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An Autistic Perspective on Becoming a New Mom

Photo © Howard Ignatius | Flickr / Creative Commons [image: A newborn baby being held up for the camera.  The baby’s mother is in the background, lying agains a pillow and blurred.] Amber Bond It’s been 20 days and motherhood hasn’t been what I expected. As an autistic person, I have incredible sound sensitivities. On the morning of my scheduled C-section, a man wheeled his tiny toddler—who wailed impossibly, seemingly uncontrollably—past the waiting room in a stroller, at least thirty times for at least thirty minutes. I messaged my mother that I was reconsidering my life choices.  This was, of course, met with emoji laughter—though I wasn’t sure I was joking, as the sudden, shrill, and very loud sound of other people’s children crying has always cut through me. I had inquired the previous day if earplugs might be a reasonable choice for motherhood. I used to shirk away from…