Great with Child: Reflections on Faith, Fullness, and Becoming a Mother by Debra Rienstra

From Barnes & Noble

This introspective account is unique because it focuses not on the author's first pregnancy but on her third, and because it manages to weave together the poignant reflections of an expectant mother and the cerebral ponderings of a scholar. The result is a deeply felt chronicle that is at once personal and universal.

From the Publisher

Written during the months before and after the birth of the author's third child, Great with Child is an honest, funny, and passionate portrait of the everyday developments and profound transformations of motherhood. From the first tiny pinprick of a thought in her mind that maybe-just maybe-it was the right time for another baby, through the emotional dramas of pregnancy and birth, and on into the seamless string of sleepless nights that compose her son's first year, Rienstra beautifully depicts the difficulty and dignity of becoming a mother.

Through recounting the details of her own story-the sonograms, the labor pains, nursing in the middle of the night-Rienstra lays bare how motherhood can alter and deepen a woman's views on just about everything else. Allusions to a wide array of sources, including the biblical Psalms, the poetry of Lucille Clifton, Jewish feminist midrash, and a Better Homes and Gardens baby book from 1953, weave through the narrative, illuminating the way that this primal experience colors and informs women's lives. The book is a rare glimpse into the mind and heart of a mother.

Author Biography: Debra Rienstra is a professor of English at Calvin College.

Publishers Weekly

What happens between the moment a pregnancy is planned and the baby's first birthday? Rienstra, a poet who teaches at Calvin College, decided to write about these events in her own life, and, as she does so, her identities as a poet, scholar, Christian and white, middle-class millennial mom shape and inform her story. In the early chapters, for example, Rienstra writes beautifully about "womb hunger," incorporating images from the Bible and contemporary poetry into her reflections. And her membership in a brave new generation of mothers is evident in the way she takes for granted the store-bought pregnancy tests that work less than two weeks after conception. Rienstra admirably cites medical, sociological, historical, theological and literary texts, and in doing so provides valuable context for her experience. The book's greatest strength, however, is that she never strays far from her own narrative. Though she spent more than a year revising her manuscript, each chapter reflects her thoughts and feelings as the events she describes unfolded. As such, her memoir tells the truth in a way that few books about parenthood do. Rather than recounting her story long after it happened and/or interpreting it to support a particular parenting philosophy, she simply records how things felt as they occurred. A new or expectant mother is much more likely to find herself, and thereby solace, in these pages than in how-to books written by those for whom the sleeplessness and tumult of infant care is a distant memory. (Apr.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

While Rienstra (English, Calvin Coll.) covers familiar terrain in her memoir of the months before and after the birth of her third child, she maintains a different voice by approaching pregnancy through a religious (mainly Protestant) lens. Often, she explores the social and historical baggage that has grown out of various biblical assertions about the female body and bearing children. Sometimes academic, sometimes poetic, her tone is uneven, leading to some confusion about her actual stance on particular issues, abortion especially. Readers will wonder whether they are being presented with subtle pro-life propaganda or heady theology; more importantly, it is not clear whether she is arguing that as a woman of faith in the 21st century, she feels pulled in many directions. For larger public libraries and those with a strong spiritual reading audience. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Details from Seller

• ISBN: 1585421677
• Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
• Pub. Date: March 2002
• Condition:

Comments from the Seller: 1st ed, boards, fine/fine remainder mark