Rhia definitely covered a lot of what I was going to say! I can’t believe that people aren’t forced this book upon being able to reproduce. It is the best, most accurate, factual testament to the female condition that I’ve ever read. I’m sure that sometime in the next year or two my husband and I will go through the birth experience and I can’t imagine going forth on that journey without this information. I love this book!

First things first.
I put a bunch of Wolf on hold at the library in a fit of interest, and now they’ve all come in at once, so I might get all militant on you all. How about that.

Misconceptions tracks Wolf’s journey through her first pregnancy and delivery, and gives her considerable and considered insight into the experience, as well as the experiences of her friends and colleagues. She looks at the parts of the experience that the baby books don’t – the loss of self, the fears, and the like. She talks about things we’re all familiar with thinking about now – the infantalization of the mother, a society that claims to revere mothers and babies, but can’t consistantly provide changing tables, and expects her to breastfeed in a public washroom – from an intense and personal place.

And then there’s the part where she talks about her experience of giving birth. Which, as someone who’s considering embarking on the path to having children, struck terror into my heart. The American system, in any case, still routinely handles labours in an illness model that rushes women through, and subjects them to medical procedures that may very well be unnecessary most of the time. She talks a lot about how things are better in Europe, where women take as long as they need, labour standing or sitting or in water or whatever they want, where episiotomy rates are low, and c-section rates lower. She compares it to drug and scissor happy American obstetricians… and never mentions Canada. In any case, I wouldn’t want to have a baby in a US hospital after reading this book.

And I’m not sure that Nova Scotia, where midwives are not licensed to practice, will be much better.

The third part of Wolf’s book discusses her experience as a new mother. The isolation, the depression, the changes in a person’s marriage, all disected minutely, the loss of the pre-motherhood self and selfishness quietly mourned.

I’d recommend the pregnancy and post-partum sections of this book to most any woman (or man!) who’s considering starting a baby. The part about the actual birth process though… well, let’s just say that it’s going to be at least a year before I start to think seriously about conceiving and I was traumatized. So I don’t think I’d want to be reading it if I were pregnant.

It’s compelling and well-researched, and I read it in basically one day, so I think that speaks well for it overall.