Holding the Baby: Milk, sweat and tears from the frontline of motherhood

Description

Part-memoir, part-manifesto, Holding the Baby is a hilarious and heartfelt account of the under-acknowledged post-partum period, and a rallying cry against the undermining and short-changing of new parents. 'There is a period of time during which a baby is utterly physically reliant on its parent or caregiver for survival. Some people call it the fourth trimester. Others call it a slice of pure hell. But of course, this period is not a trimester; it does not just last only three months. And it could be so much better...' Holding the Baby is for anyone who has felt dismissed, misunderstood or short-changed during the ill-defined and underacknowledged post-partum period. Tracing her own journey through social retreat, domestic incarceration and maternal guilt via murderous rage, Frizzell sets out to understand why we still treat early parenthood as an individual slog rather than a shared cultural responsibility. Drawing on the experience of others and the latest research, with wit and camaraderie Frizzell explores- What effect does parenting have on your career? Is health a private or public responsibility? How can we make childcare affordable and fit for purpose? If parenting is so hard, why does anyone ever do it more than once? Wildly reassuring and radically ambitious, Holding the Baby sheds light on the ways in which we fail new parents, and offers a rallying cry that we fight for a better alternative.

Nell Frizzell is a writer, journalist and Vogue columnist. She has written and worked for the Guardian, VICE, The Sunday Times, Elle, the BBC, the Observer, Grazia and The Independent among many others. Her first book, The Panic Years, was an exploration of bodies, babies and the big questions facing modern life. Her debut novel, Square One, painted a humorous picture of moving home, fathers and daughters and surviving heartbreak. She lives in Oxford, in a very small house full of pasta and bedding and bikes.