Motherhood Memoir

Jessica Moxham thought she was prepared for the experience of motherhood. Armed with advice from friends and family, parenting books and antenatal classes, she felt ready. But after giving birth, she found herself facing a different, more uncertain reality to the one she had expected. Her son, Ben, was fighting to stay alive. When Jessica could finally take him home from hospital, the challenges were far from over. In this hopeful memoir, Jessica shares her journey in raising Ben, whose life-altering disability means he will never be able to move or communicate without assistance.

Olivia Gordon decided to find out how, exactly, modern science saved her son’s life. Crossing medical memoir with popular science, The First Breath is an investigation into the pioneering fetal and neonatal care bringing a new generation into the world, who would not have lived if they had been born only a few decades ago.

Anne McTiernan begins her second memoir in 1982 at age 29, soon after completing her doctoral training in public health research at the University of Washington. She and her husband are now parents to 4-year-old and 3-month-old girls. Realizing that jobs in her field are scarce, especially for women, Anne decides the only option for their financial security is to become a medical doctor. Overcoming her fear and life-long struggle with inadequacy, she moves the family 3,000 miles to New York to begin medical school.

A heartfelt and funny collection of journals illuminating the joy, uncertainty, and complexity of modern motherhood. Journey with Anony Mom through her social awkwardness, failed romances, and cycle breaking, as she attempts to embrace her imperfections and murder her inner people-pleaser who just won't die.

From the beginning, we always wanted a family. We also knew we wanted to adopt. Life took us on a pretty crazy adventure to get from point A to point B. My story features infertility, adoption, and the many elements in-between. This is the story of how at 32 years of age, we not only gained victory over infertility, but found ourselves adopting a teenager out of the foster care system.

A memoir culminating in a manifesto, Holding the Baby sets out to understand why we still treat early parenthood as an individual slog rather than a shared cultural responsibility. Tracing her own journey to the nadir of sleeplessness via social retreat and murderous rage, Frizzell draws on the latest research to explore: What effect does parenting have on your career? How can we make childcare affordable and fit for purpose? If parenting is so hard, why does anyone ever do it more than once?

What happens when you find you have exceptional children? Do you panic? Put your head in the sand? Or risk everything and jump in headfirst? As mother to tennis champions Jamie and Andy Murray, Scottish national coach, coach of the Fed Cup and general all-round can-do woman of wonder, Judy Murray is the ultimate role model for believing in yourself and reaching out to ambition. As a parent, coach and leader, she is an inspiration who has revolutionised British tennis.

It should've been the happiest time of Lee Barnett's life. She was married to a man she loved and trusted, Harris Todd, and she was pregnant with her first child. But things quickly turned from dream to nightmare when Harris demanded a divorce. Rich, powerful and well-connected in their hometown of Charleston, USA, he was able to spin the court proceedings in his favour, leaving Lee emotionally and financially devastated. And then came the final blow: she lost custody of her beautiful daughter, Savanna, who was only 11 months old.

On a winter's day in 2002, a bottle shaped like a tear washed up on the English coast. It contained a letter written in French, a lock of hair, and a mystery. Only one thing could be known for certain – that the writer of the letter was a mother, grieving for her lost child, Maurice. Moved by the woman’s heartache, Karen Liebreich sets out on an epic journey to piece together the mother’s tale.

When Miranda Ward and her husband decided to have a baby, they were young and optimistic. But five years, three miscarriages and one ectopic pregnancy later, she is still dealing with the ongoing aftermath of that decision and the shadow it's cast over her relationship to her partner, her body and her future. In this searing, lyrical and radically honest memoir, Ward charts her journey through the uncertain landscape of almost-motherhood, asking questions of geography on the most intimate scale.

And while Snežana has become one of Australia's most popular influencers, her life isn't all glamour and Instagram photoshoots. After having two daughters, Willow and Charlie, with Sam, she was pregnant with her third when everything went terribly wrong. As soon as daughter Harper was born Snežana was urgently transferred to another hospital, seriously ill, her life in the balance. What makes Snežana beloved by so many Australians is that she is approachable and warm, but she doesn't sugarcoat the tough stuff. She makes the best of every day and in Untold, she inspires us all to do the same.

On her deathbed, Kate Greene's only concern was for her two little boys, Reef and Finn, and her loving husband, Singe. She knew she'd be leaving them behind very soon. Over her last few days, Kate created Mum's List. The couple talked and cried together as she wrote her thoughts and wishes down, trying to help the man she loved create the best life for their boys after she was gone. It wasn't the first time Singe and Kate had faced death. Four years earlier, doctors discovered a large lump in baby Reef 's abdomen.

When 13-year-old Elizabeth is diagnosed with a rare bone cancer, Faith is in awe of her courageous child, who faces her plight straight on and inspires all who meet her. Despite an army of medical professionals who provide innovative care for Elizabeth, she dies, and Faith and her surviving daughter, Olivia, are thrown into a maelstrom of grief. They find unexpected comfort in the arms of their family, friends, and community, but Faith faces another shock when she has her own cancer diagnosis, while navigating the uncharted waters of a life she never expected.

Through her signature candid, humorous and yet often biting takes, Jamilah Lemieux suffers no fools while also courageously revealing the scars of her own parenting journey and search for self-acceptance in a world that doesn’t see the full worth of women like her. With a particular verve and relatability—honed, in part, from her many years among “Black Twitter’s” most prominent voices—Lemieux puts the lived reality of Black single motherhood: uncertainty, fierceness, and sensuality on full display.

Winner of Child magazine's Book of the Year award for her hilarious and candid book on single motherhood, The Lunch-Box Chronicles, Marion Winik returns to the topic of parenting in these nine essays. Beginning with the story of her second wedding and her move to rural Pennsylvania, she covers everything from blending families and having a child in one's 40s to dealing with the legal problems of teenage boys to the evolution of the values of a family over generations.

As soon as she can, in the early years of the millennium, Noelle runs away. All the way to New Zealand. Yet, the demons of the past give chase and Noelle seems fated to throw away her future, just like her mother. Somehow, she gets out of the hole and makes a new life. But then Carol gets sick, and finally it's time to face the past and everything that's waiting back home.

Happiness begins with a charming courtship between hopelessly attracted opposites: Heather, a world-roaming California girl, and Brian, an intellectual, homebody writer, kind and slyly funny but loath to leave his Upper West Side studio. Their magical interlude ends, full stop, when Heather becomes pregnant - Brian is sure he loves her, only he doesn't want kids.

A map of motherhood, Milk is at once a gentle and meditative story of one woman’s experience of new motherhood as well as a confronting and often painful examination of the experience of having children in contemporary Ireland. Alice Kinsella is a young mother, giving birth to her son in her mid-twenties, adrift in a new town and navigating her newly accompanied life. A powerful and yet delicate mix of the personal and political, Milk is an unflinching and unique memoir that looks at the experience of motherhood against the backdrop of a seemingly changed Ireland.

Ericka Michelle’s IVF process has been a journey taking 4,718 days to reach the mission’s end. She had weight loss surgery, several fertility procedures, and one successful IVF attempt throughout this process. Divorced during her pregnancy, the new “single parent” was heartbreakingly lonely. However, Ericka’s supportive family and friends helped in her quest to start over again. Her fresh start included struggling to lose weight after childbirth and learning to date in the world of social media.

This is the story of an independent woman who is a model for our time—photographer Toby Molenaar. It begins in Holland during World War II, when her country is decimated by the occupying German army and she is literally left to starve. As a little girl, she learns to be self-sufficient—survival is the order of the day. Courage, indomitable spirit, an open mind, and accountability only to herself are the stuff of this fascinating and inspirational story.