Having Faith: an Ecologist's Journey to Motherhood. . - tools for navigating parenthood - book review

Whole Earth,  Spring, 2002  

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Sandra Steingraber 2001; 342 pp. $26. Perseus Publishing

Arriving at the intersection of her professional work as a biologist and her newfound path to motherhood, Susan Steingraber applies the facts from one to the other. This book is both a response to the chaotic, unpredictable process of motherhood in the face of modern technology and an assessment of the ecological precariousness into which we are now birthing our children. It moves smoothly through hard facts. As a mom I related to her stories so intimately that I cried in parts, and then pored over details of studies relating to toxins in the environment with my pen in hand.

Women are told to abstain from a variety of foodstuffs during pregnancy, in order to protect their unborn, but POP (persistent organic pollutants) levels in most fish remain uncontrolled, and ultimately produce as great a danger to the fetus and the nursing infant as drinking forbidden alcoholic beverages and cleaning the cat litter box. Why is this so? If our great concern is fetal health, why can't we address it? And why is medical intervention considered so much more safe than natural, noninterventionist childbirth?

This is a personal journal of pregnancy through childbirth, brilliantly integrating a touchingly personal story with the data about the polluted ecosystem faced by mothers and children the world over. --SGS

"A mother. A stroller. A dozing child. To all outward appearances, this must seem like a perfectly ordinary scene. It occurs to me that there should be some kind of ceremony for the commencement of weaning, as there is for birth, marriage, and other rites of passage. So I whisper a little prayer of commemoration. Sleeping girl, I release you from my breast into the world, where the tides run with fish and berry bushes flutter with migrating birds.

Out on the breakwater, fishermen wave to us as we roll by, and I wave back. They are angling for bluefish, and striped bass. Both are species the state of New Jersey considers too contaminated for children, women of childbearing age, pregnant women and nursing mothers to eat. Dioxin. PCBs. Chlordane ...

May the world's feast be made safe for women and children, May mother's milk run clean again. May denial give way to courageous action. May I always have faith.

"Anesthesia and narcotics can slow down contractions so much that labor grinds to a halt. To speed things back up, uterine-stimulating pitocin is dripped into a mother's veins. This procedure requires fetal monitoring to ensure that the baby is not overly stressed. Tethered to IV poles and ultrasound equipment, the now-actively laboring woman is unable to change her position to alleviate pain. She therefore calls for more drugs. Lying on her back also places the perineum at risk for tearing during delivery and leaves her without the assistance of gravity to help ease the baby out, so she soon receives an episiotomy to widen her vaginal opening and hasten delivery. Thus, anesthesia requires pitocin requires monitoring requires anesthesia requires genital surgery.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Point Foundation
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group