and we agreed to no longer see each other, I found out I was pregnant. I was completely in shock. I was told I would not be able to have children naturally. But there I was, alone, scared, unwed, and pregnant.”
‘I’m trapped. I wonder how many times I can grimace when he touches my arm or roll away from him in bed before he quits trying altogether.’: Woman recounts her relationship struggles
“I don’t want to be touched. I don’t think about my fairy tales anymore; I just read them on repeat to my children. I’m in survival mode.”
‘I am SICKENED this phrase is on a lunch box.’: Mom urges ‘girls, you are beautiful, worthy, and whole beings’
“See this? This is a picture I snapped today of a little girl’s lunchbox I saw for sale. We wonder, ‘Why do our girls worry so much about their bodies so young?’ THIS. This is the reason why.”
‘I was crammed in a car with my girlfriends, driving to the hospital to support our best friend about to place her baby boy.’: Mom shares adoption journey, what she would have told younger self
“By the time we got to the hospital she had already delivered him. I remember walking in the room to see my beautiful friend laying there, a sheen of sweat still visible on her forehead, tired, solemn and more quiet than usual – and thinking she was the bravest, strongest, person I’d ever known.”
‘I don’t fit in. They don’t really want me there. I wonder why I wasn’t invited. I walk up to a circle of people and don’t know whether to force my way in or hang on the outside’: Woman’s realization on ‘fitting in’
“Circles are great if you’re on the inside. But circles can be awfully cruel if you’re left on the outskirts. They can be excluding. Exhausting. Cliquish. Childish. They are far, far too common.”