Life After Birth
by Kate Figes
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List Price: ££9.99
Our Price: ££3.74
Your Save: £ 0.00 ( % )
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
Manufacturer: Virago Press Ltd
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 618
EAN: 9781844084661
ISBN: 1844084663
Label: Virago Press Ltd
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: 2008-08-07
Publisher: Virago Press Ltd
Studio: Virago Press Ltd
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: The author's views presented as facts- irritating.
Comment: I found this book irritating and wish I had not been enticed by the encouraging introduction. Apart from the relentless negativity about motherhood I found that the information seemed to be the author's views presented as facts. So instead of saying "I believe" to make a point she would state her views as if they were applicable to all people. There were so many generalisations.She also tended to focus on views that supported her own experiences. For example, when talkng about women going back to work she wanted to reduce the supposed guilt women feel (noble) but used stay at home mothers as the scapegoat,implying that they are selfish and wanting to keep their children to themselves. She did not seem to consider that women might find it stressful trying to do two jobs at once and choose to focus on motherhood even if they will struggle financially or find it a bit repetitive. I felt this was looking down upon the various choices women want to make about their lives.
When talking about relationships, she makes a highly annoying statement as fact about the passion in all relationships fizzling out and couples beginning to fantasise about other people. Again this is a huge assumption and I felt like telling her to "speak for herself." There are other examples of these generalisations.
I enjoyed the quotes from the various mothers's experiences and wish there were more, though, again these views seem to have been chosen to back up her views. After ranting for most of each chapter, there was little actual advice, instead some patronising comment about how it would all be worth it in the end, as if women are not capable of reaching this conclusion on their own.
I think the sociological research throughout is interesting and the health problems at the end of the chapters truly helpful, but this book tried to tell me how I should think and feel and may be more damaging in the long run.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Essential Reading for New Mums!!!
Comment: I agree with all the previous positive reviews....an amazing book.
When my baby was 8 months old I was diagnosed with Post Natal depression. I had felt low for months, was struggling on thinking it was just the stress of being new at this parenting lark. After diagnosis I picked up this book and it has made me feel so positive. The fact is when you feel low about being a mum, you feel so lonely, and books such as this which shatter the myth of motherhood reassure you that you are not the only mother feeling this way, it's just unfortunately still a taboo in our society.
If you are feeling down about being a mummy or your relationship is suffering due to your new arrival I strongly recommend this book. It will make you realise your feelings ARE normal and you WILL feel better.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Just what I needed!
Comment: As a new first time mother of a gorgeous girl I had no idea how unprepared for life after birth. The unadulterated joy and depth of love is beyond compare.
But none tells you about the fears, stresses and loss of self. I supose had anyone tried to tell me whilst I was pregnant I wouldn't have wanted to hear and wouldn't really have understood, so I think that this is a book to read in the first months after birth. I identified with so much, and didn't feel nearly so 'alone' after reading it.
No, she doesn't talk too much about the 'ups' but that's not what the purpose of the book is. So many of the new mums I have met have perpetuated the myth that all is well after birth, that it is easy with little change to your relationships. This book is real.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Life after birth
Comment: Not being a reader normally and just having given birth I found this book excellent. I enjoyed the history covering all aspects of childbirth and the aftermath!!. I laughed out loud at the similarities with my own life that were written in black and white and was relieved that someone else had encountered them. I feel that this book has given me confidence in myself as a mother, in that there's no need to get all hung up about what anyone else says, as children have grown up and survived for hundreds of years. I also think that blokes would enjoy the book from a historical point of view, but gain an empathetic insight into the things mothers have to deal with - which is a bonus...us not having to nag on and on and on!!!
Customer Rating:
Summary: My saviour!
Comment: There will always be those who claim that everything about having a baby (from conception, through pregnancy, through birth itself and then breastfeeding and caring for your child for ever more) is absolute heaven. But most of us know that reality is rarely as straightforward or as uniform as that. Like everything else, motherhood has its ups and its downs, its highs and its lows. Figes offers a realistic (and often personal) account of motherhood. Some women may find their own experiences differ but Figes is not saying that we are all the same, she simply reports (very extensively) on the experiences of many women.
I read the book both before and after the birth of my first child, and dipped into it again during and after my second pregnancy. It was essential to my sanity at the time. Reading what Figes wrote about post-pregnancy recovery times, the emotional aspects of having a baby in your life, the changing familial relationships, the realities of going back to work helped me develop realistic expectations for myself. Long before I had the baby, I realised that I wasn't going to just breeze out of the maternity unit and back to a life exactly the same as the old one, but with the difference of a small infant in tow. This knowledge was critical to my surviving the early weeks. I didn't get post-natal depression and I am sure that to a large extent this was due to the honesty of books like Figes' (and to honest friends) who did not shy away from telling it how it is thereby helping me to be better prepared for what lay ahead. By all means read the rosy books too and get excited about what you are experiencing, but read this as well so the dream doesn't all come crashing down around your (rather bloated) feet!
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