Psychology Today | 10.09.2026 23:02
How can I bring children into this world? The question surfaced in my mind as the attacks on the World Trade Center unfolded on that impossibly clear morning of September 11, 2001. Just one day earlier, I had learned I was pregnant with my third child. Hours earlier, I had been filled with uncomplicated joy, imagining our growing family, wondering whether this baby might be a daughter after two boys. I hadn’t yet worried about the logistics of caring for three small children with only two arms. I hadn’t thought about how we would fit another child into our tiny studio apartment, which we jokingly referred to as a ten-room studio. I wasn’t thinking about work-life balance or my own health. I was simply elated.
