My favorite pregnancy book for the beautiful writing style and informative value is Having Faith: An Ecologist's Journey to Motherhood. It is written by Sandra Steingraber and the first part is organized according to folk names for the monthly moons. It begins with the "old moon" and ends with the 9th "harvest moon." After which the book concludes with several chapters on the experience of new motherhood. Pregnancy books tend to be organized according to a nine month calendar which can be very repetitive for anyone who has read more than one so the labeling of each month with a different name was a nice change.
What is unique about Steingraber's writing is that she does not just detail the development of the fetus. Instead, she discusses development and how it can be negatively effected at each stage of fetal development. This is unusual as most books about pregnancy avoid topics that are not necessarily under a pregnant woman's control.
The driving force behind the book seems to be not only to bring awareness to environmental pollution, but to change the plane of conversation about ecological degradation. Steingraber poses her question to her husband,
'"Why is there no public conversation about environmental threats to pregnancy?"'
and a more structural question
'"Why does abstinence in the face of uncertainty apply only to individual behavior? Why doesn't it apply equally to industry or agriculture?"'
The answer given is that pregnancy is personal whereas industry and agriculture are public. To provide people with the information that Steingraber is giving is overwhelming. A pregnant woman can not do anything to change the state of the ecological environment so really it is better not to talk about it. Let women obsess about what they can control. It makes sense that our culture would encourage women to worry about how much coffee they are drinking. Many women already keep track of what they eat for dieting purposes. So making pregnancy and environment a personal issue prevents women (and people in general) from advocating for environmental protection and remediation.
This is one of the few pregnancy books which has a message that could be meaningful beyond pregnancy, and beyond one's first pregnancy. Because most books about pregnancy after one's first pregnancy are for me, beyond tedious.
What is unique about Steingraber's writing is that she does not just detail the development of the fetus. Instead, she discusses development and how it can be negatively effected at each stage of fetal development. This is unusual as most books about pregnancy avoid topics that are not necessarily under a pregnant woman's control.
The driving force behind the book seems to be not only to bring awareness to environmental pollution, but to change the plane of conversation about ecological degradation. Steingraber poses her question to her husband,
'"Why is there no public conversation about environmental threats to pregnancy?"'
and a more structural question
'"Why does abstinence in the face of uncertainty apply only to individual behavior? Why doesn't it apply equally to industry or agriculture?"'
The answer given is that pregnancy is personal whereas industry and agriculture are public. To provide people with the information that Steingraber is giving is overwhelming. A pregnant woman can not do anything to change the state of the ecological environment so really it is better not to talk about it. Let women obsess about what they can control. It makes sense that our culture would encourage women to worry about how much coffee they are drinking. Many women already keep track of what they eat for dieting purposes. So making pregnancy and environment a personal issue prevents women (and people in general) from advocating for environmental protection and remediation.
This is one of the few pregnancy books which has a message that could be meaningful beyond pregnancy, and beyond one's first pregnancy. Because most books about pregnancy after one's first pregnancy are for me, beyond tedious.
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