Journal of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (JMI - York University)

Kinser, Amber E.

Holding On by Letting Go: Personal Agency as Maternal Activism

Baumel, Judith

 journal of the motherhood initiative       225 
Mother Tongues
judith baumel
1. Praying a Niggun
Ya na na na na na na na ya na na na na na na na
Bim bam bim bam bim bim bam 
Ya na na na na na na na ya na na na na na na na
Lai diddle diddle dai dai dai dai diddle dai.
The mystics say melody was our first embrace.
How distant that moment. I want words in my eyes,
the silent embrace before 
a tune cleaves my childish breast.
How broken and long ago it was before words.
The stone that my father refused 
is now the head cornerstone.
2. Cleaning House
After years speaking it my brain 
is tired.  It does not want any more
to remember the snap front house
dresses with shirred sleeves.
It does not want to touch terry
judith baumel
226       volume 4, number 1
towels smeared with grime where
hands swipe after soapless rinsing. 
Newspapers and magazines stacked 
on tables, chairs, floors, weary me 
who does not want to hear cluck
or hiss when my cortex misses the mark.


English

Mother-Tongues

Triplett, Pimone

154            volume 4, number 2
The Rumour of Myth
(Thetis on Achilles, the son)
pimone triplett
Starts in estuary 
  whelm and whirl of rock-skin,
 sea-swell, the hove called salt. 
    I loved
the hero-to-be, 
   his life first arrowed unto me,
    scudding, spared, still  
    unconscious. 
   No
    he and she to wash
  away yet, my 
inhale planked to his ex—.
   Plus our everywhere wet
     trough 
      in the tidal
 waves repeating 
   over and over. 
Given, milky teats, realm of belly,
given, his body my body by faith. 
Which to keep him I’d
   cozen, always,
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 journal of the motherhood initiative            155 
guarding every
   waterway I owned.
See hand, heart, heel   
    where I dipped him, to save. 
  
  See the would-be bargain,
    back ridge of epic,
 
hovering in half-truths as if I really could
    unwick what was to come.
In the end when they took him 
   the spell of the world sang
   name, rank, date
of birth, your mother’s
    maiden, your father’s post.
Still, I said no hands
    out the window, boy,
 I said no swimming
    at the water’s edge. 
 Sand’s oozy blank’s where they’ve got oblivion, boy,
 so listen you get back here right now.
 Nothing worked. He wanted all the wrong
    toys, tanker’s prow,
the true-edged sword , a golden set of spears. 
 And when it came to the armor, god-hammered, bronze
   through the beam,
     well, I never begged. Another 
    exoskeleton, extra
skull. Though I’d made him perfect, zodiac’d
    to last.
pimone triplett
156            volume 4, number 2
     Meanwhile, time being,
   on that outline-horizon,
    you could see empire
serrated at the edges: junk boats,
    great ships, 
the soldiers waving, even the geese
  defined in V’s.
   Soon each new sight needled.
 And Fame, that bitch, stuck
like a splinter inside him, 
   cutting the flesh
in whispers, rumoring,
 you can win, you can win.
   Wood hewn like a beast at the door.


The Rumour of Myth

Burke, Anne

book reviews
192             volume 4,  number 2
Noble Orphan: Poems
Andrea Nicki. 
Bradford, Ontario: Demeter Press, 2012.
reviewed by anne burke
A self-professed “orphan” and traitor who abandons her “unlivable” fami-
ly is transformed as the family hero in the title poem of Noble Orphan, the 
The title poem, “my mother did not tell stories,” concludes the volume’s 
first section and offers a fresh perspective on gender roles. The mother gives 
“advice” to her children, such as “don’t ask your brother to dry the dishes.” 
While the implied meaning is that this household chore should be delegated 
to a female, the speaker challenges this assumption. The speaker also sym-
pathetically reveals her mother’s struggle with the daily demands of mother-
hood and marriage, as seen when her mother keeps “running away.”
The second section, “River Valley Poems,” broadens the focus on mother-
hood to include nature and community. In “After-Earth: second spring,” for 
example, the speaker recalls losing property to the rising river and ponders 
the different seasons: “winter” was a “friend” and “spring” was “a dangerous 
time.” Yet, by the end of May, the speaker’s cabin is rebuilt by the river and 
the earth is fecund like a pregnant body: “the returned earth is placental.”
The last section, “Drawing Circles,” returns to the themes of motherhood, 
marriage, nature, and family. In “Translating the Bush,” the speaker’s dream 
of pregnancy evokes her grandmother’s life in a “cabin-cocoon on the river-
bank.” She marvels at her grandmother’s ability to balance her numerous dai-
ly chores with helping women with “swollen white bellies.” The speaker also 
reflects upon her daughter’s activities, such as “chasing toads and butterflies,” 
as the women in the poem merge into the different elements of earth.
By the concluding poem, “How to Look Good Naked,” Kruk adopts a 
lighter, more humorous approach. As she laments the numerous ways she has 
tried to lose weight through various workout and diet methods, the speaker 
notes that her scars and stretch marks from pregnancy should be celebrat-
ed not hidden. The speaker states that women’s post-pregnancy bodies are 
strong “mappings” of where “babies were made” and “fathers were born.” She 
calls for women to rise “like a birch,” so they may stand in awe of their bodies’ 
strength. This last poem is a powerful ending that honours the maternal body.
book reviews
 journal of the motherhood initiative             193 
second collection of poems by Andrea Nicki. In the first section, “Teaching 
esl,” the speaker’s role as a language instructor is contextualized as surrogate 
“cross-cultural” mother—“difficult and demoralizing.” Conflicts and chal-
lenges characterize the poems in this section, where the sibilance of “sounds / 
sea” and “seashell” form part of an accented voice.
In the second section, “Homeless Neighbour,” the speaker associates animal 
bites with a human bite, the sign of “a personality conflict.” She experiences 
adaptations in nature and camouflage which resonate in “dull, bureaucratic 
environments.” Many of the poems in this section are work-centred, written 
from the point of view of a bus driver, a radio announcer, and other workers.
The third section, “Noble Orphan,” relies in part on documents. Here the 
speaker observes the gap between scientific measuring devices in a laboratory 
and the soul, a metaphor for bodily abuse and the realignment of her spir-
it. She contemplates her own trauma, unanticipated survival, and the use of 
pharmaceuticals in treating mental health problems, which culminates in a 
found poem composed of a diagnostic questionnaire.
The poem “Cousins” recollects fragments of family stories amid newspaper 
and academic articles containing research on sex offenders. The language is 
specific and analytical, reinforced by an incantatory refrain: “We are the black 
sheep / We are the outcasts / We are the orphaned / We are part of the whole 
story.” “Mother’s Day” invokes an ancient conjuring power to raise the speak-
er’s mother from the dead, but “she always preferred me / silent, stillborn.” 
Hence, to send flowers would be “like sending / flowers to my grave.” Instead, 
the speaker collects flowers from the garden, dropping a penny in a pond, to 
wash away “all bitterness and hurt.” She also embraces the healing potential 
of goddesses, female prayer, and prayer beads.
In the fourth and final section, “Sufi Heat Rose,” the speaker is soothed 
by poetry, the holding of hands, interconnectedness, a peacock eye, naked 
cherubs, and sacred song. Finally, she appreciates a lesbian, matriarchal order, 
her persona as a radical, young Sappho translating a horrific catalogue, punc-
tuated by instances of eco-feminist spirituality.


Noble Orphan: Poems

Onuora, Adwoa Ntozake

208             volume 3, number 1
This is a story that illustrates the consequences of a purposeful and conscious mater-
nal pedagogy that effectuates cultural, racial and identity consciousness. Through 
the transference of cultural knowledges, the homeplace becomes a site of maternal 
activism (hooks 2007). In this story, I underscore the centrality of the African mother 
in engendering a strong sense of self in African children, arguing that the African 
mother activates her maternal activism through her embodied Afro-indigenous 
knowledges. In this way, she becomes a site from which the African child reads to 
discover meaning. 
Introduction 
This storied memory emanated from a larger arts-informed narrative inquiry 
on the relationship between mothering and teaching among women of African 
descent. It marks the beginning of my self-reflections on and exploration into 
the pedagogical consequences of “mothering peoples” (O’Reilly and Ruddick 
31) of African descent and in particular women identified African mothers who 
are actively engaged in the socio-cultural, identity and educational development 
of African children. This story attests to the potentialities of a purposeful Af-
rican feminist maternal pedagogy where the African mother’s body becomes a 
pedagogical site and a site of knowledge production. Importantly, it witnesses 
maternal and child empowerment through rootedness in traditions, herstories, 
and through the transmission of Afro-indigenous generational and embodied 
knowledges. The story’s framework holds that African descended mothers 
through their culturally specific motherwork, serve as transformer activist for 
African children and by extension the larger African community. 
I Feel Therefore I Can Be/long:
Cultural Bearing as Maternal Activism 
adwoa ntozake onuora
i feel therefore i  can be/long
 journal of the motherhood initiative             209 
I’m a Black girl 
“Mommy, look, the sun is waking up.” She stirs the sheets, nudges my shoulder 
and sways her legs back and forth under the covers. When I pretend not to 
hear her, she peels back the curtain slightly. A steady streak of incandescent 
sunlight splashes over my face.
“Damn it!” I mumble under my breath before covering my head to keep 
the sunlight out of my eyes. I fall back into sleep mode. She continues to 
duck and dive under and out of the sheets beside me. A cacophony of sounds 
in the distance—the roar of the city traffic ten floors below, cars honking a 
series of interminable honks, dogs barking as their owners take them for their 
early morning walks, sirens screaming, and wailing drunkards who had been 
hollering from the night before continue into the early morning—pull me 
out of my abysmal dream. I lay, now half awake, with the sunlight seeping in 
through my once darkened cavern of sleep. 
Still groggy, peeling back the sheet a little I peek through half-opened eyelids 
at my daughter now kneeling upright in bed with her shoulders taut. 
I feel for my cell phone. It vibrates as I am trying to locate it. 
It is 6:30 a.m. And even though I have grown accustomed to the early 
morning stirrings of my three-year-old alarm clock, I lay anaesthetized unable 
to fathom how it is that no matter how I had exhausted her the night before, 
she could awake and, just like my cell phone, sound off an alarm at that precise 
hour each day. 
 “Okay, baby, okay,” I say, slowly opening my eyes. The curtains screech across 
the iron rod as she pulls them farther apart. She returns to where I am laying, 
jerks my shoulders and pries my eyelids open with her tiny fingers. I awake to 
a now unrestrained sunlight barreling through the neat part in thick curtains 
my daughter just created. 
In a high-pitched tone she repeats, only this time yelling, “Mommy wake 
up! The sun is awake and the moon is gone to sleep, time to get up! ”
“Ma’at, Mommy’s tired. Just a few more minutes, I just need a few more 
minutes, okay?” I say pleading with her. 
She doesn’t hear me. She tells me instead, “But Mommy, I want something 
to eat.”
“Alright, alright. What do you want to eat for breakfast?” I ask even though I 
know she will say, “sweet honey and peanut butter on bread and chocolate milk.”
Now, having my full attention, she scampers off the bed, skips off through 
the bedroom door, and twirls down the short hallway into the kitchen. I slip out 
from under the covers, quickly tighten the robe about my waist and follow her. 
Reaching into the cupboards, I pull out a jar of almond butter and agave 
nectar. I spoon a dollop of almond butter, drizzle some agave nectar onto a slice 
adwoa ntozake onuora
210             volume 3, number 2
of bread before spreading them on the slices of bread. I walk over to her small 
play table in the living room area where she sits waiting. I place the stainless 
steel plate before her with a glass of chocolate almond milk. 
“A sandwich, Mommy,” she says, doling out a command. “Squish it together 
like a sandwich.” 
I fold the bread in half, one side covering the other. She beams her approval. 
Seated at my desk I open the laptop, click on iTunes, and select a song from 
my reggae dancehall playlist. I open up the browser and go to my e-mail inbox. 
The subject line of 50 unread messages flash across the screen in bolded 
black—a reminder of people I have yet to get back to. I close the browser, tilt 
my head and look off to the side where Ma’at sits. I watch as she frets bread 
edges before meticulously laying them out onto her silver plate in a series of 
triangular shapes. Our eyes meet. I smile. She smiles back sheepishly with her 
stuffed jaw knowing that I will ask her to eat the bread edges because they are 
good for her. She chews, places her half-eaten almond butter sandwich down, 
hums, dances in her seat and taps her feet. 
A fast beat dancehall song starts to play. She rises up and the chair careens 
from under her legs on the floor. 
She screams excitedly twirling towards me. “Look at me Mommy. Look. 
See me dancing,” she continues with her hands at her side, waist twisting and 
hips grinding in awkward circular motion. 
“Ma’at,” I ask smiling. “What are you doing?” 
“I’m dancing, Mommy. I’m dancing! Now it’s your turn to dance, Mommy.” 
She marches toward me, pulls me up from the chair and screams, “You have 
to stand up, Mommy!” 
Bass pounds at the foot of the table. Vibrations travel shaking pens, books, 
and bits of papers on my desk. The tiny lamp perched beside my laptop glides 
and jerks to the beat. I feel the hardwood floor quake beneath my feet as reggae 
artist Beenie Man’s “Sim simma whose got di keys to ma bimma (Simmer 
who’s got the keys to my bmw)” blasts through the speakers. 
“Child, that’s not how you wine. Do like so,” I say crouching with my legs 
spread slightly apart demonstrating a smooth grinding motion. 
She imitates, her waist moving rapidly off beat.
I laugh loudly at her ungainly hip movements. 
“Yu way too stiff Ma’at. Free up yuself gyal. Yu dance like a white girl (You 
are way too stiff, Ma’at. Free up yourself, girl. You’re dancing like a white girl)”, 
I say to her chuckling. 
She continues her awkward hip thrusting motion. “No,” she responds gig-
gling. “I’m not a white girl, I’m a black girl, Mommy.”
I stop sedated, my hands spread out to the side still suspended mid air from 
my half completed demonstration of The Butterfly dance. I stare at her quietly, 
i feel therefore i  can be/long
 journal of the motherhood initiative             211 
trying to understand whether she knew what she had just said. I wanted to 
stop the music and probe her. I wanted to explain to her how important that 
knowledge of self was. 
Instead, I take her hands and pull her towards me. I lift her to my chest and 
lower her to the ground. Laughter spills from her lips as I spin and twirl her 
rapidly in the air.
Eventually dizzied, we collapse. Her juice-stained tv blanket receives us 
as we meet with the floor. We lay panting heavily. I hear the music selection 
switch and Bob Marley and The Wailers’ Babylon System fades in: 
We refused to be what you wanted us to be
We are who we are that’s the way it’s going to be
If you don’t know 
You can’t educate us for no equal opportunities (Talking ‘bout my freedom)
Talking ‘bout freedom, people, freedom and liberty …
Babylon system is a vampire 
Sucking the children day by day. Yeah
Babylon system is a vampire (Vampire)
Sucking the blood of the sufferer. Yeah
Building church and university 
Deceiving the people continually….
 
There lying on the blanket, the side of my head pressed up against my daugh-
ter’s, I feel a strange feeling of happiness and relief overcome me. Reaching 
for my cell phone, I shoot off a text message to her village aunties and uncles: 
“You wouldn’t believe what Ma’at just told me as we were dancing. I’m a Black 
girl! She tells me she’s a Black girl. Lol!”
The phone vibrates almost immediately in my hand. A text message flashes 
across the display screen. “She’s got it, no need to worry Mamma, our little 
girl has got it.” 
My heart flutters, my lips part into a faint smile. My mind dissolves melding 
with the sweet sounds of the Bob Marley as he wails on….
Tell the children the truth
Tell the children the truth
Come on now, tell the children the truth….  (Rebel, Rebel) 
References
Green, Fiona Joy. “Developing a Feminist Motherline: Reflections on a Decade 
adwoa ntozake onuora
212             volume 3, number 2
of Feminist Parenting.” Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering 
8.1 (2006): 7-20. Print. 
Green, Fiona Joy. “Feminist Maternal Pedagogies: Inside and Outside the 
Classroom.” Maternal Pedagogies Inside and Outside the Classroom. Eds. 
Fiona Joy Green and Deborah Lee Byrd. Bradford, on: Demeter Press, 
2011. 197-211. Print. 
Green, Fiona Joy. Feminist Mothering in Theory and Practice, 1985-1995. Lew-
iston, ny: The Edwin Mullen Press, 2009. Print. 
hooks, bell. “Homeplace: A Site of Resistance.” Maternal Theory: Essential 
Readings. Ed. Andrea O’Reilly. Toronto: Demeter Press, 2007. 266-273. Print. 
Marley, Bob & The Wailers. Babylon System. Survival. Island Records Inc. 
Digital Recording.
O’Reilly, Andrea. Toni Morrison and Motherhood. A Politics of the Heart. Albany, 
New York: State University of New York Press, 2004. Print. 
O’Reilly, Andrea and Ruddick, Sara. “A Conversation about Maternal Think-
ing.” Maternal Thinking: Philosophy, Politics, Practice. Ed. Andrea O’Reilly. 
Toronto: Demeter Press, 2009. 14-38. Print. 
Ruddick, Sara. Maternal Thinking: Toward a Politics of Peace. Boston: Beacon 
Press, 1989. Print. 


I Feel Therefore I Can Be/long: Cultural Bearing as Maternal Activism

Alvarez Mora, Bruna

168              volume 4,  number 2
Book Reviews
What Do Mothers Need? Motherhood Activists and 
Scholars Speak Out on Maternal Empowerment for 
the 21st Century
Andrea O’Reilly, ed.
Bradford, Ontario: Demeter Press, 2012.
reviewed by bruna alvarez mora
What Do Mothers Need? considers how patriarchal ideology influences the 
form of motherhood in the everyday practices of mothers, and how empow-
erment strategies for mothers can be developed to avoid gender discrimina-
tion. The aim of this book is to “explore what mothers in twenty-first century 
North American society need in order to adequately care for their children 
while living full and purposeful lives” (2). 
The volume comprises six sections. Section one, “Redefining Motherhood,” 
includes six essays that analyze intensive mothering as an oppressive form of 
mothering. Intensive mothering, which is based on essentialism and a natu-
ralized opposition of the public and private spheres, produces the hegemonic 
discourse of the “good mother”; the “mommy wars” between stay-at-home 
mothers and mothers who work outside the home; “helicopter” mothers who 
never relinquish the mothering role; and, finally, “matroreform,” a resistant 
and conscious mode of mothering. 
Section two, “Empowering Mothers,” includes four essays that explore var-
ied and specific realities of mothering—military mothers, aboriginal mothers, 
South Asian mothers, and those who pay for mother work—and how they are 
influenced by the discourse of intensive mothering.
Section three, “Mothers, Children and Families: Health and Well-Being,” 
includes three essays that address global aspects of mothering: the need to 
book reviews
 journal of the motherhood initiative             169 
attend to the well being of mothers and children; natural birth and the role 
of midwives; disabled mothers and how disabilities affect “successful mother-
ing”; and how to be a “good mother” to children with food allergies.
Section four, “Mothers, Education and Social Change,” includes three es-
says that consider the experiences of Latina women/mothers; the personal 
stories of two aboriginal/scholar mothers; the evolving mothers’ movement; 
and how pollution, energy depletion, government corruption, and overpopu-
lation will affect the future lives of children.
Section five, “Mothers, Partners and Parenting,” includes four essays that 
show the importance of gender equality in childcare; the value of shared par-
enting to women’s self-development; the need for mothers to pursue their 
own life projects; and what black single mothers expect from the fathers of 
their children. 
Section six, “Mothers and Work,” includes five essays that consider why 
some mothers opt out of the labour market; the experiences of stay-at-home 
African American mothers; the social construction of the work-life balance 
myth; the real needs of mothers and early childhood educators; and the need 
for work place flexibility by mothers and the impact of mothers on labour 
market policies.
Unsafe Motherhood:
Mayan Mortality and Subjectivity in 
Post-War Guatemala
Nicole S. Berry.
New York: Berghahn Books, 2013.
reviewed by diana g. palmerin velasco
Set in the aftermath of the more than three decades long Guatemalan civil 
war, Nicole S. Berry’s rich ethnography presents a detailed picture of the un-
intended effects of the global campaign on maternal mortality on the Mayan 
village of Santa Cruz. Through participant observation, as well as a variety of 
research methods that give her access to privileged information, Berry con-
structs an appealing narrative with a convincing argument: that “the global 
campaign to decrease maternal mortality has actually created barriers to re-
ducing deaths and also threatens to make some of the very communities that 
it is designed to help even more vulnerable” (1).
Berry begins with a critique of the western biomedical reductionist ap-
proach through which “life and death become the only outcomes by which 


What Do Mothers Need? Motherhood Activists and Scholars Speak Out on Maternal Empowerment for the 21st Century

Cassidy, Tanya M.

Making “Milky Matches”: Globalization, Maternal Trust and “Lactivist” Online Networking

  ,   

Editorial Masthead

Irvine, Brittany

book reviews
 journal of the motherhood initiative             187 
ial bonds and gender roles in film and television. The book comprises three 
sections. The first section, “Learning Bonds of Love and Nature,” examines 
domestic representations of love and marriage in Cold War educational films; 
the influence of the superhuman Wonder Woman on motherhood; the ma-
ternal characterization of flight attendants in films; and the portrayal of teen 
motherhood in popular culture.
The second section, “Troublesome Bonds between Mothers and Children,” 
focuses on challenging relationships between mothers and children. Here, 
film and television reflect cultural anxiety about women’s changing roles in 
society and the work place. A destructive parent-child relationship is reflected 
in the media, as if to warn mothers against securing work outside the home. 
In one chapter, Sarah Arnold examines the differences between the original 
Japanese horror film, Ringu, and its American remake, The Ring. Although 
both films use a similar narrative structure, Arnold probes the differing cul-
tural representations and expectations of motherhood. Another chapter offers 
a historical overview of the representation of Walter and Lena, the “dueling 
protagonists” of Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun.
The final section of the book, “Deconstructing Family Bonds for the 
Twenty-First Century,” explores the friction that develops when families 
face conflict. Mattoon D’Amore herself, for example, studies the depiction of 
multi-tasking mothers as superwomen in Heroes, The Incredibles, More of Me, 
and Nurse Jackie. Later chapters examine the traditional definition of the fam-
ily. The television show Supernatural, for example, redefines the traditional 
nuclear family as a relationship between two brothers. The role of fatherhood 
is looked at in the absence of a mother in the television show Everwood. In 
both instances, the loss of the mother figure forces changes in traditional 
masculine attributes. Lastly, Parenthood represents the “new normal family” 
on television. The series demonstrates a shift in contemporary family dynam-
ics, focusing on support and adaptation over tradition.
The Mother of All Pregnancy Books
Ann Douglas. 
Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, 2012.
reviewed by brittany irvine
Ann Douglas’s second edition of The Mother of All Pregnancy Books provides 
a thorough and comprehensive overview of preconception care, pregnancy, 
book reviews
188             volume 4,  number 2
labour, and delivery. The style in which the book is written is relaxed, some-
times humorous or touching, often metaphoric—as in the chapter titles “Rid-
ing the Infertility Roller Coaster” and “Winning at Baby Roulette.” Out of 
concern for mothers-to-be, Douglas provides tidbits of “Mother Wisdom” 
and quotations she calls “Mom’s the Word.” She also refers her readers to the 
Motherisk Clinic at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, where sound 
scientific advice is distributed by specialists, especially about complex issues 
such as exposure to toxic substances and medications during pregnancy.
Douglas is overt in her support of doulas and birthing companions, going 
so far as to title one section of her book “Why Doulas Are a Mom’s Best 
Friend.” She claims that doulas are the “birthing world’s equivalent of a fairy 
godmother” (475), and believes women ought to hire postpartum doulas. She 
even provides a list of the “Top Ten Reasons to Hire a Doula” (477). Most 
importantly, for Douglas doulas can make women feel better about their 
birthing experiences. Doulas offer companionship and one-on-one contin-
uous care during labour and delivery; they can reduce the need for medical 
interventions such as epidurals, vacuum- and forceps-assisted deliveries, and 
caesarean sections; and they serve as cheering coaches. Douglas directs read-
ers to contact the nearest midwifery practice group for referrals to their local 
area doulas. 
Douglas includes an invaluable appendix that lists pertinent questions in-
tended to guide readers as they write their birth plans. She also anticipates 
potential deviations from those plans. For example, what would you do if your 
water breaks but labour does not begin? What if your pregnancy is two weeks 
overdue and induction is suggested? How do you intend to manage pain relief 
during labour? Do you or your partner wish to initiate skin-to-skin contact 
immediately after birth? Do you want your partner or labour supporter to cut 
the newborn’s umbilical cord? Do you want 24-hour rooming in with your 
baby? In the case of a surgical delivery, how much information would you 
want about what is happening beyond the surgical screen?
 Mothers-to-be who carefully read Douglas’s book, heed her advice to hire 
a supportive doula, and follow her comprehensive guide to writing a birth 
plan will be as prepared as possible for pregnancy, labour, delivery, and post-
partum care. The second edition of The Mother of All Pregnancy Books is an 
excellent guide for readers interested in preconception issues and pregnancy, 
labour, and postpartum care. 


The Mother of All Pregnancy Books

 journal of the motherhood initiative       217 
Visitation
judith baumel
They mean by this word
living bodies coming
to living bodies in grief.
They mean by this word
images of the disembodied
boy projected in a loop.
Here is his grin
poolside at ten years,
his funny ears
mountainside at five,
an infant in his mother’s
arms, his wide thin
shoulders jostling
for a spot between
his brother and his mother.
