Like a Mother, Angela Garbes
Like a Mother, Angela Garbes
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Like a Mother
A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy

Author: Angela Garbes

Narrator: Roxana Ortega, Angela Garbes

Unabridged: 7 hr

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 06/26/2018


Synopsis

What to read after What to Expect . . . .  A badass, feminist, and personal deep-dive into the science and culture of pregnancy and early motherhood that debunks myths and dated assumptions, offering guidance and camaraderie to women navigating one of the biggest and most profound changes in their lives.Like most first-time mothers, Angela Garbes was filled with questions when she became pregnant. What exactly is a placenta? How does a body go into labor? Why is breast best? What are the signs and effects of post-partum depression?But as she discovered, it’s not easy to find satisfying answers. Your OB will cautiously quote statistics; online sources will scare you with conflicting and often inaccurate information; 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 myths that surround motherhood to find answers to her questions that had only previously been given through a lens of what women ought to do—instead of allowing them the freedom to choose the right path themselves.In Like a Mother, Angela offers a rigorously researched and compelling look at the physiology, biology, chemistry, and psychology of pregnancy and motherhood, informed by research, reportage, and her own experience. With a journalist’s curiosity and discipline, a mother’s urgency, and a food writer’s insatiability, she explores the science behind the pressing questions women have about a number of subjects, including postpartum hormones, breast milk, and miscarriage.Infused with candor and humor, born out of awe, appreciation, and understanding of the human body and its workings, Like a Mother is a full-frontal look at what’s really happening underneath your skin (and to it), and why women need to know.

About Angela Garbes

Angela Garbes is the author of Like a Mother, an NPR Best Book of the Year and a finalist for the Washington State Book Award in nonfiction. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, The Cut, New York, and Bon Appétit, and has been featured on NPR’s Fresh Air. She lives with her family in Seattle.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jaime on April 09, 2018

This. Is. Excellent. I say that as a mother, as a maternal-child health MPH, and as a woman. This tells it like it is, with the science and research and sociology to back it up. I laughed, i underlined, I wrote in the margins. I only wish I’d had this when I was pregnant. She writes about that dread......more

Goodreads review by Kinga on March 19, 2022

This book was a fairly entertaining and a somewhat informative read, but it could've been so much better. I am also first time pregnant and had not been particularly interested in the subject beforehand, but I was still surprised that Garbes didn't know certain things that were quite obvious to me.......more

Goodreads review by Nori on March 20, 2019

That was an incredibly disappointing read. With all the talk in the reviews and the book itself about how there’s all this great research and emerging science about women’s bodies and pregnancy that simply hasn’t reached the public yet, I think I expected it to be something along the lines of Oster’......more

Goodreads review by Jaci on April 21, 2018

Motherhood- it's an unfolding. Of course, I don't know this firsthand- I cannot relate, but Garbes’ use of the literal unfolding of paper as a metaphor for the transformation of motherhood, gradual and all at once, makes me almost believe I can empathize: “At first, I see the unfurling of tissue and......more

Goodreads review by Jessica on December 26, 2018

At 31 weeks pregnant, this is the first and probably only book about pregnancy that I will have read before my baby arrives. Being pregnant means being constantly overwhelmed and inundated by information. I have been picky about where I seek it—especially if I’m going to be committing myself to a 20......more