Hosted By
My guest today is Jackie, a single-mom-by-choice who wanted to have a co-parenting agreement at the beginning of her journey. The plans for co-parenting fell through and Jackie conceived her child with a sperm donor.
Jackie talks about how she approached the co-parenting arrangement and why it didn’t work out. She also discusses her difficult pregnancy and recovery. Jackie dealt with postpartum depression after her delivery. She shares what it was like to cope with those startling feelings and how she reached out for help.
We also talk about how to build a support system and why it is good to start early to build your village. Jackie authors a blog called Oakland Choice Mom and hopes to encourage women to consider the single-mother-by-choice option.
Some highlights of today’s conversation:
Resources
Motherhood Reimagined SMC Community
Motherhood Reimagined: When Becoming a Mother Doesn’t Go As Planned: A Memoir by Sarah Kowalski
Thank you for joining us for Motherhood Reimagined. You can contact us through the website or Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook.
Also, if you are wanting some guidance on this unconventional path, consider joining my Motherhood Reimagined SMC Community.
Inside my community, you get regular live guest expert interviews, community meetups, Ask Me Anything Calls, all my courses and of course connection to other single women at different stages of their SMC journey.
If you want a more private interaction with me, then consider indvidual coaching. You get up to 2 calls per month with me, voicemail and text access as well as access to all my content and done for your research.
Quotes
"Build your village early. Whether it is your girlfriends, a single moms club, your family, friends, build it early and strengthen and extend your village early and you will fall and lean back in different ways at different times and you will be in a position to give back to your village and help as a token of appreciation." -- Jackie
"This was my lifelong dream to be a mom and here I had this amazing, beautiful, healthy newborn in my hands, and all I wanted to do was sleep and never wake-up or I had thoughts of hurting her, hurting myself, making this all go away and not have to deal with it. The doctor explained once you have those thoughts that's when you really need some intervention." -- Jackie
(Re: co-parenting) "I'm almost kind of happy that it didn't work out. Because the dynamic of the relationship would be so different, although I do have my own set of challenges as a single mom, but I don't have to deal with arguments and fights and heartache if we don't agree on something." -- Jackie
After her mother passed away, Laura decided she needed to make another connection with another human being and began her unconventional path to motherhood....
Alex is a single-mother-by-choice who decided to take the adoption route to build her family. She tells me about how she educated herself on...
Christine is a firefighter and the single mother of a 10-year-old and a 13-year-old. In today’s interview, she shares about the difference between the...