Pandemic Mom: Meditations on New Motherhood During the Pandemic & During Divorce

Hi, I'm Pandemic Mom.

When the Covid Pandemic first hit the United States, Marianna Pease was about six months pregnant with her first child. She gave birth to her daughter during the first wave of the Pandemic in June 2020 when the rules of the virus where still new and fear was in the air. She asked her midwife if she would have to give birth wearing a face mask and was warned by a nurse one night in a 9pm phone call she may need to give birth alone.

Later, she took care of her infant alone in quarantine lockdowns during early Covid after a traumatic separation and almost three year long divorce.

May you have the courage to awaken to your personal power again, in time.

"Pandemic Mom" is one part memoir, one part healing balm for the divorcing woman or new mama or any woman who finds herself in a dark night of the soul without a light. Part One covers Marianna's story in short writings, Part Two is everything she learned from going through a traumatic divorce while navigating new motherhood during Covid lockdown. It is not a tell all but a story of emotional healing and written from the heart to give back to divorcing woman so they might not suffer as she did. Marianna's most heartfelt wish is to pay it forward and offer some glimmer of hope.

"Marianna Pease has written a masterpiece. Pandemic Mom, a series of short poems and prose, leads us through the darkest time of Pease's life - a new baby, a divorce, a pandemic - with grace, humor and a heaping dose of healing. Pease writes from the heart about motherhood, marriage, heartbreak and resolution in a book that will not only help her heal, but will also help other women coping with divorce. It is rare to find a book so beautifully written that is poignant, relatable and full of resources. As a therapist who works with women navigating divorce, I can't wait to recommend this book to my clients." - Oona Metz, LICSW, www.oonametz.com

"Oh, how I wish my mother had this book during her divorce! Marianna shares from her heart with such care, conviction, and courage about a topic that can be so ugly. Her humor is so refreshing, and she has such a relatable way with words. You feel as if you're both curled together on the couch, sipping tea, and healing together." - Victoria Nielsen, mama, healer & empowerment coach, www.spiritmamas.com

"Pandemic Mom is a beautiful, expansive journey through pain and it will leave you full of healing energy - it's a balm for the grieving, overwhelmed mama stuck in unknowns, a needed permission slip to express unspoken truths, a map towards light & hope and a practical guide to find those first steps. Marianna lovingly, knowingly, takes your tired mama hand, your lost mama heart and gives courage to reach into those dark places inside where the untangling of your own story begins and the rebuilding can start." - Lily Herman, www.lilianherman.com

Marianna Saltonstall Pease is a mom by day and a writer by night. You can follow her on Instagram @heypandemicmom She runs the longtime vintage clothing store www.oonascollection.com and writes for Boston Moms as well as the blog heypandemicmom.substack.com about her journey to emotional healing. She lives in Boston with her daughter. www.mariannapease.com