The Creative Series : Angela Garbes - Like a Mother
Angela is the author of Like a Mother, a narrative nonfiction book exploring the emerging science and cultural myths of pregnancy. Like a Mother was an NPR Best Book of 2018, a finalist for the Washington State Book Award in Nonfiction, and deemed “excellent” by the New York Times.
She also cohosts The Double Shift, an independent podcast challenging the status quo of motherhood in America.
She’s currently working on her next book about mothering as social change—embodied resistance to patriarchy, white supremacy, ableism, and the exploitation of capitalism.
Angela is one of our favorite activists shedding light into the realities of motherhood in America - and we’re so excited that her book is included in our Postpartum Kit, a collaboration with Poppy Gifting. We hope you enjoy this q+a.
We’d love to hear about your background and why you decided to write Like A Mother.
Someone had to! I had so many questions during my first pregnancy — about miscarriage, the placenta, breast milk, postpartum difficulties — and I didn’t feel like any book addressed this stuff adequately. I didn’t want advice. I wanted information, science, and diverse real-deal stories. The book I wanted didn’t exist, so I wrote it myself.
We hear you are writing a new book about mothering as social change (and can’t wait to get our hands on it!!). Would you be willing to give us a sneak peak into what it is about?
Like so many mothers, the pandemic forced me to give up paid work to do an overwhelming amount of child care. The pandemic exposed that caregiving, which is undervalued and taken for granted in America, is some of the only truly essential work there is. Without people to care and look after our children, we are lost. The daily tasks of mothering can feel tedious and soul crushing — but they are always necessary!
Mothers and caregivers are our first teachers. I wonder what our country would be like if every child knew that they were enough exactly as they are, worthy of love, pleasure, and opportunity? Each day spent caring for children presents so many chances to shape a more caring and equitable world.
You are such a leading voice when it comes to highlighting the truths of motherhood in our culture. Where else can we find your work?
While I work hard cranking out my book manuscript, you can listen to episodes of The Double Shift, the podcast I co-host with Katherine Goldstein.
How is your book a meaningful postpartum gift?
A full third of my book is dedicated to the postpartum experience — everything from feeling estranged from your own body to pelvic floor physical therapy to postpartum sex to a changing sense of identity. All the stuff no one but your best friends tells you about!
Our brands have a collective goal of supporting the postpartum experience. Can you speak more to the importance of supporting postpartum people?
So many new parents feel abandoned and overwhelmed, confused and alone. Pregnancy books and discussions focus so much on childbirth, but not so much on what happens after: when you come home with a tiny helpless person that you have to somehow keep alive. Postpartum life is exhausting, emotional, exhilarating, transformative and very messy. I truly believe that if everyone had a better idea of what happens to a person and their body after giving birth, we’d have a healthier and more empathetic society.
Do you have any favorite or go-to gifts for loved ones?
Time, love, and attention — showing up and just listening as they tell me how they feel.
Has there been a gift that’s left a particularly lasting memory on you? Either something you gave or received.
One hour of a loved one holding my baby so I could sleep, shower, eat, cry, whatever.
