The purpose of Morskap is to provide information on the often overlooked topic of maternal health and wellbeing after birth. There is a lot of focus on women’s health when they go through pregnancy. But once a mama birthed her baby, all the attention is on the child and she is poorly supported through her struggle of coping with the most drastic bodily change a human can experience.

“Morskap” means “motherhood” in Norwegian Bokmål. In Norway, new moms are given time to recover from childbirth and master the challenges of early motherhood before going back to work after a 10-month fully paid parental leave. Norwegian mamas share childrearing responsibilities with their partners, who can equally take time off work to care for the baby. This framework gives new mamas more room to adapt to motherhood. We have therefore borrowed the Norweigan word for “motherhood” as inspiration for the stories here.

The mamas sharing their stories here on Morskap are anonymous because they are writing about intimate and often personally embarrassing issues. But motherhood should not have to be embarrassing. On the contrary, the scars of motherhood should be worn with pride. They come from having overcome one of the most difficult and important tasks humans do: bring about new life! To get to the point where these topics are not embarrassing, we all need to understand the consequences of pregnancy, childbirth, and childrearing and have easy access to information about how to overcome the bumps on the road of motherhood. That’s what Morskap is all about. We hope it helps you to proudly carry the marks of your achievements, mamas!