[Barnett suffered a herniated disc four months after giving birth] Id — Emma Barnett

"I personally found the first few months of motherhood discombobulating, knackering, joyous, emotional, frustrating and quite frankly odd."

"Not being able to reconcile my secular views with my religious ones is something I too, find hard to explain. Predominantly I struggle to feel comfortable with female rabbis because the Judaism that feels authentic to me is the Orthodox branch, which does everything it can to conserve and not change. And thats what it comes down to: what part of your religion feels authentic to you – which is very hard to alter when its been presented to you in a certain way since birth."

"Nearly 10 years ago, my father went to prison. I had just turned 23 and was heading home after a long day at work when my then boyfriend, now husband, rang me and delivered the news. I had known my dad was in trouble, but he kept his business life so separate, I didn’t even know he was going to court the day he ended up being imprisoned for living off immoral earnings."

"[On her tolerance level] Im OK with sexism, Im OK with "you look shit", Im quite good at laughing at the misogynistic stuff. [But she is upset by] the anti-semitic stuff. Because I really dont want that to be a thing in the country I live in — or anywhere."

"Beginning IVF can be like walking into a high-stakes casino. From the moment you first place a bet, submitting those first bloods or semen samples, you are hooked. Excitement, hope, long odds and croupiers in white coats keep you coming back for more. A tweak of meds here, a change of diet there, the rush of the pregnancy test after weeks of needles and pills, and then the massive low of the single blue line. It all leaves you vowing you will never, ever gamble again."

"British Jews arent scared to talk to each other about the situation in Israel. Were becoming scared to talk at all."