THE STATE I’M IN: A Birth Story in Comics by Sacha Mardou, Part I

This comic is about the most stressful nine months of my life, which in a way, turned out to be good training for getting to the state of “okay, I don’t have a clue what I’m doing, so let’s just stay curious and try to do my loving best” that being a mom is for me. My kid is six now and calls me “mommy,” not “mummy,” incidentally. I left the choice to her, young American that she is.

It wasn’t an easy comic to write and it took the best part of a year to complete, as I worked on it around other projects, and honestly, shirked dealing with it for weeks at a time. I was quite scared of talking about my pregnancy publicly and of presenting myself as a comic’s character to imagined criticism and judgment. What encouraged me was remembering the hours I spent, reading stories other women had shared online, stories of scary invasive testing and copious bleeding, and the like. Well, it was helpful…and it encouraged me to make this comic.

Part II of Sacha Mardou’s “The State I’m In” can be read here. Want more awesome MUTHA comics? And essays and etc? Sign up to receive updates in your inbox or follow us on twitter/FB/etc.

P.S. Mardou’s graphic novel Sky In Stereo just published, so also click that link.