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A review by pyrrhicspondee
Home/Birth: A Poemic by Arielle Greenberg, Rachel Zucker
3.0
I read this book in two days. If I didn't already have a toddler, it would have been one. Lots of good stuff about the fucked up maternity care system in America. Good arguments for home birth and doulas and midwives. Scary statistics about c-sections and unnecessary interventions. It was like reading a conversation about The Business of Being Born.
And holy cow did I cry at the end. Spoiler alert! The Maine home birth ends in stillbirth. Not the thing to read while pregnant and hormonal. And I like these women. No one wants to read about a stillbirth. Too fucking sad.
But was it a "poemic"? No. Was it poetic? No. Was it really filled with rage? No. The italicized sections in verse (I'm not sure I want to call them poems, but they had line breaks, so I can legitimately call them verse) were BAD. Like, BAD BAD BAD. I can't believe they were allowed to stay in the book.
Arielle Greenberg edited Gurlesque, which I adored, and I wish this book had more of the gurlesque asthetic. Which is to say, I wish it had more of the grotesque and the girly and the surreal, and not just crap about being "witchy" and the purity of birth and how empowering it is. Whatever. And I am very sympathetic to this argument.
So, as non-fiction: probably four or five stars. As poetry, it was a stinker.
Still, if you are uninitiated in the world of birth politics and feminist takes on maternity care, this would be an excellent place to get your feet wet.
And holy cow did I cry at the end. Spoiler alert! The Maine home birth ends in stillbirth. Not the thing to read while pregnant and hormonal. And I like these women. No one wants to read about a stillbirth. Too fucking sad.
But was it a "poemic"? No. Was it poetic? No. Was it really filled with rage? No. The italicized sections in verse (I'm not sure I want to call them poems, but they had line breaks, so I can legitimately call them verse) were BAD. Like, BAD BAD BAD. I can't believe they were allowed to stay in the book.
Arielle Greenberg edited Gurlesque, which I adored, and I wish this book had more of the gurlesque asthetic. Which is to say, I wish it had more of the grotesque and the girly and the surreal, and not just crap about being "witchy" and the purity of birth and how empowering it is. Whatever. And I am very sympathetic to this argument.
So, as non-fiction: probably four or five stars. As poetry, it was a stinker.
Still, if you are uninitiated in the world of birth politics and feminist takes on maternity care, this would be an excellent place to get your feet wet.