Natural Birth Poems

by Toi Derricotte

Book Overview

With insightful candour, Toi Derricote's poem explores the ways in which her confusion about love and sex and longing detracted from the pleasures of pregnancy and motherhood.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0895941015
• ISBN13: 9780895941015
• Release Date: May 1983
• Publisher: The Crossing Press
• Length: 60 Pages
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.

Customer Reviews

mimicked

Toi Derricotte and I don't have much in common but I found myself really identifying with her descriptions and characterizations in Natural Birth. The unsual circumstances surrounding the birth of her son, especially during that period of time when it was still not commonplace for a woman to have a child out of wedlock. Her dedication to her son, while I transition to the next phase of my son's life. It was quite comforting to see the journey through someone else's eyes.

The Unnaturalness of the Birthing Process

I missed reading the original edition of Toi Derricotte's Natural Birth Poems (1983), which is out of print. However, Natural Birth-the reissuance of the poems, along with a powerful introduction-adds new insights to the conversation about the birthing process. Having recently read Derricotte's soul-baring The Black Notebooks (1997), I expected this work to be another frank, poignant self-discovery that enlightens the reader and this volume of prose poems delivers. It allows one to explore possibilities while examining hitherto unchallenged assumptions and beliefs about pregnancy and childbirth. The poem "delivery" is a conflation of the fear, pain, clinical dis/order and wonder of the passages in the delivery room. We mothers know Derricotte speaks the truth unflinchingly and proudly to "testify to the power of nature and love."

Poetry that shares the real experience

I first read this book of poetry when I was pregnant, and was moved to tears. Derricotte is so raw with her language; the experience is all there for you.After I had my baby--after 36 long, painful hours--I reread the book and cried and cried. It was every emotion and feeling I'd had, only expressed more eloquently than I could have.