The days after a new baby is born, most parents' social media feeds are filled with glowing updates about the magic of bringing home a newborn.
At 10 months postpartum, Danielle Haines decided to pull back the curtain on what her first week of motherhood was really like.
The new mom published a Facebook post which read, in part:
"This is a picture of me 3 days postpartum. I was so raw and so open, I was a fucking mess. I loved my baby, I missed his daddy (he went back to work that day), I was mad at my mom, my heart hurt for my brother because my mom left us and now I had a little boy that looked like him, my nipples were cracked and bleeding, my milk was almost in, my baby was getting really hungry, I was feeling sad that people kill babies, like on purpose, I had not slept since I went into labor, I didn't know how to put my boobs away, my vagina was sore from sitting on it while nursing constantly, I was kinda losing my mind....
"I had a magical Postpartum. It wasn't easy but I was so supported and fed and reminded that the mothers before me had been through this part of motherhood, and that I'd get through it just fine too." - Danielle Haines
The Phoenix-based student midwife told BuzzFeed Life that she had originally posted the months-old photo in a private Facebook group connected to a birth class she is currently teaching to inspire a conversation about the transition in to motherhood.
The outpouring from other mothers began immediately.
