Pregnancy is an exhausting endeavor that ends with one of the most painful experiences a person can feel. All the shiny mamas in our expecting books reassure us that at the end of the process, our oxytocin-soaked brains and smiling babies will make it all worth it. The reality is, moms are thrown into motherhood as a squishy, stretch-marked, leaking, sleep-deprived shell of their pre-pregnancy selves and left to cope with the physical and emotional recovery of pregnancy with an infant attached to their cracked and bleeding nipples.