“Birth is just the beginning of it…. Then the sleep
deprivation, and the sleep deprivation when your body is ripped to pieces and
you're still trying to heal. And you've got a small being that is entirely
reliant on you. And we live in a society where you're meant to pretend that
you're able to do that, and you're fine, and you're on top of it."—Actress
Keira Knightley, quoted in Emma Jacobs, “Fame. Tricky Thing to Navigate,” The Financial Times, Mar. 7-8, 2020
Childbirth alone, the actress says, is “what no man
can in any way physically understand, can comprehend in any physical way, or
emotional way, or hormonal way. And it's stories that we don't tell. Partly
because our storytellers are men.” Being a first-time mom, she concludes, is “difficult
and wonderful.”
Thanks to her—and the other mothers out there—for enduring
this “difficult and wonderful” process. Let’s hope that more of you will tell
your stories.
Oh, yes—and Happy Mother’s Day!
(The photo of Ms. Knightley was taken at the Anna Karenina World Premiere in London,
Sept. 4, 2012, by Paul Bird. The source is Ms. Knightley.)
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