All those things no one ever tells you about motherhood. It’s like secret mothers’ business. Lots of my friends had babies before me, but not one of them ever told me it would this hard…It’s like a code of silence.
Six very different women are brought together by one thing – they are all new mothers. Each comes from a different background and has a different experience of birth and the early months of a first child, but they meet through a mother’s group and determine to meet regularly and support each other through this new stage of their lives.
Over the course of the year the six become friends, but they also fight and disagree. Their circumstances are so different – from bringing up a child alone, to having a new baby plus a step child to care for, to struggling to adapt to a new culture. But what they have in common is their first child, and the tumultuous experience of the first year of motherhood.
The Mothers’ Group is a book which anyone who has ever navigated the highs and lows of motherhood will connect with. The varied cast means most readers will either see themselves in one or more of the characters, or will at least recognise someone they know. But it’s not just about sleepless nights and nappy changing – characters are faced with a range of big issues alongside the seemingly small ones (though anyone who has ever navigated the sleepless nights knows it is not a small issue).
The Mothers’ Group is a moving, heart-wrenching read.
The Mothers’ Group, by Fiona Higgins
Allen & Unwin, 2012
ISBN 9781742379869
Available from good bookstores and online.