‘After Everything That Happened, I Needed an Easy Baby’
As told to Photography by Abi Akintolayo, 33, emigrated from Nigeria at 13 and now lives in Dallas with her husband, Joseph, and daughter Imisioluwa, now three months. A pediatric dentist, Abi is an independent contractor with no paid family leave. She had planned to take six months of maternity leave, all unpaid.Return to the main article.Nothing about my pregnancy, birth, or postpartum experience is what I could or would have predicted.I thought I would love being pregnant—but I had hyperemesis, threw up constantly, and then developed gestational diabetes, and it was pretty miserable!I knew childbirth would be hard.