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“It has just been discovered that women carry fetal cells from all the babies they have carried. Crossing the defensive boundaries of our immune system and mixing with our own cells, the fetal cells circulate in the mother’s bloodstream for decades after each birth. The body does not tolerate foreign cells, which trigger illness and rejection. But a mother’s body incorporates into her own the cells of her children as if they recognize each other, belong to each other. This fantastic melding of two selves, mother and child, is called human microchimerism. My three children are carried in my bloodstream stillâ€�.

How did we not know this? How can this be a surprise?”
― Meredith Hall

“We must protect the girls," Mrs. Kroehne said. "You understand." I do understand. I am a contaminant and must be kept silent. It has been three months since my baby was born, three months since I walked away from my baby with milk dripping from my breasts. I will not say this to any of these young people during my time among them. I will construct careful lies and memorize them to explain myself, my dark inward life, my hunger for love, my tough resistance to trust.”
― Meredith Hall, Without a Map

“Critically, what if the ‘resurfacingâ€� of birth trauma is homeostatic in essence, a story told to be heard and not ignored as it was at birth, so that emotional stability may be restored to the psyche? How would such an understanding change the way we treat those who suffer from anxiety and depression? How would it change the way we treat all mental illness?”
― Antonella Gambotto-Burke, Apple: Sex, Drugs, Motherhood and the Recovery of the Feminine

“Mother: a humanoid thing blinded by bandages, nurturing breasts hidden, limbs restrained, tongue lolling from its slack mouth, and with no recognisable sweat signature.”
― Antonella Gambotto-Burke, Apple: Sex, Drugs, Motherhood and the Recovery of the Feminine

“To be honest, I’m still not okay with it.
To be honest, I still get really fucking angry about it.
To be honest, I struggle when I put my focus on that pinched skin. To be honest, I will always take a breath before I bare myself naked to a partner.
To be honest, I still struggle to run my fingers across it in the bathtub.”
― S.D.G.