Nurturing The New Mother: Reflections On Co-Sleeping and Postpartum Sex

“We are going to put the crib here,” I said to our midwife as we showed her around our small, two bedroom Brooklyn apartment. I was pregnant and beaming. She smiled and said, “You probably won’t use one at all”. Wait, what? My Instagram feed was flooded with photos of perfect pastel nurseries with sweet babies and pastel dressed mums to match. I even had a Pinterest board and the crib was meant to be the main piece of furniture in the room. What kind of mother doesn’t have a crib? I thought. I’d never seen a ‘Mumstagram’ page that didn’t have a crib.