About the Book:
10,000 Babies is a compilation of true events in the life of an obstetrician and his patients, presented as short stories. Some may bring a smile others a tear. Anyone who has a child, whether a mother or a father, will not remain indifferent. These stories range from those of the very early pregnancy, to the birth of triplets, from the anguish of not knowing if the baby will be born prematurely, to the unusual case where a mother thought that she was pregnant, when in reality she was not. Those that have not yet become parents or are already parents, will find in "10,000 Babies" a world they did not know existed. Sometime in the future, they may even relive any of those stories. Also included are chapters about the history of how we got where we are in the care of pregnant women, how different cultures influence childbirth, why myths surrounding pregnancy are still with us, and why those that care for pregnant women are a special breed of people"
My Comments:
I get a lot of emails asking me to review self-published books. Most are deleted without a second thought. This one caught my eye and I'm glad it did. Anyone who spends any amount of time reading "mommy blogs" has read a birth story or two. Back in the day when my friends and I were having our babies, we all told our birth stories. While most of these stories are very ordinary compared to other moms' stories, they are special because they are our stories. But what about the other major actor in the delivery room? Do doctors tell birth stories? Dr. Aladjem does in this book. I'm sure that like the birth stories of most moms, most of the births attended by Dr. Aladjem were ordinary and that if he delivered 10,000 babies he doesn't remember most of them any more than I remember most car accident plaintiffs whose files cross my desk. Still, some stick out for me and these are the stories that stick out for Dr. Aladjem. He tells the story of the mom in labor who waited for her deployed husband to return before delivering their baby. We learn about false pregnancy and cry with the mom who lost her baby. Instead of debating the merits of genetic testing, he tells the story of how a couple decided what was right for them. He tells over twenty different stories and gives a little information about the history and practice of childbirth in America.
As noted above, the book is self-published. It lacks the formatting seen in professionally published books. However, it does not make the book hard to read. I did not notice any grammatical or spelling errors nor did "get an editor" cross my mind when I was reading it. In short, I found this a highly readable interesting account of a variety of birth situations told from the viewpoint of the doctor. Grade: B+
About the Author:
Silvio Aladjem,M.D. is an obstetrician,and Maternal Fetal Medicine specialist. He is Professor Emeritus at the College of Humnan Medicine, at Michigan State University, in Lansing Michigan. He is an author of medical textbooks,and 10,000 Babies:My Life In The Delivery Room, a collection of short stories about his 40 years delivering babies. He is a member of many scientific organizations, including the Royal College of Medicine, in the U.K. 
sounds like a good one.
ReplyDeletebtw, the envelope of books arrived
This does sound interesting - I'm also happy to promote self-pubbed titles, but have often been put off my many grammatical, typo, context errors. I'm happy to see that was not a part of your experience. Birth stories by the doctor - great to see.
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