Like a Mother: A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy

Fetal cells have been found in breast tissue and breast milk, hinting that they could have a hand in increasing their own food supply.

tremendous variety among the vaginal microbiomes across ethnicities.

A pregnant uterus expands to over forty-five times its usual capacity:

But we know that 80 percent of new mothers report a range of mood changes, and that as many as one in seven mothers will experience postpartum depression and/or anxiety.

20 percent of our blood is traveling through the placenta, keeping our future child or children nourished. We don’t hear about its remarkable immunity work, fighting off and eliminating pathogens while also allowing antibodies that exist in a mother’s body to pass through and on to the baby.

But in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century America, against the backdrop of a rapidly industrializing and increasingly wealthy nation, a new expert—the doctor—came to be the indispensable authority on these topics. In his 1894 book The Care and Feeding of Children, Dr. Luther Emmett Holt advised against relying on women’s wisdom and experi

In 2016, a newborn in Oregon who was having difficulty breathing was diagnosed as having group B streptococcus infection, and the bacteria were found in the placenta capsules that the mother had taken after delivery. (Every pregnant woman is screened for group B strep in late pregnancy, but in this mother’s case, the test had been negative and the

The body is wise. It recognizes a pregnancy that could never be carried to term.”

During vaginal birth, a baby’s journey down the birth canal serves as its intimate introduction to its mother’s vaginal microbiome, the distinct combination of bacteria that go on to help the growing human deal with infection, train its immune system, and help it process food.