Karen Russell's frightening story on motherhood

Karen Russell's story in current New Yorker, Orange World, is about new mothers and their anxieties and I would have to suggest that most new moms and maybe new dads as well wait a few years before reading this piece as KR efffectively enumerates all of the things that can go horribly wrong for newborns - a story sure to provoke rather than alleviate anxieties. kR's protagonist, Rae, is a bit older than most new moms and had a difficult pregnancy w a report of a likelihood of genetic defects or maladies for the newborn. She also endures a post party's depression that is extreme, so much so that she imagines that a creature representing the devil has taken hold of her psyche and she leaves the house each night to lie on a curb stone and feed or nurse this devil-spirit - whether this actually occurs or if it's solely her delusion is not clarified but one has to wonder where the hell her husband is during all this. To get her mind straight she joins a group of new moms who each relay their horror stories - further anxiety provoking for many readers I'm sure. Then the story pivots as Rae confesses about her tryst w the devil - and it turns out this is a familiar theme among mothers in this area (Portland) and the mothers unite in a scheme to capture the creature, transport it far away, and release it (why?). So it becomes a women's solidarity story in some ways. You need a lot of buy-in the get w this story, at least if you take the events literally, as some kind of horror/monster story - but as a parable for the fears and anxieties of motherhood and the social pressures to keep these fears private and silent the story is powerful and revealing - and maybe even more frightening.