Carrying On

Another School of Thought on Pregnancy and Health

By Brittany Clair

SERIES: Critical Issues in Health and Medicine

Rutgers University Press

In the twenty-first century, expecting parents are inundated with information and advice from every direction, but are often strapped for perspective on how to think through it. Unlike traditional pregnancy guidebooks that offer recommendations, Carrying On helps expecting parents make sense of the overwhelming amount of counsel available to them by shedding light on where it all came from. How and why did such confusing and contradictory guidance on pregnancy come to exist?

Carrying On investigates the origin stories of prevailing prenatal health norms by exploring the evolution of issues at the center of pregnancy, ranging from morning sickness and weight gain to ultrasounds and induction. When did women start taking prenatal vitamins, and why? When did the notion that pregnant women should “eat for two” originate? Where did exercise guidelines come from? And when did women start formulating birth plans?

A learning project with one foot in the past and the other in the present, Carrying On considers what history and medicine together can teach us about how and why we treat pregnancy–and pregnant women–the way we do. In a world of information overload, Carrying On offers expecting parents the context and background they need to approach pregnancy and prenatal health from a new place of understanding.

Reviews

Carrying On dives deep into science to clarify all of the open questions around pregnancy. Clair's writing is clear, personal, and relatable....Carrying On is an original concept that is well written, well researched, much needed, and offers indigenous and midwifery perspectives alongside the traditional 'science.' Tina Cassidy, author of Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born

Pregnancy Weight Gain Guidelines: Where Did They Come From, Anyway?,' by Brittany Clair Pregnant Chicken

The Truth About the 'Right' Pregnancy Diet,' by Brittany Clair Amara

This book is part-science, part-history, a dash of memoir, and it lives in the weeds. It’s nine chapters that follow some sort of rough chronological logic, but all stand in relative isolation (i.e., you could jump around, skip a chapter, or read in whatever order suits you) and dive into one key question or topic. For example: How has medicine (not) managed morning sickness over time? When did we start using obstetric ultrasound, and what is it doing for us? When the hell — and why — did prenatal weight gain recommendations gain any traction? What about exercise guidelines? Lucie's List, The Best Pregnancy Books

Carrying On dives deep into science to clarify all of the open questions around pregnancy. Clair's writing is clear, personal, and relatable....Carrying On is an original concept that is well written, well researched, much needed, and offers indigenous and midwifery perspectives alongside the traditional 'science.' Tina Cassidy, author of Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born

Pregnancy Weight Gain Guidelines: Where Did They Come From, Anyway?,' by Brittany Clair Pregnant Chicken

The Truth About the 'Right' Pregnancy Diet,' by Brittany Clair Amara

This book is part-science, part-history, a dash of memoir, and it lives in the weeds. It’s nine chapters that follow some sort of rough chronological logic, but all stand in relative isolation (i.e., you could jump around, skip a chapter, or read in whatever order suits you) and dive into one key question or topic. For example: How has medicine (not) managed morning sickness over time? When did we start using obstetric ultrasound, and what is it doing for us? When the hell — and why — did prenatal weight gain recommendations gain any traction? What about exercise guidelines? Lucie's List, The Best Pregnancy Books

Author

BRITTANY CLAIR is an independent scholar and writer who lives and works in Maine. She is the author of Rest Uneasy: Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in Twentieth-Century America (Rutgers University Press).

Preface
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: On Carrying On
1          Provide
2          Endure
3          Grow
4          Eat
5          Watch
6          Move
7          Sleep
8          Plan
9          Commence
About the Author
Notes
Index

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