Gestational work or servitude conceptualises pregnancy and birth as a form of labour of the same ilk as plowing a field or reading for a postgraduate diploma. This is a grave error when it is embraced uncritically. Perhaps, by contrast, a mother’s journey with new life from conception to birth and beyond is the canvas on which her renewed self is being painted. She is not the worker; She is the work.

There’s a lot of talk about freedom as autonomy in birth ideologies. What are we free from when it comes to pregnancy, birth, postpartum…? For some it is freedom from the tyranny of medical institutions, or even any influence other than their own intuition. For others it is freedom from the responsibility of making their own decisions at all, freely turning themselves and their baby over to the discernment of others. These are different ways a pregnant woman may deploy her free will as her journey of motherhood materialises.

There are times when our bodies throw us a curveball and these can be the oddest little anomalies that make a big difference to our journey through motherhood. For me, one of these things has been the discovery that I have a lopsided nipple. Yep. You read that right. But let’s rewind for a minute to catch you up on the story of a breastfeeding mum who - like most of us - knew next to nothing when she started.