“If my story can relieve even one woman from guilt, I will have won” in Archaeology of the Intimate, the taboo of childbirth told in comics

Since 2017, the #MeToo wave has brought with it many topics that have been discussed. When it comes to childbirth, it was time to dispel the sacrosanct myth of the “best day of a woman’s life”. Yes, we can actually consider it one of the worst, and love our child madly. You can be afraid, have a traumatic birth, suffer from postpartum depression and still be a good mother. Far from the idealized clichés of motherhood, Clothilde Delacroix tells in her comic a story full of love and poetry Archaeology of the intimate (released August 30, 2024).

Known for her children’s books, the author had already revealed parts of her relationship with her daughter on the networks and in her collection of comic strips Mother, daughter and co (2022). She crosses paths with Archaeology of the intimate a new direction by re-exploring the particularly complicated moment of her birth. Because to give life the author came close to death. In 2008 she gave birth to a very premature baby at the 7th month of pregnancy. In the hospital, then, she goes into a coma, then comes out and recovers little by little without really understanding what is happening to her…

Clearing the ground around the birth

Thirteen years and a double wave of #MeToo and #mypostpartum later, she picks up her pen and brushes again, dives into her personal archives, notebooks and medical reports, to overcome the oblivion that surrounds this episode – as if her brain wanted to protect her from it. The author also tries to understand, because at the time she too had received very little medical information about her condition.

Clotilde Delacroix thus contributes to the liberation of the discourse on childbirth, a point that was missing at the time. She says: “At the time, before #MeToo, I didn’t have access to the testimonies of other mothers. Discovering on the forums that I wasn’t alone did me a lot of good,” she confides. And today it’s up to her to give her contribution: “I would have liked to have testimonials that told me that we can be strong, even if we are fragile and sensitive. If my story can take the blame away from even one woman, I will have won.”

Ease the guilt…and educate people about preeclampsia

What had caused Clotilde Delacroix to fall into a coma was a severe form of preeclampsia. This disease has only become better known since the 2000s. It results from a dysfunction of the placenta, the organ that ensures exchanges between the fetus and the mother, and leads, among other things, to an increase in the pregnant woman’s blood pressure.

The author says:

“Doing archaeology corresponds to this need for research. Preeclampsia affects less than 1% of women and I think that if I had not pressed the emergency button because I wanted to vomit, I would have died in my hospital bed”.

Fortunately, Clothilde Delacroix and her child managed to escape, and her comic also tells of her special relationship with her daughter, now a teenager. The author also navigates the story between past and present – ​​sometimes literally putting herself on stage on a boat, to shed light on what happened in the light of her “archaeological” research. A comic to discover from August 30th!