In her second book, We Are Animals, Jennifer Case explores the evolution, politics, and culture of contemporary parenthood in 15 intrepid essays.
Case (Sawbill) ponders medical and ethical quandaries via autobiography. Raising children far from her extended family, she finds herself glued to online parenting discussion boards, even though she theoretically values in-person community connections more than virtual ones. "Birth (Un)Medicalized," structured as a case study, demonstrates the hospital versus home delivery decision, which Case believes is unfairly left to women to research. When pregnant with her second child, the author hired a doula and unexpectedly gave birth at home, and in "Unintended," she reveals that this child was conceived amid ongoing uncertainty about how having another child would affect her academic career. Case recounts considering a termination during the 2016 presidential campaign--despite her Catholic upbringing--in "A Political Pregnancy." "Birth Work in the Bible Belt" expresses Case's unease about hiring an Evangelical Christian doula, given that religion can support the patriarchy. "On Race and Motherhood in America" confronts Case's white privilege in her still-segregated Arkansas town.
Science and statistics appear in illuminating ways. "The Mother-Infant Dyad" traces how Indigenous practices persist in the practices of attachment parenting, while "A Cost Accounting of Birth" exposes the physical and financial risks of pregnancy. The case interrogates the assumed superiority of natural childbirth and illustrates the challenges of postpartum depression, pumping breast milk, and eco-anxiety. Overlapping content leads to repetition regarding regret over her second pregnancy, but Case's bravery in facing maternal ambivalence is commendable. This forthright, lyrical study of maternity is an excellent companion to Lucy Jones's Matrescence. --Rebecca Foster, freelance reviewer, proofreader and blogger at Bookish Beck