We Are Reproducing

Award-winning series by author and essayist Uchida Shungicu. Starting in 1993 and still ongoing, this is a frank, sex-positive look at pregnancy, childbirth, child rearing, and single motherhood, notable for tackling such issues directly at a time when such treatments were rare. Following site guidelines, the series is tagged as Erotica because it has sex in it, but if you're looking for an erotic manga per se, you'll probably want to look elsewhere.

Manga artist Shungicu Uchida, whose numerous hit works include the revolutionary child-rearing manga "We are Reproducing," and "Minami's Lover," which has been dramatized for TV many times, was suddenly diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2015...! The slapstick events leading up to the discovery, hospitalization, and surgery, the mechanism and side effects of anticancer drugs, the physical and environmental changes that ensued, and the turbulent days with her four children before and after the surgery... The author's unique comic essay on the battle against cancer faces cancer head-on and describes it in her trademark frank style.