'Motherhood Meets Me: A Memoir' is a heartfelt, personal memoir about the struggle and the pain of infertility.
The story of one couple’s triumphant journey toward parenthood, it takes us through the journey of the Walther’s from hearing the devastating news, right up to creating their family in the most magical unexpected way.
When Erica Walther married her husband in the early noughties, they had their whole future ahead of them. They had visions of the family they were going to have, and were excited about how life was going to be. When they discovered early on as newlyweds that infertility was to be part of their story, life took a very different turn.
This book, Motherhood Meets Me, is Erica's journey of becoming a mother. It's her journey of unpacking and undoing all the expectations that she had of motherhood and the way that her family was going to be made, along with the grief and heartbreak that transformed their lives.
It spans a 10 year path from learning about infertility to being part of the family unit that Erica and her husband had so envisioned for their lives.
Erica was the very first author to sign up with the Unbound Press. She met Nicola in a fortuitous, synchronous - and of course, UNBOUND - meeting in New York state with a book that needed to come out into the world. Erica began her writing journey as a blog.
She documented her struggles, heartbreak, grief, and the tumultuous experience of dealing with infertility and all that that involved. She found a path to not only expressing her voice, but to support other women around her who were going through the same thing.
As Erica discovered, back then, infertility was rarely spoken about; if it was, all resources available were for women over 40 and this just didn't reflect what Erica was experiencing in her own life. So her blog became her outlet. She documented, in real time, the journey that she and her husband were facing. Whilst the blog began as a way to share the journey they had begun as a young couple working through all the emotions and practical facets that infertility entailed, it soon began to reach other couples facing the same sad and painful situation.
That blog formed the basis of this book. Erica pulled out some of the most poignant and powerful blog posts which were already written, and already served as the basis to capture those feelings from that time.
One in eight couples in the US are going through infertility, which translates to thousands and thousands and thousands of people who are in pain and suffering. The residual effect is their parents, their sisters, their best friends don't know how to help. The goal of Motherhood Meets Me is to be a mouthpiece for those who need it.
When you can’t find the words to explain the pain you feel, the book is here to carry the load for you, and to bring a voice to the voiceless whose pain is often unhidden. This book is here as a testament to Erica and her husband, and the family that they now have. It's also a wonderful example of how just beginning to write, and putting pen to paper - or finger tips at keyboard - can actually spark a lifelong journey that you never expected.
Motherhood Meets Me is published by The UNBOUND Press on February 27.
Read more about the book and purchase your copy here.
Meet the Author:
Erica Walther lives in Rochester. New York with her family.
She runs Parenthood for Me, a non-profit organisation designed to help families going through adoption or medical intervention for fertility with financial and emotional support.
Erica was the very first author to join the Unbound Press in 2018, and we celebrate the release of this important story into the world.
The Unbound Writing Process: A lot of the content for Motherhood Meets Me was created from the blog posts Erica shared in real time during her journey. The blog itself had hundreds of entries, and Erica used the most poignant ones in the book. For Erica, starting to blog was a transformational way to process her feelings. In this case, the book formed over many years (a truly UNBOUND process!) .
One of the things Erica found most helpful about the unbound writing process was when Nicola encouraged her to write in non-linear way; allowing herself to revisit experiences as they came to mind rather than trying to rigidly stick to the order in which they happened. This freed her up to bring through Motherhood Meets Me in the most powerful way.
Here at the UNBOUND Press, we love to encourage our community of UNBOUND women to express themselves through the writing process. Whether you become an author with us or not, our heartfelt wish is that you begin to find your voice in life, and to express yourself as fully as possible. Use these journal prompts to spark some ideas in your own journal - whether you take pen to paper or finger to keyboard, feel free to use them to spark your writing process. We love to hear about your ideas, so if it feels good to do so, please share with us what comes up from your journal prompts via Instagram @theunboundpress using the hashtag #unboundjournalprompts. Journal Prompts:
Writing is a powerful way to process emotion. What emotions can you identify that might need to have their voice in your journal?
Erica’s experience was emotional and painful. Writing was her way of dealing with it and moving through those feelings.
What powerful and emotional experiences in your life spring to mind?
What did you learn from them?
How have they changed you as a person?
Whose stories, books or blogs that you had read really resonate with you?
Can you identify why that is?
What do you find yourself drawn to in their character, story or experience, and why?
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