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lightreadsLike a Mother: A Feminist Journey through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy
3/5. This was a rec from someone at NPR and, uh, oh boy yes it sure was a rec from a person at NPR. I kid with love. Anyway, this is about 60% pregnancy/miscarriage/birth/post-partum memoir written by a woman of color, 20% "science," and 20% cultural commentary from a feminist and sort of intersectional perspective (I don't actually give anyone's intersectionality credit when it doesn't include disabled people, and hers doesn't seem to). I came for the science, and ended up enjoying the memoir. I've read a lot of miscarriage and birth stories, and a good writer – which she is – can make something you've heard a thousand times real again. This turned out to be good, because the science parts of this book are supposed to be the things that women just don't know about their bodies, and, uh, I already did? Maybe it's the circles I move in, but these "revelations" about the prevalence of untreated pelvic injury and the specific mechanisms of immune support via breast milk are not news to me. She's not wrong that they should be more widely understood, though, and in general I'm in favor of this movement towards science-based pregnancy and birth practices (though in the case of this book, underpinned with an amount of woo about trusting women's bodies that I wasn't quite ready for).
Basically, it's an NPR rec book.
3/5. This was a rec from someone at NPR and, uh, oh boy yes it sure was a rec from a person at NPR. I kid with love. Anyway, this is about 60% pregnancy/miscarriage/birth/post-partum memoir written by a woman of color, 20% "science," and 20% cultural commentary from a feminist and sort of intersectional perspective (I don't actually give anyone's intersectionality credit when it doesn't include disabled people, and hers doesn't seem to). I came for the science, and ended up enjoying the memoir. I've read a lot of miscarriage and birth stories, and a good writer – which she is – can make something you've heard a thousand times real again. This turned out to be good, because the science parts of this book are supposed to be the things that women just don't know about their bodies, and, uh, I already did? Maybe it's the circles I move in, but these "revelations" about the prevalence of untreated pelvic injury and the specific mechanisms of immune support via breast milk are not news to me. She's not wrong that they should be more widely understood, though, and in general I'm in favor of this movement towards science-based pregnancy and birth practices (though in the case of this book, underpinned with an amount of woo about trusting women's bodies that I wasn't quite ready for).
Basically, it's an NPR rec book.
Thanks--I love your reviews!
Date: 2019-02-25 12:42 am (UTC)Re: Thanks--I love your reviews!
Date: 2019-02-25 01:03 am (UTC)They definitely do. If you haven't seen it, they do an annual book recathon thingy usually in December, sorted by various characteristics, which is pretty reliable for finding gifts if nothing else. But yeah. Even NPR people laugh about things that are just so very NPR.