Like Julia, I've been reading The Early Birds. See, I got a free copy sent by a publicist—which is the first time anything like that's been offered since the nice people who make Ensure Healthy Mom offered me some*, and the very first time I've accepted such an offer.
And? Feh.
Minton, who clearly went to Cornell too, rushes through her fertility treatment period (at least by infertility blog standards), but mentions several times how much younger she was than the other patients in the waiting room, and how she feared glares as a result. Count me in as a glarer. Her apparent fortune—three embryos transferred, three babies—has left her convinced, convinced, that medically risky multiple pregnancies are, if not the biggest problem with the whole IVF thing, the one that she has to write about.
If you're heading into your first IVF cycle and wondering how many embryos you might be willing to transfer at once—and if you haven't yet followed any blogs through extended NICU stays—you should read this book. If you've cycled already and don't have babies yet, it will piss you off. If you've had your IVF babie(s)—well, I probably have no idea how you'll react, even though this is the box I'm in. I was lucky and had a ridiculously healthy singleton pregnancy, which puts me pretty darn far from Minton and from a lot of other IVFers.
Minton tells stories about what a hotheaded child she was, one who nursed unreasonable fears for years. It's hard not to see some of that personality in her responses to medical issues. Which is human and all, and many readers will find her highly sympathetic; I needed her to get her facts clear and/or technically correct a little more often (the mention of Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome stood out as a particularly unedited moment). Be afraid, yes, but at least be afraid of what's actually at risk.
She also—and she can't help it, it's her life after all—talks about her prep school experiences, the easy walk from her apartment over to Cornell, her apparently bountiful health insurance, her lovely job in publishing. Her praise for an unnamed (but obviously Sonny Mehta) higher-up is almost embarrassing. Yes, she's led a privileged life, and you might find some details annoying if you get annoyed by that sort of thing. But, no matter how much money and/or cultural capital are around, infertility still sucks and having premature babies is still tremendously difficult for them and everyone close to them. Even if I suspect this book got published because Minton was a fancy-schmancy editor—at least it got published and is out there, and with a real publicity campaign too.
I'd still rather read a good blog, though.
* If you liked that entry, if you think you have the same food neuroses I do, then you should go read Marion Nestle's What To Eat.
I read it and had the same reaction- not just 3 for 3 in transfer, but 3 out of a total of 4 embryos! Ugh- I've used 20 in this quest and I've got ONE kid to show for my efforts. Yes, I'm exceedingly grateful for that, but still- 1 for 20 is not the same as 3 out of 4.
Posted by: Leggy | Tuesday, October 03, 2006 at 09:52 PM