Once you have it, you’ll see. You’ll love it.

That’s the fantasy.

The myth that women are “made” to want and have children is probably the hardest one to pulverize.

Possibly because folded up inside of it is the convenient (for the patriarchal types) belief/insistence that we’re natural nurturers. “Maternal.” A word that should be stricken from dictionaries and everyday vocabulary because it is for some reason considered synonymous with “nurturing,” yet there’s no sister-word to describe nurturing males (“paternal” doesn’t work).

The problem with the myth is that people so deeply believe it to be true that they feel justified in pressuring women to have children. Or even forcing them to (see: laws or abusive partners or institutions that compel women to carry unwanted pregnancies to term).

Two things not considered:

1. It simply isn’t true that having an unwanted child will automatically turn a woman into a grateful mother.
2. Men almost always knowingly contribute to pregnancies, and we tend to assume they’ll learn to deal with fatherhood, no problem. (“She wants a kid, so I guess we’re having a kid. SHRUG!”)

Many stories promote the by-circumstance father trope, leading us to believe the part of the brain that generates strong opinions about irreversible lifelong commitments is missing in men, and most stories feature women who are mothers, or who want to be mothers and become mothers on the “happy ending” final page, or who want to be mothers but can’t be mothers, or any variation of woman→mother/mother fantasy.

I wanted to introduce something to the story landscape that countered both notions, because they’re not only idiotic but also potentially dangerous to the mental, emotional, and even physical health of all parties involved. Because it’s a widely known fact that fiction can change thinking by inviting people to experience perspectives they’re not familiar with, I created Katherine, a woman who never wanted a child but was forced to carry an accidental pregnancy to term after a RvW overturn, and I’d like to introduce you to a part of her you may not like, but that has its reasons (developed in earlier chapters).