Like a Mother
Ratings15
Average rating3.9
A candid, feminist, and personal deep dive into the science and culture of pregnancy and motherhood Like most first-time mothers, Angela Garbes was filled with questions when she became pregnant. What exactly is a placenta and how does it function? How does a body go into labor? Why is breast best? Is wine totally off-limits? But as she soon discovered, it’s not easy to find satisfying answers. Your obstetrician will cautiously quote statistics; online sources will scare you with conflicting and often inaccurate data; and even the most trusted books will offer information with a heavy dose of judgment. To educate herself, the food and culture writer embarked on an intensive journey of exploration, diving into the scientific mysteries and cultural attitudes that surround motherhood to find answers to questions that had only previously been given in the form of advice about what women ought to do—rather than allowing them the freedom to choose the right path for themselves. In Like a Mother, Garbes offers a rigorously researched and compelling look at the physiology, biology, and psychology of pregnancy and motherhood, informed by in-depth reportage and personal experience. With the curiosity of a journalist, the perspective of a feminist, and the intimacy and urgency of a mother, she explores the emerging science behind the pressing questions women have about everything from miscarriage to complicated labors to postpartum changes. The result is a visceral, full-frontal look at what’s really happening during those nine life-altering months, and why women deserve access to better care, support, and information. Infused with humor and born out of awe, appreciation, and understanding of the female body and its strength, Like a Mother debunks common myths and dated assumptions, offering guidance and camaraderie to women navigating one of the biggest and most profound changes in their lives.
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Kind of a memoir crossed with something like Expecting Better (which Goodreads won't let me link to, but everyone who may be pregnant someday should absolutely read) crossed with a Mary Roach book. The writing is engaging and fun; I definitely learned a lot that I didn't know before, even after having been pregnant. Some of this is just fun trivia, like facts about the placenta and the composition of breast milk, but I'm actually kind of upset that I got through an entire pregnancy and almost a year of motherhood without ever being taught about the anatomy of the pelvic floor. A recurring theme of the book is the shocking lack of attention or research focused on pregnancy and birth - there's still so much that we don't know about these things, because no one has ever cared enough to fund the research into it. I really enjoyed this, especially the chapter about microchimerism.
I learned about so many things I didn't know like did you know if you breast feed your baby's saliva sends information to the mother's body and that can cause the breast milk to adapt to suit your baby's needs? Wild. This book covers topics about breast milk, the pelvic floor, miscarriage, the importance of care for birthing persons and support, postpartum depression, anxiety and psychosis and many other aspects of being pregnant, labor and the body after birth. And not only what the body goes through but the mind. I listened to the audiobook which took a while to like cause the narrator wasn't very engaging but the stuff I was learning about was so interesting I got used to her tone. I'd recommend reading this book just to learn all the cool bits of information. There are some incorrect medic terms used but overall it was a good read.
