Birth Notes: A Memoir of Trauma, Motherhood and Recovery - Softcover

Cornwell, Jessica

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0349014272 ISBN 13: 9780349014272

Publisher: Virago, 2023

Synopsis

'When a woman gives birth, she may, unwittingly, remember violent things. Ugly things. Unspoken things.'

After her twins were born, Jessica Cornwell stopped feeling. Plagued by memories of a traumatic birth, wrestling with ongoing physical pain and the brutal demands of caring for two tiny babies, she struggled to experience joy and love. Instead, she was consumed by fear and haunted by recurrent thoughts of blood and danger.

It was only when she received a diagnosis of post-partum PTSD and began therapy that Jessica was able to confront the secrets in her past. As she began to understand how her experience of birth had triggered her traumatic memories of sexual assault, she was finally able to integrate those memories into her identity as a mother and a survivor - and begin to heal.

'A redemptive tale of the power and wisdom of women's bodies' Leah Hazard

'This book undid me... and filled me with hope' Elinor Cleghorn

'Magnificent... a work of truth, understanding, scholarship and hope' Susie Orbach

'An astonishing memoir... about the intersection between birth trauma and sexual trauma, medical misogyny' Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

About this title

About the Author

Jessica Cornwell is a writer living in Somerset. Born in California, she studied at Stanford and the Institute of Theatre in Barcelona before moving to London to work in film. Her first novel, The Serpent Papers, was published in 2015 to great acclaim. In 2018 she became the mother to twin boys. Birth Notes is her first work of non-fiction.

From the Back Cover

When a woman gives birth, she may, unwittingly, remember violent things. Ugly things. Unspoken things.


After her twins were born, Jessica Cornwell stopped feeling. Plagued by memories of a traumatic birth, wrestling with ongoing physical pain and the brutal demands of caring for two tiny babies, she struggled to experience joy and love. Instead, she was consumed by fear and haunted by recurrent thoughts of blood and danger.


It was only when she received a diagnosis of post-partum PTSD and began therapy that Jessica was able to confront the secrets in her past. As she began to understand how her experience of birth had triggered her traumatic memories of sexual assault, she was finally able to integrate those memories into her identity as a mother and a survivor - and begin to heal.

'An astonishing memoir about the intersection between birth trauma and sexual trauma. Hugely important, courageous, and beautifully written' Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett, author of The Tyranny of Lost Things

'Shows the jagged, uncomfortable journey towards recovery that PTSD survivors undertake if they are to live in the present. So many women will feel less alone after reading this book' Katie Ward, author of Girl Reading

'Magnificent ... a work of truth, understanding, scholarship and hope' Susie Orbach, author of In Therapy

Edition details

• Publisher: Virago
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0349014272
• ISBN 13: 9780349014272
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 448