Recommended Reading September 3, 2005
Yesterday I had my husband pick up Coming to Term: Uncovering the Truth About Miscarriage from the library on his way home from work. I read it cover to cover last night. I don’t know how many people read miscarriage books while waiting to miscarry, but it helped me.
This isn’t a “dealing with your feelings” type of book. It focuses more on the technical aspects like what does and doesn’t cause miscarriages, how common they are, and what testing and treatments are available and which ones are considered more experimental than others.
I liked this book partially because I like reading studies. I can’t even tell you how many hours I’ve logged on PubMed. This book has information about studies on miscarriage and also goes through a lot of the history leading up to the study of miscarriage. It also includes a good number of personal accounts.
I definitely thought it was a good book on the subject, and I think it was good for me to read it right now. I knew how common miscarriage was. Shit, just read infertility blogs for a little while, and you’ll have no doubt about that. This book reinforced that for me, though. It also stressed that even if you have x# of miscarriages under your belt, that there is still hope for the future.
This book didn’t really give me any insight into why this is happening to us, but the truth of the matter, and something that is reiterated in the book, is that a good number of times you won’t ever know why. That’s just something that I’ll have to come to accept.
I definitely think this book’s worth checking out, especially if you’re a nerd like me who can’t get enough info on all of this reproductive stuff. In my opinion, there’s no such thing as learning too much.
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I apologize for the fact that this post sounded like a fifth grade book report. I blame it on the fact that I feel like total shit. I really did like the book, though. Interesting reading.
- Posted in : IVF Part 5: IVF #3, various other ramblings
- Author : amanda
Comments»
I was given a copy of this book at the last RESOLVE national conference. I never did more than flip through it, but now I’ll have to take a second look. I like to amass my library of related books, I can’t help it.
I hope you’re doing okay.
I liked that book too. It helped me get a little more perspective on my miscarriages. Glad you found it too.
I was mixed on that book. It did give hope that no matter how many miscarriages you have, you most likely will be able to carry to term. But I guess I was hoping for it to tell me what I could do to prevent it from happening AGAIN and there really just isn’t anything. I guess that’s not the books fault though.
I’m sorry you’re feeling like shit, Amanda. I know you are but I’m still so sorry.
I liked the book too. One that I thought was even better on the same subject was “Miscarriage: What Every Woman Needs to Know” by Lesley Regan. She runs a recurrent miscarriage clinic in London and was even profiled in “Coming to Term”. Very knowledgeable, very empathic. It helped me so much after mine (it was the first book I read after #1, and a constant reference after #2) . There’s less of a focus on personal stories than in most such books (I think that’s probably a cultural thing — she’s from the UK) but it covered a lot of extremely useful information, and did a lot to separate myth from fact. There aren’t any easy answers for any of us, but we do learn which sorts of questions to ask… Anyway, I just saw that the book is now available in the US too. Here’s the link if you’re interested.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0752837575/qid=1125839267/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-6802088-6831136?v=glance&s=books
Take good care of yourself, please.
Sorry, I just looked at that link again and it doesn’t seem to be sold by Amazon.com directly, just by private sellers. Don’t know if that makes a difference. I bought mine from Amazon.co.uk.
I’m so sorry you’re feeling like shit. Hang in there.
I just heard about your miscarriage. I am so so sorry. :( Unfair doesn’t begin to describe it.
I may have to look up that book. I, like you, tend to devour knowledge about things like this.
I’ll be sending you all sorts of positive thoughts.
Lately I have been wondering exactly what happened with my mc all those months ago. I will check out that book - thanks for the tip.
Hope the tides soon roll your way.
At first, I avoided this book assuming that it would be all touchy feely. But, I really did like it. After hearing some crazy bad statistics about the chances of a successful pregnancy after multiple miscarriages, it was great to hear some good numbers - that had some support.
I also ended up seeing one of the doctors discussed in the book (I got the referral and had the appointment before reading it). Like the book, she stuck to the facts and actual statistics which helped a lot. She didn’t make any promises about my next pregnancy, but she did repeat that the odds were with me overall.
Miscarriage simply sucks. I’m sorry you have to experience it.