My background: I don't have children and don't ever plan to. My sister, meanwhile has had three, and almost hemorrhaged to death after the birth of one of them. I am very firmly pro-choice. I haven't read any of Knisley's other works and avoided this graphic novel for a while because the cover made it look it would present a very fluffy and idealized look at pregnancy and childbirth.
Yeah, the author's experiences were pretty much the opposite of fluffy and idealized. First there were her miscarriages, then horrible morning sickness during her successful pregnancy. Things only got worse after she gave birth and was diagnosed with eclampsia - not a surprise to readers, since she noted her multiple signs of preeclampsia during her descriptions of her pregnancy.
For the author, the little person at the end of all of those experiences was worth it, although she also made sure to not present pregnancy as a state everyone with a uterus wants/should want to experience at some point.
One thing that comes up a little but is otherwise mostly glossed over: US medical insurance. At one point, the author is sent home from the hospital while she is clearly still too ill, simply because insurance wouldn't cover additional time spent at the hospital since the doctor already signed the release papers and was too busy to stop by and reassess the situation. Which was horrible and utterly believable to anyone who's ever dealt with the US healthcare system, but it got me to thinking about the massive medical debt that the author surely must have racked up that was somehow never mentioned as a concern. That said, at the start of this graphic novel the author wrote that her baby was now four weeks old - maybe not enough time to get slammed with the bills on top of everything else?
Overall I thought this was an excellent read that would have been harrowing and deeply stressful if it hadn't shown from the start that everything was going to turn out okay.
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