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The first 1,000 days of life shape every day that follows.
We need to know more about them.
A beat by Irene Caselli
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The power of stories
On a recent weekend, I came home to my son Lorenzo, who’s almost six, sobbing. I had just taken my other son León for a walk while he napped, and the tears threw me. Lorenzo was shaking, standing next to Nacho, my partner, in the
Forever in the archive
Breast is best for me, not for you: how you changed my thinking around breastfeeding
I’ve been breastfeeding every day for the past 20 months, since my son Lorenzo was born, for many hours a day. So you’d assume that I’d already done all the necessary thinking around this very foundational experience: after all, human milk is the first food we
Breast milk is free (and five other myths about breastfeeding debunked)
Breastfeeding is misunderstood. It may be natural, but that does not make it easy, spontaneous or free. If we want to make policies that respect breastfeeding, we can start by debunking these six myths.
The creative process vs productivity
Hey folks, I can write! For those of you who are new to this space, thanks for being here. The idea is that on a weekly basis I tell you what is happening behind the scenes of my journalistic work, I talk about what I
This is a hard newsletter to write
*Warning: This newsletter is about stillbirths, miscarriages and abortion. If you’ve experienced them and find this issue triggering, maybe skip it, and check out this website for some extra resources. It’s hard to imagine death when you think of the beginning of life. It seems cruel,
Clean shits on my bed (and other communication struggles)
“mamma mamma mamma mamá” On repeat and growingly dramatic. This is what my son Lorenzo does to get my attention these days, or how he looks for me when he suspects I’m hiding away in the house and working. It’s not dissimilar from this Family
If the sex you’re born with affects how you’re treated, I don’t stand by it
I’ve just come back from a trip to Gethen – a cold place, with beautiful glaciers and a society of people that are devoid of sex and gender for most of the time. They are simply *people*, undefined by what they have in between their legs
Celebrate our one-year anniversary by asking us anything!
We’re turning one year old tomorrow on 30 September! My journey as your First 1,000 Days correspondent started out way before The Correspondent was even a reality. For years, I dreamed about writing about how unequal our life is from the very start, and even
Everybody was a child once. Remember that when they turn into your political foes (or worse)
The boy was two years old when his mother disappeared from his life. Struggling to recover from the birth of a younger son, she constantly went in and out of hospital. Without her, the boy relied on his eldest sister, 12 at the time, who
So, what if you find play boring?
It’s time to lay it all out, folks. I will confess: sometimes, when my son Lorenzo picks up his copy of The Gruffalo to hear me read it out loud while he plays with the animals that appear in it (he owns a stuffed toy
My one-year review of myself
Let me tell you a secret about a rather useless skill I have: I have an incredible memory for people’s birthdays! You tell me the date, and somehow it just sticks to my internal hard drive. This includes people I haven’t seen since middle school.
Forever in the archive:
Lost in motherhood
I’m just back from my two-week staycation, during which I ate well, tried to exercise regularly, and dreamt a lot. One night I dreamt that I was at a work meeting. We were in an outside space where everyone was chit-chatting. All of a sudden,
Sometimes when you lose a person, you get lost too
The truth of today’s newsletter is that I was writing about someone dear to me who died last month. But then I stopped because life got in the way. First, the Beirut blast. For a month now, my family and I have been living in
Due to patriarchy …
This week, I’m exhausted. I could blame it on the summer heat, or on my son’s sleepless night because he’s teething. But that is not the kind of structural thinking that I’ve been encouraged to do here at The Correspondent. As our founder Rob Wijnberg
Why do we decide to have, or not have, children?
In a time that now seems incredibly far away, a time that my colleague OluTimehin Adegbeye calls 2020 BC (before corona), I co-hosted a meet-up with members of The Correspondent in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was February, and little did I know that it would be
Human milk is amazing. I’m on a mission to find out more about it
I’m writing this in my head as I breastfeed my son to sleep – hoping that I will remember these words once I’m done. Breastfeeding has become a part of my everyday life since Lorenzo was born 17 months ago. It has caused pain, insecurity, frustration,
Human milk is the first intelligent superfood. We need to know the science of this medicinal marvel
From added insulation on cold days to extra antibodies during illness, breast milk is customised for every baby. If science will just tell us how, we could argue less about formula and breast pumps.
Our actions matter, even if we don’t remember them
A few nights ago, my son Lorenzo woke up in the middle of the night. He stood up in bed and started making sounds that referred to some of the experiences he’d had during the day. Miaow, miaow, he said, recalling a cat that had
If you look, you see the first 1,000 days everywhere
I’ve been thinking a lot about food these days. Food in liquid form, such as breast milk, the magic potion our bodies create to feed our children, but also food in a figurative sense; the hugs, love and overall nurture babies need at the beginning
Ruminations on the fragility of life
This week my son Lorenzo fell while bouncing around in the park. He was holding a tiny stick, which ended up poking him just above the eyelid. It was a miracle he didn’t scratch his cornea or poke his eye out. But was it a
A self-identified superwoman praises other superwomen (and some other superpeople)
One of the warmest things I’ve witnessed online this past week is the conversation going on below Othering correspondent OluTimehin Adegbeye’s beautiful newsletter in which she asked members: Who are you? The idea is to be able to describe yourself without mentioning your job, nationality or
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