Like a Mother

A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy

By: Angela Garbes

Narrated by: Roxana Ortega, Angela Garbes

What to listen to 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 postpartum 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.

©2018 Angela Garbes (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers

Beautiful!

I’ve been so moved by Angela Garbes’s words.

This book has been a much needed and much loved companion during the third trimester of my first pregnancy.

Terrible Narration

The narration takes away from the story so much. This is my second pregnancy and I agreed w most of what she said.

Not a mom and not pregnant

I enjoyed this book and will be rereading it if/when I go through this process. Lots of good information and leads for future research.

Trying to be great but over does it

This book has many very interesting facts about pregnancy and women’s health, as well as really important themes. But it’s also laced with heavy memoir. Much of this, for me at least, written in a style that is both tedious to read and detracts from the message. Worth a read? Will it give you things to think about deeply? Yes and Yes. But don’t be surprised to feel like it is at times quite a slog and being glad when it’s over.

Fantastic book- awful reading

I’ve listened to this book multiple times. It has been my absolute favorite so far. Beautifully written and balanced with touching stories as well as hard facts. I absolutely love it, but the voiceover reading is awful! It sounds like it’s being read for a 19th drama. Not the vibe of the book at all. But highly recommended for the content!

One of the best books I've read on this topic!

I'm a veteran childbirth educator and cannot recommend this book highly enough. The topics are ones I think all expectant parents (or those trying to conceive) need to read. They are things I talk about a lot with my students, but are too little known in our society. Please read!

Speed the audio up and it's great

The context of the book is wonderful and uncovers many truths that aren't discussed about pregnancy and motherhood. There were many negative reviews regarding the narration, but if you speed it up to 1.4 / 1.5x it's not so monotone and didn't bother me. Would definitely recommend mothers to be to check out this book!

Interesting, but I was hoping for a little more...

Like a Mother by Angela Garbes was interesting and there was some interesting and useful information in there, but the summary described this book as a bit more of the "No BS" version of What to Expect...In the beginning and through a decent portion of this book, I'd say that there WAS some good, no BS information there that was presented in an easy to understand, feminist type way, which I enjoyed. Then there were the parts that I just didn't care about at all, for example where the author when on to talk about how her four year old plays with her vagina and gets pleasure from it and how she is encouraged to talk about her vagina and touch it. I don't know...it was just a bit odd and really went more into the authors own story and deviated from the informative stuff that the author was presenting back in the beginning of the book.

Angela Garbes narrated a very small portion of the book, though the majority of the book was narrated by Roxana Ortega. This is my first time listening to Ms. Ortega narrate, and though others have said that she's much better in other performances, I wasn't loving her performance narrating this book. It was pretty bland and depressing sounding. It just wasn't for me.

Overall, if I had to do it again, I won't have spent a credit on it, as I just didn't feel that it lived up to the hype that the well-written publishers summary had promised. I'd buy it on a good sale though.

Transformative

Beautifully written, informative and helping me to accept who I am and who I am becoming. Every mother no matter the age of their children should read this book.

A must read

This was an eye opening book and the author is BRILLIANT! 10/10 recommend you read it!