New Books Make a Bad Day Better

After a very frustrating start to my day dealing with insurance companies, billing and access to medical care for the kids, I was in a pretty cranky mood with two tired, hungry and sick kids. On the way home from all of that, I stopped to get mail. A package from Amazon was there for me. Inside was a shipment of books that I ordered with a $50 gift card granted by reward point on my credit card. But even better than that was the pile of books another resident had left in front of the community center hoping that another resident (like me!) would want them. Among them included copies of The Birth Partner by Penny Simkin and Marie Mongan's Hynobirthing text. Already having those on my shelf at home, I feel like I majorly scored when I saw these titles:



This one I'm excited about because it combines my passions and my interests throughout my education: couple relationships as a dyad of family structure and early care and education birth to 5. This has a special term that describes this period: transition to parenthood. Even though I'm very familiar with the term and some of the research relating to it, I had failed to previously view my current interests in terms of issues relating to transition to parenthood. Yes, the missing link in my thinking. I now have the idea in my mind that I can find potential PhD advisors through finding people who special in transition to parenthood issues. The lead author of the book, Pamela Jordan, is actually on faculty at the Univerisity of Washington. I've met her, actually, when preparing to apply to graduate school for my Master's degree. She's in, of all places, the nursing department and not currently taking students as far as I know. Not applying to the nursing PhD program has been something I've debated with myself over and over too.



This book has been highly recommended to me but I've never invested the money into buying it, and now I don't have to! I would say that I take breastfeeding for granted a bit. I haven't had many challenges in my nursing relationships with my two babies. By the time I encountered challenges, it was while nursing an older toddler and most books don't address those questions. Yet, this I know will be a good reference book to have on hand, even if it is one of the older editions.

And to go on to what I ordered and received today, 3 titles that I'm excited to add to my library:



I still haven't read this, even though arguably its the most influential midwifery text since midwifery was reinvented in America in the 1970s, by Ina May Gaskin herself! One of my favorite informing yourself about birth books is Ina May's Guide to Childbirth, which is written more for an audience of expectant mothers in mind, while Spiritual Midwifery can read a lot like a do-it yourself guide, or textbooks for midwives. As I've been ambivalent about pursing midwifery, I had put off reading it, until I picked it up and starting looking at it at Barnes and Noble while Willem and Belle played at the train table. I do wonder, though, if I will pick up much new information than what I've already learned.

Note to the workers at the U Village Barnes and Noble, great idea to move the parenting and childcare section in easy access of the train table and children's section. I am there frequently (read about 2 times a week) so having reading material handy is very nice. Next, please move Mothering Magazine to the magazine rack next to the train table.



I'm am very intrigued by Michel Odent's conclusions from his work with childbearing women over the last few decades, although I don't know much about it. I'm branching out by purchasing this to be further informed in the processes of development and its associations with nature, neurobiology and behavior (hey, that's what my husband studies!)



I'm getting this one mainly for recipes and to learn about some concepts that are new to me: lacto-fermented foods and beverages, soaking grains and eating according to cultural heritage. At the beginning of the book, there is a good introduction to what is incorrect about conventional nutrition recommendations as well as to the terms that American's are not very familiar with. However, it by no means is in depth so I'll be having to delve in further to understand these concepts. The recipes, I hope will be fun to experiment with. Especially given the liberalness of animal products promoted in it. Peter will soon be making a German speciality Grunkohl which takes using animal fat quite literally--its kale cooked in goose fat (although we could only find duck fat, we'll see how it turns out).

Since I haven't finished reading the last books I got from an Amazon gift card (Birth as an American Rite of Passage by Robbie Davis Floyd and Obstetric Myths vs Research Realities), I'll have reading material for awhile!