Chimamanda Adichie has opened up about motherhood and how it affects women.
The Nigerian author spoke during an interview on BBC’s Woman’s Hour.
She shared her personal experience as a mother and how motherhood affected her creativity.
She said: “Becoming a mother is a glorious gift, but it comes at a cost, and I think it’s important to acknowledge that, right?
“There is something that we… and I will say ‘lose’.”
She added: “I felt that I could probably have written two novels had I not had my child. But I think that having her also sort of opened me up to this new, almost a new phase of experience and awareness that I’m hoping will feed my fiction.
“Even before I had her, when I was pregnant, I felt as though my brain had been wrapped in gauze. So, my brain didn’t work for a long time. And just more creatively, I think I am making my way back because I am working on a novel finally. But I just wasn’t able to get into my fictional space for a long time.”
She also talks about being “horrified” at the parts of motherhood that she wasn’t prepared for, including the constipation, joint pains and more.
“I wasn’t prepared for so much, I really wasn’t.” she said.
Adichie discussed the birth process and how women are “reduced” to their “animal selves” after giving birth. She also mentioned that ladies should be prepared for these things, such as knowing that a woman may defecate while pushing out a baby.
She believes that childbirth should be demystified and “the gritty reality” of it highlighted so that people understand that it is not like in the movies, where a mother is “perfectly fine” after pushing out a kid.
She stated that many women are “sinking in just awful depression” following childbirth.
