Book Review: Real Food for Mother and Baby

I’ve been reading lots and lots of books in the process of writing my own. Many of them are only good for a tidbit or two. Some of them I can’t stand all together. Some of them are great. And some of them are a little disappointing. Well, why not share a few of these with you? I have read way more than I can possibly write about but I’ll try to review a few here and there.

I recently nearly finished, but just didn’t, Nina Plank’s Real Food for Mother and Baby.

At first I thought the book was great. She’ not Paleo – she eats grains and legumes – but whatever. Lots of healthy peoples around the world include a little fermented grains and legumes. It never worked for me, I don’t think it’s ideal human food, but it clearly doesn’t harm non-modern people terribly. So that’s not my beef with her book. It’s the tone I didn’t like once she got into the diet for pregnant women.

A Little Irresponsible

She did a great job researching the book. She included a wealth of information about special foods and nutrients for fertility. But when she started outlining the diet for pregnant women her tone became nothing less than irresponsible. “Here’s what traditional peoples say you should eat when you’re pregnant, and I believe in this whole heartedly, but don’t worry about actually doing it – it’s impossible and there are plenty of short cuts you can take” was what I got out of her attitude.

I’ve been pregnant, twice now, and I can’t understand how she can say that you don’t need to worry about actually eating, and that animal foods are too much for her to handle.

What was she eating while she was pregnant? Loaves of bread and oatmeal?

In my own experience keeping the carbohydrates fairly low – not high at least – and avoiding starch keeps nausea at bay and the appetite healthy.

I felt a little queasy in the first trimester but I felt very queasy when I ate starch. In fact, I gave potatoes and sweet potatoes a try this time, independently, and found that I had to sit still most of the day during those periods. I eliminated the starch and with it went the nausea. I added it back, it came back. I eliminated it, it disappeared.

Now, I’m not trying to definitively say that starch is bad for early pregnancy – it’s definitely bad for me – but with the prevalence of morning sickness and appetite loss, and the high carb diet that goes right along with it, you’ve really got to wonder.

Anyway, that’s beside the point. I am not faulting her for her dietary choices. I am faulting her for telling her readers that eating grass-fed butter, liver, meat, eggs, marrow, etc. was such a grueling chore for her that she simply refused to do it. I thought she was the ultimate proponent of real food here, the traditional foods example to live by? If the Real Food lady won’t even bother to take her own advice then it must not matter much, right?

I’m wondering why exactly she wrote the book. Was she trying to ease the conscience of other mothers, like her, who failed in their dietary pregnancy plans? Did she think that’s what other women needed to hear. “I can’t do it, I can’t eat that much real food!” “Don’t worry child, it doesn’t really matter anyway as long as you have supplements.”

Because she had done a great job with her research I kept reading anyway. Until she got to the story of her son’s birth, or rather the after story. Some unfortunate circumstances led her to have a c-section. I can sympathize, kind of. Our situations were totally different but I was there anyway. Her son was in a difficult birthing position, my daughter’s cord was wrapped two times around her head. I was the idiot that went to a hospital to have my baby in the first place. She was smart and stayed home, but it still didn’t work out.

The Parallel of Our Births

The story of my daughter’s birth is absolutely pathetic. The doctors at El Camino Hospital that night were not very creative when it came to delivering babies. My own obstetrician wasn’t even there.

But there I was, the woman who didn’t stick up for myself against my husband that was afraid to have a home birth.

Well, if I wasn’t going to have a home birth, I was at least going to have a natural birth, or so I planned. I walked into the hospital and they told me they were going to cut her out. Just like that. I was like, what!? They told me I didn’t have a choice because her heart rate wasn’t quite ideal. I said no way. They said yes way and compromised with drugs to stop labor. Hours later they decided that labor shouldn’t be stopped anymore so they gave me pitocin to kick start it.

Oouchhhh! Determined not to take any more drugs I labored  9 hours on pitocin with no epidural.

My labor really never had any hope to begin with. I was cold. I was scared. My blood sugar was jacked from the glucose. Glucose interferes with the production of oxytocin and other hormones needed for delivery. They made me lie on my back while hooked up to a bunch of machines. Eventually, all I could think about was killing myself, I was in so much pain, but I couldn’t think clearly enough to make it happen so I’m still here. So, after a horrible and hopeless labor, Evelyn’s heart rate dropped to 60 beats per minute and they cut her out.

And then it was all over.

I slept a few minutes while they cleaned and sewed me up and then they brought me my naked baby and I put her against my naked chest and she searched for the nipple and found it. I was the happiest mother in the world. I didn’t care about the c-section any more. I had my baby in my arms and everything was ok. Every single day thereafter I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. She was perfect and I was in heaven.

Sure I was stuck in bed and could barely walk for a while, but I ate a healthy and careful Paleo diet every day and was doing great within 2 weeks. Sure I had to tell all of my friends that my birth totally sucked, and I was the one that was supposed to have a natural birth, but shit happens. At least my baby was nursing. At least I was producing colostrum and then milk like a machine. At least my daughter started sleeping through the night by 3 weeks. At least she propped herself up on her elbows by the 9th day. There were so many great things to be proud of. I couldn’t care less about the cesarean.

…And How Our Stories Differ Afterwards

But Nina Plank found herself lamenting the embarrassment of it all for a month. I know that we all have our strengths and weaknesses, but it just doesn’t seem right to me. I was there too you know? I had to recover from the drugs and the surgery, but I did it all with a smile.

I’m not judging her as a person, just possibly her situation.

She asked, “Why me?” She said that she felt she was supposed to be the role model of health. She was born at home; her baby should have been too. What would people think of her?

I just can’t see how her mind lost its focus on the joy of her new baby and worried about the judgement of her peers. Of course I don’t know the details of her life and home but it sounds to me like the all too common symptoms of postpartum depression.

If a woman is not utterly elated after giving birth to a healthy baby and maintaining a healthy milk supply, I’d have to say there is somewhat of a chemical imbalance going on. Maybe I’m being too harsh but even Catherine Czapp thinks she should have taken a bit more cod liver oil, egg yolks, and bone broths.

Could our differences in attitude have been because of our differences in diet? I didn’t mess around with junk food when I was pregnant (except for a little dark chocolate which is arguably ok anyway), and I ate a lot, and a lot of special foods.

Weston A. Price Foundation Gives it Thumbs Down

I later went and looked up what the Weston A. Price Foundation had to say about her book and was thankful that I put it down when I did. I’m sure I would have been appalled to find that she didn’t bother making homemade baby food with bone broths for her child. Pureeing baby foods from stews is no easy chore but that doesn’t stop traditional cultures from doing it. Isn’t that who we’re trying to emulate here? Catherine also said that she allowed sugar and white flour to creep in to her baby’s diet. I can’t understand that either. I protected Evelyn from that for more than two years. Pregnancy and child nutrition is a big deal to me. Shouldn’t the writers of these books follow their own advice?

What books about pregnancy would you recommend as an alternative to this one?