THE PARENT TRAP
When Emma became pregnant at 32, everything seemed perfect. She had spent her twenties having fun and following her passion, building the portfolio career she wanted as a musician. She’d married at 30. Now she felt ready for the next stage. Her pregnancy was a breeze – no sickness, no stress, no signs of what was to come – and her son was born on a warm spring afternoon (a water birth, no pain relief). But in less than a week, she became aware of a new reality.
“It was this horrible sense that I’d made a mistake,” Emma says. “Instead of feeling happy or in love, as I’d expected, I just felt awkward around him, and everything was such an effort. And this feeling didn’t go away. When I remember the baby phase – my husband working long days to make up for my lost income, most of my friends off enjoying their lives – my main memory is just the loneliness and the horrible, heavy sadness of it all.”
REALITY BITES
“I remember one day putting him in a baby carrier and walking
