How Mamas Love Their Babies - by Juniper Fitzgerald (Hardcover)

About the Book

Illustrating different ways that mothers provide for their children, this is the first book to depict a sex-worker parent. It provides an expanded notion of working mothers overall, reminding readers while every mama's work looks different, every mama works to make their baby's world better. Illustrations.

Book Synopsis

Mamas work in different ways to take care of their babies, but everything they do is out of love.

Illustrating the myriad ways that mothers provide for their children--piloting airplanes, washing floors, or dancing at a strip club--this book is the first to depict a sex-worker parent. It provides an expanded notion of working mothers and challenges the idea that only some jobs result in good parenting. We're reminded that, while every mama's work looks different, every mama works to make their baby's world better.

Review Quotes

"Fitzgerald writes simply, but in combination with Peterson's images, her words carry force. . . . It's a political statement, but one that flows from passion and love." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Amazingly inclusive." --Kirkus Reviews

"Shatters monolithic depictions of motherhood. . . . By depicting love and security beyond a White, professionalized class, the book allows children of different backgrounds to see their family lives reflected authentically." --Colorlines

"A staple for any parent who wants to redefine gender roles, and raise their child in a more inclusive, sex-positive world where all work is valued." --Bust

"Wonderful." --MSN Lifestyle

"Beautifully illustrated. . . .the book provides an expanded picture of working moms and challenges head on the idea that only certain jobs are analogous with positive parenting." --Feministing

"This is a book that takes more than one stigma about women and work and chucks them right out the window." --Julie Danielson, Kirkus

"Beautiful." --"Sex Gets Real" Podcast

"Inspired and inspiring." --Midwest Book Review

"Beautifully written and illustrated, How Mamas Love Their Babies provides a useful tool for parents who do stigmatized work to talk with their children about it in affirming and healthy ways." --Crystal DeBoise, LCSW

"All children should see their mamas reflected in their storybooks. This is a gift to not only sex workers and their families but to all who may need a better understanding of how stripping/sex work is labor, deserving of respect and dignity." --Juliana Piccillo, editor, Red Umbrella Babies

"This is the mothering book I've always dreamed of! How Mamas Love Their Babies shifts our narrow definition of what a mother is, what a mother does, what a mother looks like, and what caring for our babies looks like." --Sarah Sophie Flicker, activist

About the Author

Juniper Fitzgerald is a mother, former sex worker, and PhD based in Omaha, NE. Her academic work focuses on sex work, sex workers' rights, and alternative methodologies informed by feminist theories and the queering of intellectual spaces. For more than a decade, Juniper worked as a sex worker in various contexts and she continues to work as sex workers' rights advocate. She has contributed to several sex workers' rights cultural productions, including: The Red Umbrella Diaries, a spoken word event for sex workers created by Audacia Ray; The Red Umbrella Babies, a collection of writings by parents in the sex industry (forthcoming); SWOP, the Sex Worker Outreach Project; and CHANGE, the Center for Health and Gender Equity, a non-profit that supported Juniper in her petition for congress to eradicate the Anti-Prostitution Loyalty Oath.

Elise Peterson is a writer, visual artist, former music editor for Solange Knowles's music-and-retail site Saint Heron, and a longtime arts educator living and working in New York. Her writing has appeared in Adult, Paper Magazine, Elle, Lenny Letter, and Nerve among others. She has been profiled by The Cut, Nylon, The Fader, and others. She is passionate about storytelling and investigating the nuance of identity and sexuality as it relates to marginalized communities. Comparably, her multi-disciplinary visual work focuses on reinterpreting the past in order to explore evolving notions on the intersection of technology, blackness and cross-generational narratives.