MOTHERHOOD UNTIL YESTERDAY

1 week ago | elenabridgers.substack.com | Elena Bridgers

Jima Gaffigan once said that having a fourth child was kind of like being handed a baby while you are actively drowning. And that’s how I felt when my second maternity leave ended and I was facing down the possibility of returning to work full-time with two children under two. Haven’t slept in months, possibly suffering from undiagnosed PPD, barely able to remember your full name and phone number?

2 weeks ago | elenabridgers.substack.com | Elena Bridgers

My daughter started in a new school this week and there have been a lot of tears. She is three, and I’ve been holding off as long as possible, in part because she is a clinger but also because she is chill, so getting some work done when she is home is actually possible. (My five-year-old son, on the other hand, never cries at school drop-off and when he is home there is zero chance of me getting anything done, so playgroups and school have always been a bit of a no-brainer with him).

3 weeks ago | elenabridgers.substack.com | Elena Bridgers

Last week, a reel I posted to Instagram went viral, garnering one million views in just a few days. The topic? How the age of a girl’s first period has been steadily declining over the last couple of centuries. In hunter-gatherer societies, girls do not start menstruating until they are about 17 years old, and typically aren’t fertile until at least age 19. Meanwhile, in the Western world, the average age of a girl’s first period in the UK has decreased from about age 15 in 1860 to age 12 by 1960.

4 weeks ago | elenabridgers.substack.com | Elena Bridgers

There’s been a lot of discussion about declining birth rates lately. The fertility rate in the United States reached a historic low last year, according to the CDC, and Elon Musk, our unelected president and father of 14, has said that population collapse is the greatest threat to modern civilization.

1 month ago | elenabridgers.substack.com | Elena Bridgers

Fine I’ll admit it: I’m crunchy. In fact, I come from a family so crunchy that we grew up in a house with no television, bought fresh goat milk from our crunchy friends, and sang a long, harmonious “om” before eating dinner every night. When we got sick, my mom would make us tea with honey and give us homeopathic remedies with names that I still can’t pronounce. I don’t think I even knew of the existence of Tylenol until I was in my teens.