Book focuses on childbirth and more

“Get Me Out: A History of Childbirth” by Randi Hutter Epstein, M.D., 2010, W.W. Norton & Co., $24.95/$31 Canada, 320 pages: You’ve known for days.
The urpy-ness before breakfast (when you can eat breakfast), the swollen bits, the tender bits, all good indications. Even the home-kit was positive but it wasn’t “official” until the doctor said it: you’re pregnant.
But after leaving your first prenatal exam – and after more tests than you’ve had in your lifetime – your mother (overjoyed) read through some information you received and said she never remembered half that stuff when you were born. Grandma (ecstatic) said she wasn’t even awake when your mom was delivered.
Have we come a long way, baby?
Yes and no, as you’ll see when you read “Get Me Out” by Randi Hutter Epstein, M.D.
Let’s start in the year 1530. You’re about to become somebody’s mom.
Because a sign on the door of your room says “no boys allowed,” you’re surrounded by girlfriends, female relatives and a midwife (if you could afford her). They would have herbs for you, food and drink. Someone might consult a book of pregnancy advice (available for thousands of years). You’d labor with people you knew.
But as an almost-mom in 1530, don’t expect anything for your pain. In 1591, a laboring mother (of twins!) was burned at the stake because she dared to ask for relief.
Fast forward three hundred years.
You’re at a lying-in hospital, so-called because post-delivery recovery takes weeks of bed rest. You might be allowed visitors, but no midwives; male doctors have convinced the general population that midwives are dangerous. Giving birth away from home and family, you’re told, is best for you and the baby.
But there at the hospital, mortality rates are sky-high. A woman might deliver on Monday, feel a little feverish on Wednesday and be dead by Friday. Wouldn’t simple hand-washing be a good idea?
Fast forward a century-and-three-quarters.
By now, doctors know how to repair fistulas (thanks to hundreds of slave women who were operated on without anesthesia), we know that what goes into mom crosses the placenta to baby, and we know how to make a baby in more ways than one.
Fast forward to you.
You’ve got lots of options; more, for sure, than ever before. And if you don’t like any of them, you can join the freebirthers and do it yourself because, hey, that method appears to have worked for millions of years.
Lively, slightly saucy and nowhere near a how-to advice book, “Get Me Out” is a great read that’s purely for the curious, whether a parent or not.
Author Epstein looks closely at the entire baby industry in this book, moving easily between the Middle Ages and modern times, in the laboratory and in the bedroom, from “aha!” moments to plenty of major oopses.
I liked that she dusted out the corners of reproductive history and made me smile while she did it.
If the doctor just said “congratulations!” to you, if you’re a grandparent-to-be or if you don’t know nuthin’ ’bout birthin’ no babies, you’ll enjoy this book. “Get Me Out” is one to push for.

'TUBMAN’ REVIEW
“DK Biography: Harriet Tubman” by Kem Knapp Sawyer, 2010, DK Publishing, $14.99/$17.99 Canada, 128 pages: Always keep away from “it.”
That’s the most important rule you learn when you play hide and seek. “It” covers his eyes and counts, while you run and hide. Then, while “it” looks for you, you try to get Home safely.
Hide and seek is a game you learned long ago. You’ve played it now and then but what if it wasn’t a game? What if hiding and getting back home was a matter of life or death? In the new book “DK Biography: Harriet Tubman” by Kem Knapp Sawyer, you’ll read about a serious and brave version of hide and seek.
Young Araminta (sometimes called “Minty”) was a slave. Her grandmother probably came from Ghana, and her mother was born into slavery. Although historians think Minty was born in 1822, nobody knows for sure.
When Minty was 4 years old, she was put to work taking care of her siblings. At age 8, she was sent to live with another family and was taught housekeeping. She didn’t do a very good job, though, and was whipped often. Not long afterward, she was sent back to the farm where her family lived, and she learned to do men’s work in the fields.
In 1844, Minty married John Tubman and changed her name to Harriet.
Maybe because of a severe head injury she got as a young woman, Harriet was a dreamer. She claimed she had visions of flying and nightmares of being dragged off. Her fear was that she would be sold and sent away, and it made the nightmares worse. Soon, Harriet was plotting her escape.
Following the North Star and sleeping in fields and forests, she carefully made her way to Philadelphia, home to 20,000 free blacks. Everything felt different as a free woman, but Harriet missed the people she left behind.
Promising herself that she would bring her family to freedom, too, Harriet took odd jobs and saved money for travel and food. Though she was first a passenger on the Underground Railroad (a secret route to freedom), she quickly became a conductor (the helpers or leaders), eventually leading up to 80 slaves to safety and freedom in the northern United States and Canada.
Filled with true stories that will thrill young readers, “DK Biography: Harriet Tubman” is, despite its title, not just about the woman they called Moses. It’s also about the Civil War, other key people in the flight to freedom, friends and family members of Harriet Tubman, and slaves on their way north.
Although little of the information in this book is new (at least, to an adult), author Sawyer brings Tubman’s legacy up-to-date, including new scholarly studies that “give a fair representation” to Harriet Tubman.
Kids will appreciate the pictures, drawings, reproductions of letters and handbills, and the wealth of sidebars that serve to explain details in the main story.
If your child wants a good biography for fun or for class assignment, look for this one. Perfect for 9-to-12 year olds, “DK Biography: Harriet Tubman” is a book to seek.

TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER has been reading since she was 3 years old and never goes anywhere without a book. She lives on a hill in Wisconsin with two dogs and 11,000 books.