WE CONCEIVE: A Comic by Rachel Masilamani
I am pregnant now, and it is amazing to feel my body growing and changing. As the weather gets warmer, I spot the other mothers-to-be around me. I want to squint into the future, and see what kind of mother I will be, and how the people I don’t know yet (my baby, his friends, and my friends) will shape the rest of our lives together. So many of us in the United States give birth in late August and early September. Does that mean that we will find more deep, supportive friends? How much influence does my timing have over the quality and depth of my baby-to-be’s friendships?
“We Conceive” is the fourth chapter in NON PARTUM, a story which will continue in serial installments on MUTHA. Read the first chapters here and here and here. Subscribe to MUTHA to get updates on future issues.
About the Author
Rachel Masilamani is a cartoonist and librarian in Pittsburgh. She teaches and lectures about reading, writing and drawing comics to groups of all ages. Rachel’s work has appeared in literary and comics anthologies online and in print, including The Indiana Review, Aster(ix), PEN International and the Los Angeles Review of Books. She is expanding her work here at Mutha Magazine into a graphic memoir about pregnancy and mothering her son.
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“The Lack of Support Never Ends”: Notes on Nicole Lynn Lewis’s PREGNANT GIRL: A STORY OF TEEN MOTHERHOOD, COLLEGE, AND CREATING A BETTER FUTURE FOR YOUNG FAMILIES (Beacon, 2021) →
Hi Rachel,
I read all of these comics and loved ’em! I had to look them up after you mentioned them in Labor and Delivery. You’re quite talented. I have been thinking about you, Bill, and little Malcolm and I hope that he is doing well and gets to come home soon or is already home!
Congrats!
Alison
Dear Alison – Malcolm just came home and is doing great, thanks to you and your colleagues! Before I went into labor, I thought it was something I needed to do on my own, but now I understand how much help and support it takes to give birth. We couldn’t have done it without you!
Love,
Rachel