There's no shortage of 'expert' advise 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 mums, 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 labour (yes, it hurts), to marriage (babies may create strain rather than bond), to child minding (there is no Mary Poppins), to everyday life with a baby (what exactly does a new-born do?).