Rating: 
Summary: Truely eye-opening
Review: I loved Sandra's book. I wish I had read it before in my early twenties, and not now AFTER the birth of my first child. I would have taken more steps on making sure to reduce the amount of toxins environmentally. However, her way she weaves thru the facts and her own story was brillant. A great read. Highly recommanded.
Rating:
Summary: So empowering
Review: I'm a breastfeeding counsellor here in the UK and do my best to keep up to date with research pertaining to anything to do with breastfeeding. This book, which I came upon purely by accident, opened my eyes to a whole new problem. I found the book so informing and so well written. I have a whole new avenue of personal research to investigate now and, I have information to share with parents who want it. I feel empowered because, as the last chapter offers, I have ideas now as to how I can play my part in making the world of breastfed babies, my own and others, a safer place to live. With grateful thanks to Sandra for opening my eyes.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful and Necessary
Review: Sandra Steingraber is my new heroine. Her writing is magnificent, and her concerns very much my own. She manages to explain the inexplicable (we are poisoning our babies, and don't stop even when we see the evidence) in a way that does not frighten as much as persuade. She indeed has faith, and I am so grateful to her for facing these fearful realities during her pregnancy -- as she points out, if pregnant women don't face these things, who will? Her refrain "We shall not abstain" -- asking why it is pregnant women who must restrict themselves, not producers of toxics -- is common-sense political brilliance and unmasks the hypocrisy of a society that pretends to protect the vulnerable with technological might, but is really not interested when facts run counter to the fantasy of omnipotence. Her writing is so vivid that I burst into tears at the end of her labor-and-delivery story, as I do at any filmed depiction of birth. Thank you, Sandra.I'm giving it to all my friends, and sending it to some politicians!
Rating: 
Summary: Having Faith- a two sided story
Review: Sandra Steingraber's book, Having Faith- An Ecologist's Journey To Motherhood is a memoir of poignant insight backed by ecological conscience. Pregnant for the first time at the later age of thirty-eight, Streingraber grapples with the idea of her own growing child within the context of, and intermingled with, the life of the world outside of herself that she has studied for years as an Ecologist. Extraordinarily honest in both her scientific backing of her own personal passage from scientist in the most colloquial sense of the word, to governor of the very habitat in which her baby is growing, Steingraber's writes with candor and sincerity.
Steingraber chronicles the pregnancy and birth of her daughter Faith, and throughout the memoir provokes the reader to always remember the direct and immediate connection between humans and their environments by descriptions of the very fragility of her own developing baby. The very name of her child connotes, too, the faith that Steingraber, and truly all expectant mothers, have to possess within themselves amidst a modern world of both spectacular technology, but also chaos and disorder.
Infusing the reader with both a deep hope for change, and a new awareness of the changes that we need to begin making now, Steingraber's memoir is essential for not only women to read, but any citizen with any environmental and ecological conscience or concern, to read as well.
Rating:
Summary: Top priority
Review: Sandra Steingraber, a trained scientist, tells the story of her pregnancy at age 38, weaving it into very readable science. She describes the day-to-day development of the fetus and how we KNOW at exactly what point birth defects are caused and, in many cases, which chemicals cause them. I was horrified to learn how many chemicals are being passed to our children through mothers' milk. And I can't stop telling my friends how the waters of the Arctic are the MOST polluted in the world, just the opposite of what you might think.This may be one of the most important books you will ever read. Like Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring", it should wake us up to the damage we are doing to our environment and to ourselves. The book is fascinating...and very, very scary. Every American, AND EVERY LEGISLATOR, should read it.
Rating:
Summary: Top priority
Review: Sandra Steingraber, a trained scientist, tells the story of her pregnancy at age 38, weaving it into very readable science. She describes the day-to-day development of the fetus and how we KNOW at exactly what point birth defects are caused and, in many cases, which chemicals cause them. I was horrified to learn how many chemicals are being passed to our children through mothers' milk. And I can't stop telling my friends how the waters of the Arctic are the MOST polluted in the world, just the opposite of what you might think. This may be one of the most important books you will ever read. Like Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring", it should wake us up to the damage we are doing to our environment and to ourselves. The book is fascinating...and very, very scary. Every American, AND EVERY LEGISLATOR, should read it.
Rating:
Summary: Mothers Will Remember, Fathers Will At Last Understand
Review: The descriptions and analyses of her experiences of pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood are gripping, yet hilarious and deeply touching, all within the context of a serious book. I could not put it down. Beautifully written. All expecting couples should read this book, and pass it on to their children when they eventually start a family. .... .... .... .... .... .... Buy it at
Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk
Rating:
Summary: A Call to Arms
Review: This book is amazing, Ms Steingrabers style of writing - hard (and often frightening) facts interspersed with personal vignettes - makes it a pleasure to read. I couldn't put it down. As a childless woman I do wonder though, how a newly pregnant first time mother might react to such startling information; this is not a caution to avoid reading Ms Steingrabers book but rather a suggestion to read it well before conception or to allow time for the full impact of the book to be integrated (and perhaps the panic to recede). The truth would seem to be that there is no longer any clean air on this planet of ours and pollution of all kinds is a daily reality regardless of where in the world we live, breast fed human babies are at the top of the food chain therefore serious, long lasting action should be taken to protect our offspring from the concentrated amounts of toxins they can potentially receive inutero and postpartum - when you know what's going on, you can call for change. Happy reading.
Rating:
Summary: A Call to Arms
Review: This book is amazing, Ms Steingrabers style of writing - hard (and often frightening) facts interspersed with personal vignettes - makes it a pleasure to read. I couldn't put it down. As a childless woman I do wonder though, how a newly pregnant first time mother might react to such startling information; this is not a caution to avoid reading Ms Steingrabers book but rather a suggestion to read it well before conception or to allow time for the full impact of the book to be integrated (and perhaps the panic to recede). The truth would seem to be that there is no longer any clean air on this planet of ours and pollution of all kinds is a daily reality regardless of where in the world we live, breast fed human babies are at the top of the food chain therefore serious, long lasting action should be taken to protect our offspring from the concentrated amounts of toxins they can potentially receive inutero and postpartum - when you know what's going on, you can call for change. Happy reading.
Rating:
Summary: An insightful book on the environment and pregnancy
Review: This book was such a joy compared to all the clingy books that track the monthly progress of your pregnancy. Of course, those books fill their need, but I believe that all expectant mothers should read this. I was attracted to the book because I am environmentally-minded. I couldn't stop reading it because it was well-written, intelligent, and touching. There are only a few sections where the science is a little obtuse, but actually, most of the writing is so down-to-earth, that it is easy to forgive some of the "heavier" science. I had a few clues about some of the environmental dangers she writes about, but the book is so well-researched and so good at explaining the problems, that it was quite an education. A good book for ALL people to read, I believe.
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