From Here to Maternity - Mel Giedroyc

Mel, as in Mel and Sue, as in Late Lunch, has written her "mumoirs"... a humourous account of her pregnancy. My husband brought it home for me to read knowing that my post-birth brain is still mush, and that my favoured current reading material is brightly coloured and animal-based with waterproof pages and no words. This is about as taxing to read.

There's nothing wrong with the odd "fluffy" read, and so long as ...
...wittily counts you down through the days of her pregnancy in diary format, with some days comprising just a few paragraphs, others a few pages. Like most first time mums, she is appalled to find her baby hasn't arrived on her due date, and takes to taking to it sternly through the shower attachment.

We hear about her discovery that she is pregnant, and all her associated symptoms - the overpowering sense of smell, the nausea, the sleeplessness, ... more

Mel, as in Mel and Sue, as in Late Lunch, has written her "mumoirs"... a humourous account of her pregnancy. My husband brought it home for me to read knowing that my post-birth brain is still mush, and that my favoured current reading material is brightly coloured and animal-based with waterproof pages and no words. This is about as taxing to read.

There's nothing wrong with the odd "fluffy" read, and so long as you aren't expecting more than that this won't disappoint. Mel wittily counts you down through the days of her pregnancy in diary format, with some days comprising just a few paragraphs, others a few pages. Like most first time mums, she is appalled to find her baby hasn't arrived on her due date, and takes to taking to it sternly through the shower attachment.

We hear about her discovery that she is pregnant, and all her associated symptoms - the overpowering sense of smell, the nausea, the sleeplessness, the food cravings, the exhaustion: all these things familiar to anyone who has been there and experienced nine months of baby-growing. Of course she weaves them all into the story anecdotally, and for the most part with lots of her trademark wit. It's funny, but it didn't make me laugh, if you know what I mean. It was just sort of easy to plod through without effort and I smiled every so often. I found the humour predictable and slightly forced.

We meet two of her mother friends, both of whom I suspect are inventions of two classic stereotypes - the celebrity-obsessed Amanda who gives birth so easily she MUST be fictional and has a nanny so that she doesn't lift a finger once her baby has arrived, and Jools, the natural earth type mother who serves up placenta pate at the naming ceremony. Although both characters were amusing, I found myself slightly irked that Mel seemed to equate a breast feeding mother with one who was into alternative therapies, pain poetry and such-like. Plenty of "normal" mothers breast-feed and there are enough problems making it socially acceptable without authors creating this kind of extreme character.

I'm afraid I found myself laughing at rather than with her as she and her husband babysat their young nephew and niece overnight, in practise for parenthood, and feel a certain sense of justice when they end up with two screaming children, a missing blanket, and one less cashmere scarf in their possession. I have to admit I was willing the children to play up and cause them havoc, which they duly did. There's something immensely satifying about seeing a young, professional couple who plan to fit in having a baby between two Arts Festivals (as she admits in the book) fall to earth with a bump. However obviously she is poking fun at herself in many ways in the book, and recognises her own naivety.

Also extremely satisying is Mel's relationship with her practical, no-nonsense mother, who survived parenthood by attending regular coffee mornings. Her mum steals the show, and although I am sure the poor woman has been highly exaggerated, she is the funniest character in the book.

The climax of the book is of course, the labour and birth of Mel's baby. Quite frankly, I absolutely hate people who insist on telling everyone their birth stories, and even more so when they tell them to people who have yet to experience labour who have a natural fears about the unknown. Reading this book when pregnant would not help alleviate any of those fears. She's quite graphic and amazingly accurate about describing the pain of labour, which could possibly be considered a talent, but it's not one I think she ought to use! I'm not saying we should shut pregnant people in a sound proof box for nine months and surprise them with an appalling labour at the end of it, but I think it's unnecessary to frighten them anymore than is humane. Every pregnant woman knows she is going to experience pain in labour - other people being graphic about it beforehand isn't going to help her relax or worry less about it. I don't think that in this case "forewarned is forearmed." I always swore myself that I would want to know what it was like - now I am glad I didn't and that my sister fobbed me off with stories about "good pain!" and refused to go into detail!

Finally, but perhaps most irritatingly is the fact that the book simply stops with the birth of the baby. What you really want to read about is the first week of life with the baby at home, because it would probably make for far funnier reading than the build up to the event.

Oh well - maybe that's a book for me to write once my baby has flown the nest!

 

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