* Email Lynn to confirm the date*

Our book club meets online just four times a year, generally coinciding with the national meetings and publication of Midwifery Matters. This small but growing group allows for a lively discussion about the chosen title much like any other book club, except that our selections are specifically picked for their focus on women’s lives encompassing birth, midwifery or feminism. This facilitates a broad debate around wider issues as well as the opportunity to reflect on the writer and their skills with storytelling. Do come along even if you haven’t read the books, to enjoy a good old fashioned ARM debate – as always, all ARM members welcome.

Spring Book Club choice – After Birth by Elisa Albert
“Sometimes I’m with the baby and I think: you’re my heart and my soul, and I would die for you. Other times I think: tiny moron, leave me the fuck alone.”

A year has passed since Ari gave birth and still she can’t locate herself in her altered universe. Sleep-deprived, lonely and unprepared, she struggles through the strange, disjointed rhythms of her days and nights. Her own mother long dead and her girlhood friendships faded, she is a woman in need. When Mina – older, alone, pregnant – moves to town, Ari sees hope of a comrade-in-arms. Perhaps the hostile terrain could be more easily navigable together.

With purifying anger and outrageous humour, Elisa Albert unleashes on a culture that turns its new mothers into exiles, and expects them to act like natives. And as she defines the raw experience of motherhood, Albert offers a hilarious and devastatingly honest examination of how we become the women we are.

Are you interested and an ARM member?

Email Lynn and put ‘ARM Book Club’ in the subject line to confirm the date and join us. We also have a Discord group which is a place to discuss anything book related. Let her know in your email if you would like to join.

Because Midwifery Matters.