Finding Us Again: Intimacy After Baby Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe intimacy and closeness after a baby, from mothers who gave birth, fathers, non-birth mothers and adoptive parents. The physical side is here: a second-degree tear, a forceps delivery, a C-section that left a numb patch, dryness and pain, leaking when laughing, endometriosis that did not settle, a thyroid problem nobody had spotted, and contraception that changed how one woman felt. So is the emotional side: lasting low mood in mothers and in a father, anxiety that kept one mother listening for the baby even in bed, a husband shaken after watching a hard birth, and old trauma stirred up by labour. The writers include a bus driver, a paramedic, an army wife whose husband missed the first five months, two dads through surrogacy, parents after thirty-one days in the neonatal unit and parents of twins, from Pune and Chennai, where in-laws shared the flat, to Kingston, Cairo and Killeen, Texas. They describe pelvic floor physiotherapy, counselling, sleeping in separate rooms, sex written into the calendar, a disastrous first date night, evening walks with the pram and ten minutes with a cup of tea. Some couples found their way back within months, others needed eighteen months or more, and one mother writes that refusing help nearly cost her her marriage.

Who it's for

For new and expecting parents of any family shape who feel distant from their partner since the baby came, and for the midwives, doctors and counsellors who want to hear what couples rarely say.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 279 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.