Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

All the Living and the Dead: A Personal Investigation Into the Death Trade by Hayley Campbell

11 reviews

idun_aurora's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

An insightful read, is how I would describe the experience. The chapter describing the author's meeting and interview with the bereavement midwife left me teary-eyed.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Pregnancy, Death, Drug abuse, Grief, Child death, Vomit, Suicide, Excrement, Miscarriage, Pandemic/Epidemic, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Terminal illness, Blood, Cancer, War, Car accident, and Violence

kmoz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad slow-paced

4.0

oof

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Medical content

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, and Death of parent

Minor: Cancer, Blood, Pregnancy, Gun violence, and Terminal illness

kmgard's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative medium-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Blood, Child death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Gore, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Death, Grief, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Animal death and Homophobia

brucethegirl's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

An in depth look into the death industry and the people who handle us after we're gone. Detailing every step of the process, and a few of the less traditional aspects, Campbell made it her mission to relay those who work in death are shown with compassion and understanding. 

I adored this book. I personally got a little squeamish about the more medical details involved in the embalming and generally preparing a body for viewing. How the mouth is kept closed and the like. But as Campbell says in the afterward, she never assumed what the reader could and could not handle. She let us make that choice for ourselves. The discussions had about death, about care of the body, about the realities every person will one day face, were all compassionate and gave an understanding that I've never had in my life. 

"The first dead body you see shouldn't be someone you love. You should first learn how to distinguish between death and loss." It's not an exact quote, but easily the most powerful statement the entire book makes. Because its not wrong. The entire book discusses the difference between the natural end of life, and the grief left behind by the loss of a loved one. She talks about how many people have had a hand in their loved ones after life care because they were first exposed to death outside their loss. Grave diggers who buried their mothers and have already dug their own future graves by way of family plots. Morticians who have bled their parents and pumped in chemicals to bring a false sense of life back to their body in preparation for the funeral. A death midwife who was prepared for a worst possible scenario when she faced a complication in pregnancy. All are able to cope, to a degree, with loss because they understand it as separate from death. 

There are some statistics going around recently about why women are the preferred gender for care of a body after death (do not google why). But Campbell mentions a similar statistic but gives an explanation I wasn't expecting. More women are taking courses for this kind of care then men. Ever since the shift in mortuary care went from simply the person with the body to the person handling bereavement. As society becomes less deeply religious, there has been a shift away from the church and towards the people in the business. There is more care involved with a funeral by people. Campbell reasons it might be because of our natural connection with blood, and life, that could lead to a more natural inclination towards that field. Certainly an interesting conclusion. 

This book is just beautiful. I honestly feel like I could write an entire breakdown of everything she discusses. From prison executions to cryo-freezing bodies for a possible future. Every topic she discusses is poignant and I had to take mini breaks between each chapter to think about what I had just learned, and the new approach I'd just been shown. 

My parents are beginning to age, the knowledge that I have a finite time with them is more clear now than ever. This book might not be for everyone coping with death. But it couldn't hurt to check it out if you are. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, Child death, Miscarriage, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Excrement, Drug abuse, Cancer, Suicide, Pregnancy, Gun violence, Gore, Death of parent, and Blood

elvahn's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

4.75

Campbell's book is extremely informative, written truthfully and with care, about various angles of death work. The chapters are ordered in a way that allows the reader to ease into the material (as much as one can, given the topic) before exploring the heavier topics (again, given the topic) therein. 

I read this book in part because I want to find ways to help process and eliminate mysteries surrounding death, to some degree, especially after these last few years. This book helped, examining the topic through a scientific lens while also highlighting all of the care work that often goes unnoticed. If you're interested in these kinds of conversations, I highly recommend reading this book. ...just remember to take breaks! 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Miscarriage, and Medical content

Moderate: Death, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Cancer, Murder, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

Some chapters were more emotionally challenging to read than others, so readers may want to consider planning gentle 'aftercare' rituals for their reading.

jhbandcats's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad medium-paced

5.0

An extraordinarily powerful look at the multiple parts of the death industry, from the person who picks up the body to the one who does the autopsy to the one who dresses the corpse and closes the coffin to the one who digs the grave. Two bits really stuck with me: the man who made sure all original parts were back with the proper body after students and doctors worked on them, and the bereavement midwife. 

I think it must have been especially difficult for the author to see the massive deaths from COVID just when she’d finished writing all but the afterword. 

This book and many of its details have stayed with me - I keep thinking of it. To me that’s the sign of a great book, one that’s really thought provoking. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Medical content, Death, Miscarriage, Grief, Child death, Gore, and Pregnancy

marareading's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative slow-paced

3.5

3.5 rounded up. I definitely enjoyed this. I am a novice to this genre and topic so this might be skewed based on that alone. Her perspective is what made this book fascinating for me. She paid attention to the people in the fields of study and their reactions and lives, not just the processes (however also amazingly fascinating). <Spoiler> I especially loved at the end when she talked about how every person in every profession was separated and usually took issue with a profession in another step of the process. <Spoiler> Overall this is interesting and enjoyable information for me. I learned a lot. If you enjoy this topic this would be a book to gain not just information, but human perspectives from all sides of the industry deal with death. 

There are VERY heavy triggers in this book, including a chapter focused heavily on child/infant death and the last portion of the book repeating reactions to said chapter. Please read with awareness and self care 💜

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Grief, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Cancer, Chronic illness, Pregnancy, Suicide, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, Child death, Classism, Murder, Terminal illness, Gun violence, and Infertility

cadence99's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

3.0

While I had my moments of doubt with this book, mostly due to my concerns of it having the potential to be exploitative towards highly emotional topic, I think it was an overall really worthwhile read. There were some chapters I really didn’t love (the crime scene cleaner particularly), but there were more that I appreciated then those I didn’t. It’s an interesting exploration of the way some cope with the inevitability of death 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Child death, Death of parent, Animal death, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Murder

Minor: Fatphobia

megoscar's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

Wish it was longer!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Terminal illness, Blood, Child death, Cancer, Medical content, Murder, and Pregnancy

clarabooksit's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Child death, Death, Medical content, Cancer, Murder, Grief, and Body horror

Moderate: Suicide, War, Violence, and Pregnancy