Australian Author Describes Exhaustion After First Year of Parenthood

Australian author Bron Lewis has written about the physical and mental effects of sleep loss during her first year as a parent. In the piece, Lewis describes caring for her newborn daughter Olive, who cried frequently and did not sleep for extended periods. Lewis states that she received daily advice during pregnancy but was not warned about the extent of sleep deprivation that followed.

She describes walking through Melbourne’s Brunswick suburb with Olive strapped to her chest while feeling physically unwell from fatigue. Lewis reports that she later learned her milk supply was insufficient and that Olive was underweight. The extract includes an incident in which Lewis, while overtired, shouted advice across traffic to a woman she believed was pregnant.

The woman replied that she was not pregnant. Lewis writes that she later apologized for the encounter. The book is published by Affirm Press.