For the mamas who don’t get love on Mother’s Day

Originally posted at Feministing

By Rebecca Trotzky-Sirr

No one threw me a baby shower. No one said congratulations. My pregnancy was not celebrated. My child’s birth was seen as a failure,” Jayme, a strong teenage mother, shared with me during a checkup for her healthy young baby. I sympathized with her as a family doctor and as a young mother myself. What do you do when you don’t get any Mothers’ Day adoration? In spite of decades of work for girls’ and women’s health justice, a surprisingly narrow band of acceptance surrounds mothers. Jayme was too young, too single, and too poor to receive the embrace of her community.

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Rebecca Trotzky-Sirr, MD, MSc, is a single mom to an amazing teenager who barely tolerates her sense of humor. She’s been a part of the reproductive justice movement since before becoming a family doctor. During medical school, Rebecca received a Fulbright grant to study human rights based medicine in Venezuela. Currently she practices family medicine in Los Angeles. She is a Physician for Reproductive Health Leadership Training Academy Fellow.

This blog post is part of the Strong Families Mama’s Day Our Way celebration. You can read more posts in the series on the Strong Families blog. Strong Families is a national initiative led by Forward Together. Our goal is to change the way people think, act and talk about families.