Cassanda Maurice has urged mothers to “take care of themselves” after a decade of back-to-back pregnancies left her struggling to prioritize her own health.
The Utah mother of ten, 35, spoke last week about the physical and mental toll of giving birth to ten children in exactly ten years. Her brood ranges from Steven, 17, down to Peter, 7, with two sets of twins in between: identical boys William and Ryan, 14, and fraternal twins Max and Spencer, 12.
Alongside her husband Jacob Maurice, an engineer who helped design the first Ring doorbell, Cassanda has built a massive following on TikTok under the handle ’10kidsin10years’, where more than 600,000 followers watch the family’s chaotic daily life unfold.
“There was a toll of not taking care of myself, which is what I want to get across in our social media,” she explained. “Moms, we should be taking care of ourselves.”
Cassanda’s rapid-fire family expansion was no accident. She deliberately modeled her childbearing timeline after her own upbringing.
“I really wanted to have all of the kids within 10 years because that’s how my family was and my oldest brother and my youngest brother seemed to get along pretty well,” she added.
Medical guidance typically recommends waiting at least 18 months between pregnancies to allow the uterus and nutritional stores to recover. Shorter intervals have been linked to increased risks including preterm birth, low birth weight, and NICU admissions, according to Dr. Patrice Harold-Barrow of Hutzel Women’s Hospital in Detroit.
All ten of Cassanda’s pregnancies went to plan, and she now has ten healthy children. Yet the cumulative effect on her own body and mind became impossible to ignore.
“I know it feels like we need to take care of them [children], but we matter as well,” she continued. “I’m just starting to get into the balance of learning how to take care of myself.”
Her awakening came gradually during years spent as a stay-at-home mom managing the crushing logistics of ten children’s schedules. The breakthrough, she said, involved learning to voice her own needs without guilt.
“I’ve learned how to take care of myself, how to rest, how to say, ‘I need this’. My needs come before your [her children’s] wants.”
Despite the relentless grocery bills and household chaos, Cassanda and Jacob insist they wouldn’t change their circumstances. The best reward, she said, is watching her children’s bonds form in real time.
“The best part is seeing my children interact with each other, playing with each other and hanging out,” she said.