An intimately honest memoir about motherhood that dares to ask, what happens when âwhat to expect when youâre expectingâ turns out to be months of rage, anguish, brain fog, and a total surrender of sex, career, and identity.
âThe kid was objectively a tiny worm, even worse, a worm with my nose.â Welcome to Sarah Hooverâs unflinching take on motherhood and its expectations in which the beatific narrative women have been fedâone of immediate connection to your child followed by a joyful path of maternal discoveryâturns out to be not quite true. In The Motherload, Hoover provides a candid, funny, and sobering look at the journey women undertake as expectant mothers and wives from the early days of pregnancy through labor and beyond.
Like most of us, Sarah Hoover grew up imagining a certain life for herselfâcareer, love, marriage, childrenâand when Hoover moved from Indiana to New York City to study art history, the life sheâd imagined began falling into place. She got her degree, landed a job in a gallery, made friends, and went on some exceptionally bad dates. She also met interesting artists, one of whom became her future husband (a whirlwind romance, theirs, exciting even with its imperfections). But when Hoover got pregnant, the life she imagined began to unravel.
She felt like an imposter in her own body. She grew distant from her friends and husband. She suffered from anxiety, fear, guilt, and shame. She also experienced trauma at the hands of one of her doctorsâa stark trigger. And eventually, when her son was born, there was no⊠joy. Instead, she felt âdisoriented, lonely, and like none of my clothes fit.â Why was she seeing and hearing things that werenât there? Why was she so angry and miserable when she had everything she thought she wanted? Why was the life sheâd built falling apart?
It took her months to discover that she was suffering from severe postpartum depression. And it took even longer to trace all the threads that came to inform her experience.
At its core, The Motherload is about learning to forgive yourself for not being what youâve been told you must be and for not loving the way youâve been told you should. Itâs about the uniquely female experience of constantly grappling with expectation versus reality, no matter your circumstance, and a rejection of the cultural idea of the mother as a perfect being. It is a moving, exciting, roller coaster ride, and a propulsive addition to the canon of womenâs literature.