There's no shortage of "expert" advice for the new mother: books, doctors, and well-meaning grandmothers liberally give opinions on what you should be doing and how you should be feeling. But I Wish Someone Had Told Me is not a book of shoulds: it is a book about how women really handle the joys, the challenges, and the problems of being a mother. During the course of her interviews with more than sixty new moms, Nina Barrett made an important discovery. No one knows the secret: we are all putting our motherhood together from scratch. This collection of tales from the front addresses universal topics from labor (yes, it hurts), to marriage (babies may create a strain rather than a bond), to daycare (there is no Mary Poppins), to everyday life with a baby (what exactly does a newborn do all day?). This book by mothers for mothers will instill confidence in all new mothers who fear that every other mother knows something that they do not.