Thirty acclaimed writers share their personal birth stories—the extraordinary, the ordinary, the terrifying, the sublime, the profane
It's an elemental, almost animalistic urge—the expectant mother's hunger for birth narratives. Bookstores are filled with month-by-month pregnancy manuals, but the shelves are virtually empty of artful, entertaining, unvarnished accounts of labor and delivery—the stories that new mothers need most.
Here is a book that transcends the limits of how-to guides and honors the act of childbirth in the twenty-first century. Eleanor Henderson and Anna Solomon have gathered true birth stories by women who have made self-expression their business, including Cheryl Strayed, Julia Glass, Lauren Groff, Dani Shapiro, and many other luminaries.
In Labor Day, you'll read about women determined to give birth naturally and others begging for epidurals; women who pushed for hours and women whose labors were over practically before they'd started; women giving birth to twins and to ten-pound babies. These women give birth in the hospital, at home, in bathtubs, and, yes, even in the car. Some revel in labor, some fear labor, some feel defeated by labor, some are fulfilled by it—and all are amazed by it. You will laugh, weep, squirm, perhaps groan in recognition, and undoubtedly gasp with surprise. And then you'll call every mother or mother-to-be that you know and say "You MUST read Labor Day."
Contributors:
Nuar Alsadir
Amy Brill
Susan Burton
Sarah Shun-lien Bynum
Lan Samantha Chang
Phoebe Damrosch
Claire Dederer
Jennifer Gilmore
Julia Glass
Arielle Greenberg
Lauren Groff
Eleanor Henderson
Cristina Henriquez
Amy Herzog
Ann Hood
Sarah Jefferis
Heidi Julavits
Mary Beth Keane
Marie Myung-Ok Lee
Edan Lepucki
Heidi Pitlor
Joanna Rakoff
Jane Roper
Danzy Senna
Dani Shapiro
Anna Solomon
Cheryl Strayed
Sarah A. Strickley
Rachel Jamison Webster
Gina Zucker