Like a Mother: A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy
Angela Garbes, 2018
HarperCollins
256 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062662941
Summary
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. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1977
• Raised—in the state of Pennsylvania, USA
• Education—Barnard College
• Currently—lives in Seattle, Washington
Angela Garbes (GARB-es) is a Seattle-based writer specializing in food, bodies, women’s health, and issues of racial equity and diversity. Garbes began writing for Seattle's newsweekly, The Stranger, in 2006, and became a staff writer in 2014.
Her piece “The More I Learn About Breast Milk, the More Amazed I Am” is the publication’s most-read piece in its twenty-four-year history, and the inspiration for this book.
Garbes is an experienced public speaker, frequent radio and podcast guest, and event moderator. She grew up in a food-obsessed, immigrant Filipino household iin a small town in Pennsylvania and now lives in Seattle with her husband and two children. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
An empowering resource…Garbes shares up-to-date, well-substantiated information about women’s physical and mental health, aiming to help readers reduce their anxiety and make truly informed choices.
Publishers Weekly
In spite of how long women have been giving birth, there is a lot of misinformation out there about pregnancy and motherhood. Angela Garbes seeks to get it straight in Like a Mother. She not only corrects misinformation but offers advice and support.
Bustle
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for LIKE A MOTHER … then take off on your own:
1. What did you learn about pregnancy, giving birth, and being a new mother that you were unaware of before reading Angela Garbes's Like A Mother?
2. Talk about the remarkable abilities of both the placenta and beast milk. What surprised you most about the way each functions?
3. If you have given birth, talk about your own experiences compared to the author's. If you have yet to give birth but hope to, does Like a Mother put you at ease by providing needed information … or does it increase your anxiety by providing too much information?
4. Do you agree with Garbes that women deserve more information, compassion, and support surrounding child birth?
5. How, specifically, does Garbes fault postpartum care and treatment for mothers? What is missing?
6. Garbes also believes that woman should be given more autonomy. What does she mean? Do you agree?
7. How would you describe current American attitudes toward pregnancy and motherhood? In what way are we more enlightened than we were in previous generations? Where is there room for improvement in Garbes's eyes?
8. On page 230 Garbes writes about pregnancy as akin to opening an intricately folded piece of paper. Do you like her imagery? Can you think of other metaphors that apply?
9. How familiar were you with the role of doulas in childbirth?
10. Garbes writes with a fair amount of humor: what are some of the passages that made you laugh out loud?
11. Is this a book you wish you had read when you were pregnant?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)