I am a mother of one. She is a college student now. I had my tubes tied when she was a year old, and I have never regretted this choice. Yet when many others find this out, there is usually these moments of surprise and panic, a constant questioning of how I could make that choice and what if I had wanted another, and how could I do that to myself. There is never an assumption that I am sure what I want, that I would know my own body, or that I might actually know myself. A woman’s body is always assumed default to the common “norm” of society and anything different from that is an abnormality.

What I did for myself and my child was make the choice that was right for me and allowed me to be the best parent to my child that I could. Oddly…