First published 2014
Expectant mothers crave birth stories, but pregnancy guides focus on months of preparation while ignoring the main event. Eleanor Henderson and Anna Solomon collected personal labor accounts from thirty accomplished writers who make storytelling their profession. Contributors include Cheryl Strayed, Julia Glass, Lauren Groff, and Dani Shapiro. These women describe natural births and epidural deliveries, hours of pushing and lightning-fast labors, twins and ten-pound babies. Birth happens in hospitals, homes, bathtubs, and cars. Some writers embraced labor while others feared it. Some felt defeated, others fulfilled, but all emerged amazed by the experience. The collection offers honest, entertaining accounts that transcend typical how-to manuals. Readers will laugh, cry, squirm, and recognize their own experiences in these varied stories of twenty-first century childbirth.
Genres: family-life, non-fiction, biography-memoir, 21st-century, parenting
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: personal-narrative, real-life-experiences
321 pages · Kindle Edition · Farrar, Straus and Giroux