Motherhood Memoir

When Deb Moerke and her husband decided to become foster parents, they never imagined how their lives would change. And never did they imagine their worst nightmare coming true: Their five-year-old foster daughter, Hannah, murdered at the hands of her birth mom, Karen. The Moerkes were overwhelmed with horror and grief. And just when they didn’t think they could bear any more, Deb received a phone call from Karen in prison. Facing a life sentence for Hannah’s murder, she was pregnant. And Karen had an incredible request: Would Deb take her unborn baby and love it as her own?

Motherhood treats one of the most consequential decisions of early adulthood - whether or not to have children - with the intelligence, wit and originality that have won Sheila Heti international acclaim. Having reached an age when most of her peers are asking themselves when they will become mothers, Heti’s narrator considers, with the same urgency, the question of whether she will do so at all. Over the course of several years, under the influence of her partner, her body, her family, mysticism and chance, Heti's narrator struggles to make a wise and meaningful choice.

Raw, candid and hilarious, Ellie Taylor's My Child and Other Mistakes is the funny truth about motherhood and all its grisly delights. My Child and Other Mistakes is the honest lowdown on Motherhood and all its grisly delights, asking the questions no one wants to admit to asking themselves - do...

In Motherhood, Marchiano draws from a deep well of Jungian analysis and symbolic research to present a collection of fairytales, myths, and fables that evoke the spiritual arc of raising a child from infancy through adulthood. Divided into three major segments similar to the stages of a hero's initiatory journey, (Descent, Sojourn, and Return), Motherhood charts how events like pregnancy, the calamities of childhood, and the empty-nest experience are all parts of an odyssey to which every mother receives an invitation.

‘Brilliant’ Jenni Murray ‘Liberating, intoxicating’ Zoe Williams ‘Why, after decades of social progress, is motherhood still so much harder than it needs to be?’ Before they become mothers, women are repeatedly reminded that their biological clock is ticking. Once pregnant, a...

An unflinchingly honest and disarmingly funny memoir from an exhausted mom who broke under the pressure to do it all, faced her past, found herself in the rubble, and then paved her way out by telling the truth—and learned to let go of perfection and just serve the dang chicken nuggets. "Libby...

Following on from the success of Your Baby, Your Birth, renowned birth and parenting Coach Hollie de Cruz applies her much-loved approach to the first year of motherhood. This empowering and thought-provoking book will guide you through the ever-changing landscape of your baby's first year, month by month, and will help you feel assured that you know your baby best.

Moving and immersive, and crafted with wisdom, disarming humour and raw honesty, The Unfamiliar casts a fresh eye on motherhood and challenges our assumptions about pregnancy, gender roles, queer identity and what it means to be a parent.

What if Augustine's Confessions had been written not by a man, but by a mother? How might her tales of desire, temptation, and transformation differ from his? In this memoir, Natalie Carnes describes giving birth to a daughter and beginning a story of conversion strikingly unlike Augustine's - even as his journey becomes a surprising companion to her own. The challenges Carnes recounts will be familiar to many parents. She wonders what and how much she should ask her daughter to suffer in resisting racism, patriarchy, and injustice. 

In the first six weeks after her son was born, Jamila Rizvi felt isolated, exhausted and frustrated - as if the world she knew had disappeared forever. Then her salvation came in the form of a letter. A dear friend - who had been there herself - wrote to tell her that she would get through this. That she was seen and supported. That she was not alone. Now Jamila wants to pay it forward to other new mothers.

'If there's any message I want people to take from this book, it is hope that, even in the hardest of times, life is worth living, one precious moment at a time.' Vicky Phelan When Vicky Phelan delivered an emotionally charged statement from the steps of the Four Courts in April 2018 - having...

Random House presents the audiobook edition of Mother Ship, written and read by Francesca Segal. ‘Heart-wrenching, heart-warming and heartfelt – Mother Ship is a beautifully crafted, warts-and-all love letter to our wonderful NHS’ Adam Kay, author of This is Going to Hurt ‘Our greatest...

In a frightening incident, Elsie's husband, Edward Travilla, narrowly survives an accidental shooting when friends tease son Edward, Jr. into firing a loaded pistol. The shot grazes Edward's head, and he survives with only minor damage. Soon life in the Travilla household returns to its calm routine.

In a world where women have more choices than ever, society nevertheless continues to exert the stigma and pressures of less enlightened times when it comes to childbirth, defining women by whether they embrace or reject motherhood, and whether they can have children or not. Dr Pragya Agarwal uses her own varied experiences and choices around motherhood to examine the broader societal and scientific factors that drive how we think and talk about this issue - including education, economic status, feminism, race and more.

Black women are at higher risk of developing postnatal depression but are the least likely to be identified as depressed. Sharing the voices of other mothers, Sandra examines how culture, racism, stigma and a lack of trust in services prevent women getting the help they need. Breaking open the conversation on motherhood, race, and mental health, she demands that Black women are listened to, believed and understood. 

Motherhood is beautiful, challenging, and downright exhausting. As a new mom, you’re navigating sleepless nights, endless questions, and moments of self-doubt. You’re giving your all—but who’s there to lift you up when you need it most? This book is here to do just that.

Inferno is the riveting memoir of a young mother who is separated from her newborn son and husband when she's involuntarily committed to a psychiatric ward in New Jersey after a harrowing bout of postpartum psychosis. This program is read by the author. When Catherine Cho and her husband set off...

What do you do when the person who was supposed to protect your child becomes the reason you must protect him from everything? This memoir is the true story of a mother navigating the unthinkable: grief layered with fear, love tested by silence, and years spent moving through courtrooms, hallways, and ordinary days while carrying a truth too heavy to speak aloud.

A searing portrait of a mother’s body—a resurrection and reclamation of pleasure after abuse, a study of intergenerational trauma, and a love letter to the bodies of women: as alive and unbound as the teeming Mississippi wilds that bear witness Four months postpartum with her second child...

Early motherhood is supposed to be joyous, but for Aaisha Alvi those early days were ruined by terrifying thoughts about her baby and family. Her experience was the antithesis of everything she had ever been told about motherhood, far beyond the trials of breastfeeding or putting her baby to sleep. Aaisha did recover and began to enjoy motherhood. She was thrilled when she fell pregnant again. Sadly, that pregnancy ended in a miscarriage, and the psychosis returned. This time, however, she was blindsided by the unimaginable: voices urged her to stab her daughter and to harm innocent people.