‘Expressing Motherhood’ Tells Motherhood Like It Is

New mums often complain nobody ever tells them the bad parts of pregnancy, childbirth and the 18+ years thereafter.

Instead, the freshly pregnant find out about things like meconium aspiration only after they’ve pushed out a baby who is quickly whisked away to the NICU.

Or that it’s completely within the realm of possibility that her beautiful new baby will incessantly cry for the first three months of its life.

Or that her beautiful new baby will someday develop a condition that not even the experts can identify.

Or that one day she may actually call her 8-year-old son an arsehole — and not feel all that bad about it.

But the performers in “Expressing Motherhood,”  are more than willing to disclose these and other details to anyone who will listen.

This performance of more than a dozen one-woman readings about motherhood, was conceived by two mums during their kids’ naptimes. The show is now on its third cast in Los Angeles, with a fourth cast to perform in September in New York City (including a one woman’s ode to her mini-van).

Not unlike the “Vagina Monologues,” the performers in “Expressing Motherhood” write and perform their own pieces based on their own lives.

Now, while I write about modern parenting life everyday here — and I also have some favourite parent blogs I read regularly — many of the stories these mums told caught me completely off-guard.

Watching it, I wound up in a controlled sob midway through one bit about how the disconnect between what we expected from motherhood and what came to be can sometimes make us do really pathetic things.

There was also a mum who took us through the few minutes she spent pulling enormous shards of glass from her daughter’s face while waiting for the ambulance to arrive. And one who talked about chopping up her placenta. Well, whatever floats your boat and all…

Check back at the website for more info – because expressing isn’t just for breastmilk!

Just imagine an Aussie version of the show…What personal experiences of motherhood would you share with the world to let everyone know what motherhood is really like?

Photo: Twitpic