This book inhabits a niche that is neglected by both scientists and by the "mommy" writers' crowd: a story about being a pregnant human who is also a biologist, in a world permeated by toxins. I found it to be among the most humane - and human - of all the books I've read about being pregnant (among other things, it respects the dignity of the woman who is pregnant and later a mother, without sliding into EarthWombMother woo-woo or infantilizing her as a weird sort of sexualized child-being). The environmental message it speaks in alternate breaths is disturbing, as it should be.

(Even more disturbing is the way that such messages have been, and continue to be, ignored.)

Ecologist Sandra Steingraber examines her own pregnancy and motherhood through an ecologist's lens. She identifies how the failure of governments to operate by the Precautionary Principle (a chemical must be shown to be safe before use, instead of being assumed harmless until proven dangerous) has damaged the environment at large and many individuals (fetuses, breastfed children, mothers). She asserts that governments ought to regulate the chemicals companies produce and sell; it should not be the responsibility of pregnant women and new mothers to try to protect themselves from dangerous pesticides and heavy metals present in food, etc.

In addition, Steingraber offers the most thorough, honest, and understandable account of the process of labor and delivery, as well as the most articulate explanation for why the weeks and months following an infant's birth are so difficult (lack of sleep causes a slowdown of daily tasks just as they need to be sped up).

Quotes

What is known about teratogenic chemicals in the environment? Where are they located, and who is exposed? The answers are "pathetically little" and "nobody knows." ...Most chemicals have not been tested for their ability to have teratogenic effects. (88)

...the popular books and magazines do not talk much about...environmental issues....There is some kind of disconnect between what we know scientifically and what is presented to pregnant women seeking knowledge about prenatal life. (105)

"In ignorance, abstain." Why does abstinence in the face of uncertainty apply only to individual behavior? Why doesn't it apply equally to industry or agriculture? ...It's pregnant women who have to live with the consequences of public decisions. (107-108)

Obviously, a public health policy that asks expectant mothers to give up certain foods while allowing industries to continue contaminating them is absurd. (128)

...a failure to acknowledge the unique position of the breast-fed infant within the ecological world [at the top of the food chain] prevents us from having an informed public conversation about a very real problem: the biomagnified presence of persistent toxic chemicals in breast milk. (251)

"Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation." (1992 Earth Summit, Brazil)

More quotes in private notes section ( )

All time classic. At times terrifying, at times incredibly uplifting, it's the story of pregnancy through the eyes of a biologist and environmental toxicologist. So much more science based that most pregnancy books, but also much more beautifully written than most science books. ( )

I highly recommend this to parents and even anyone who's just thinking about having children one day. The book reads alternatively like a science book and a memoir, and I really enjoyed the marriage of the two. The "science" parts are done in a way that makes them relatively easy to understand, and they're interspersed with stories of the author's own experiences being pregnant and mothering her daughter in the first couple years of her life.

But what I most enjoyed about this book was the frankness about environmental hazards and their impact to pregnant and nursing mothers and their children, such as industrial poisons that wind up in amniotic fluid. If only everyone looked at things the way the author does, we'd have much safer pregnancies and children.

Here are a few parts of the book that really stood out to me:
* If our goal is to protect human embryos, we cannot afford to wait until we understand everything about how a chemical might inflict its damage.
* ...the presumption that heredity can account for many birth defects continues to this day, even though there is little evidence to support it...In fact, most of what is known about developmental abnormalities points to a much larger role for the environment.
* Besides, the sense of safety offered by bottled water is a mirage. It turns out that breathing, not drinking, constitutes our main route of exposure to volatile pollutants in tap water, such as solvents, pesticides, and byproducts of water chlorination. As soon as the toilet is flushed or the faucet turned on--or the bathtub, the shower, the humidifier, the washing machine--these contaminants leave the water and enter the air. A recent study shows that the most efficient way of exposing yourself to chemical contaminants in tap water is to turn on a dishwasher. (This surprises you?) Drink a bottle of French water and then step into the shower for ten minutes, and you've just received the exposure equivalent of drinking a half gallon of tap water.

She also recommends finding out what the Toxics Release Inventory shows for your community if you're pregnant or planning to be, so I'm off to do that now... ( )

This book is an amazing look at the scientific side of pregnancy--not the normal how is the baby growing, but why you don't eat ____. I really enjoyed it.

Note* If you get paranoid easily, don't read while you are pregnant. ( )