At the end of March, my husband and I sat on the couch with a positive pregnancy test with disbelief, apprehension, but mostly excitement. A few days later, we sat on that same couch in silence, because my husband was one of the thousands of people working in the nonprofit space for mental health and prison rehabilitation, whose jobs were cut.

We just got married, saved up for a fixer upper, and have our first baby on the way. This year, which should have been the happiest year of our lives, has been marked with so much fear and financial pain.

At the time of writing this, I am a few weeks shy of the third trimester. I am the sole provider for our family. I have no paid maternity leave through my state, no long or short term disability, and it is currently unclear if I will have any paid leave from my employer.

What I want, more than anything, is to know when my baby is born I can have a few uninterrupted weeks with her before returning to work. Right now, that is not possible.

Right now, I will be giving birth and going back to work within the week.

Anything you can do, a few dollars, or simply sharing this post, will help me end this hard year holding my baby girl without worrying about how I'm going to pay my bills. Thank you.