Jarrett Ziemer

Nov 1, 2024 | terrain.org | Jennifer Case |Jarrett Ziemer

Four days before my daughter is born, I am at the ob-gyn clinic for a usual, now weekly exam. The nurse straps the blood pressure cuff around my forearm. I breathe slowly, in and out, breathing in calmness, even though I can already see the nurse’s frown out of the corner of my eyes. “Hmm,” she says, like she has at each appointment for the past month. “It’s high. Have you been feeling okay?”Excerpted from We Are Animals: On the Nature and Politics of Motherhood, by Jennifer Case.