-
Belabored
- A Vindication of the Rights of Pregnant Women
- Narrated by: Natalie Peyser
- Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Prime members: New to Audible?Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Belabored
Buy for $19.49
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Medical Bondage
- Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology
- By: Deirdre Cooper Owens
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
- Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 164
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 137
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 139
In Medical Bondage, Cooper Owens examines a wide range of scientific literature and less formal communications in which gynecologists created and disseminated medical fictions about their patients, such as their belief that black enslaved women could withstand pain better than white "ladies". Even as they were advancing medicine, these doctors were legitimizing, for decades to come, groundless theories related to whiteness and blackness, men and women, and the inferiority of other races or nationalities.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Sadly, very little has changed.
- By AuthorAnnaBella on 08-25-20
-
Momfluenced
- Inside the Maddening, Picture-Perfect World of Mommy Influencer Culture
- By: Sara Petersen
- Narrated by: Megan Tusing
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 19
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 17
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 17
On Instagram, the private work of mothering has been turned into a public performance that’s generating billions of dollars, and the message is simple: that we’re all just a couple of clicks away from a better, more beautiful experience of motherhood. Momfluenced examines the performance of motherhood—producers of it and consumers of it—through the multilayered phenomenon of the mommy influencer.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Sincere but shallow.
- By Amazon Customer on 05-10-24
By: Sara Petersen
-
Someone Other than a Mother
- Tearing Up the Social Scripts and Rewriting a Life Well-Lived
- By: Erin Lane
- Narrated by: Erin S. Lane
- Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 17
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 16
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 16
Theologian Erin S. Lane overturns dominant narratives about motherhood and inspires women to write their own stories.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
I needed to hear this story.
- By Anonymous User on 05-11-22
By: Erin Lane
-
You Are Your Best Thing
- Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience
- By: Tarana Burke, Brené Brown
- Narrated by: Tarana Burke, Brené Brown, the Contributors, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,635
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,413
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 1,403
Tarana Burke and Dr. Brené Brown bring together a dynamic group of Black writers, organizers, artists, academics, and cultural figures to discuss the topics the two have dedicated their lives to understanding and teaching: vulnerability and shame resilience.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Listen up...
- By HeyJude on 04-29-21
By: Tarana Burke, and others
-
Untamed
- By: Glennon Doyle
- Narrated by: Glennon Doyle
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 37,432
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 31,647
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 31,455
There is a voice of longing inside each woman. We strive so mightily to be good: good partners, daughters, mothers, employees, and friends. We hope all this striving will make us feel alive. Instead, it leaves us feeling weary, stuck, overwhelmed, and underwhelmed. We look at our lives and wonder: Wasn’t it all supposed to be more beautiful than this? We quickly silence that question, telling ourselves to be grateful, hiding our discontent—even from ourselves.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Shockingly shallow and self-centered
- By G. Scimeca on 03-11-20
By: Glennon Doyle
-
The Argonauts
- By: Maggie Nelson
- Narrated by: Maggie Nelson
- Length: 4 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,401
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,221
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,223
Maggie Nelson's The Argonauts is a genre-bending memoir, a work of "autotheory" offering fresh, fierce, and timely thinking about desire, identity, and the limitations and possibilities of love and language. At its center is a romance: the story of the author's relationship with the artist Harry Dodge. This story, which includes Nelson's account of falling in love with Dodge, who is fluidly gendered, as well as her journey to and through a pregnancy, is an intimate portrayal of the complexities and joys of (queer) family making.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A relaxing meditation on identity, gender and art
- By redhidari on 10-01-15
By: Maggie Nelson
-
Medical Bondage
- Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology
- By: Deirdre Cooper Owens
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
- Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 164
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 137
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 139
In Medical Bondage, Cooper Owens examines a wide range of scientific literature and less formal communications in which gynecologists created and disseminated medical fictions about their patients, such as their belief that black enslaved women could withstand pain better than white "ladies". Even as they were advancing medicine, these doctors were legitimizing, for decades to come, groundless theories related to whiteness and blackness, men and women, and the inferiority of other races or nationalities.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Sadly, very little has changed.
- By AuthorAnnaBella on 08-25-20
-
Momfluenced
- Inside the Maddening, Picture-Perfect World of Mommy Influencer Culture
- By: Sara Petersen
- Narrated by: Megan Tusing
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 19
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 17
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 17
On Instagram, the private work of mothering has been turned into a public performance that’s generating billions of dollars, and the message is simple: that we’re all just a couple of clicks away from a better, more beautiful experience of motherhood. Momfluenced examines the performance of motherhood—producers of it and consumers of it—through the multilayered phenomenon of the mommy influencer.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Sincere but shallow.
- By Amazon Customer on 05-10-24
By: Sara Petersen
-
Someone Other than a Mother
- Tearing Up the Social Scripts and Rewriting a Life Well-Lived
- By: Erin Lane
- Narrated by: Erin S. Lane
- Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 17
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 16
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 16
Theologian Erin S. Lane overturns dominant narratives about motherhood and inspires women to write their own stories.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
I needed to hear this story.
- By Anonymous User on 05-11-22
By: Erin Lane
-
You Are Your Best Thing
- Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience
- By: Tarana Burke, Brené Brown
- Narrated by: Tarana Burke, Brené Brown, the Contributors, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,635
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,413
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 1,403
Tarana Burke and Dr. Brené Brown bring together a dynamic group of Black writers, organizers, artists, academics, and cultural figures to discuss the topics the two have dedicated their lives to understanding and teaching: vulnerability and shame resilience.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Listen up...
- By HeyJude on 04-29-21
By: Tarana Burke, and others
-
Untamed
- By: Glennon Doyle
- Narrated by: Glennon Doyle
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 37,432
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 31,647
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 31,455
There is a voice of longing inside each woman. We strive so mightily to be good: good partners, daughters, mothers, employees, and friends. We hope all this striving will make us feel alive. Instead, it leaves us feeling weary, stuck, overwhelmed, and underwhelmed. We look at our lives and wonder: Wasn’t it all supposed to be more beautiful than this? We quickly silence that question, telling ourselves to be grateful, hiding our discontent—even from ourselves.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Shockingly shallow and self-centered
- By G. Scimeca on 03-11-20
By: Glennon Doyle
-
The Argonauts
- By: Maggie Nelson
- Narrated by: Maggie Nelson
- Length: 4 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,401
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,221
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,223
Maggie Nelson's The Argonauts is a genre-bending memoir, a work of "autotheory" offering fresh, fierce, and timely thinking about desire, identity, and the limitations and possibilities of love and language. At its center is a romance: the story of the author's relationship with the artist Harry Dodge. This story, which includes Nelson's account of falling in love with Dodge, who is fluidly gendered, as well as her journey to and through a pregnancy, is an intimate portrayal of the complexities and joys of (queer) family making.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A relaxing meditation on identity, gender and art
- By redhidari on 10-01-15
By: Maggie Nelson
-
Why We Can't Sleep
- Women's New Midlife Crisis
- By: Ada Calhoun
- Narrated by: Ada Calhoun
- Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,544
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,300
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,298
When Ada Calhoun found herself in the throes of a midlife crisis, she thought that she had no right to complain. She was married with children and a good career. So why did she feel miserable? And why did it seem that other Generation X women were miserable, too? Calhoun decided to find some answers. She looked into housing costs, HR trends, credit card debt averages, and divorce data. At every turn, she saw a pattern: sandwiched between the Boomers and Millennials, Gen X women were facing new problems as they entered middle age, problems that were being largely overlooked.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Generation X Chick
- By Kristina on 01-25-20
By: Ada Calhoun
-
A Sky Full of Stars
- Learning to Surrender to God's Perfect Plans
- By: Meg Apperson, Lisa Leonard - foreword
- Narrated by: Emily Ellet
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 51
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 49
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 49
Meg Apperson grew up having a relationship with Jesus, and she always trusted God. But it wasn't until her daughter Avery - a miracle in so many ways - was born with a litany of life-threatening birth defects that she began to fully understand what it means to trust Jesus with everything. In this heartbreakingly beautiful memoir, you'll learn how a mother fought for her child, her family, and even herself as she grappled with the weight of failure - of letting down everyone around her and feeling let down by God.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Honest and beautiful
- By Katie on 12-28-20
By: Meg Apperson, and others
-
Women Rising
- Learning to Listen, Finding Our Voices
- By: Meghan Tschanz, Carolyn Custis James - foreword
- Narrated by: Emily Ellet
- Length: 6 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 23
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 22
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 22
Fresh out of college, Meghan Tschanz left everything to join a mission trip around the globe, and quickly witnessed oppression experienced by women that she never thought possible. Over the next several years, she befriended women around the globe who had survived sex trafficking, female genital mutilation, and violence so extreme Meghan wondered at the women's survival. Through listening to their stories, Meghan started to notice a pattern - one that pointed to systems of injustice that harmed and held women back - systems, Meghan realized, she was often complicit in.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A book every white, American woman needs to read
- By Sara on 09-09-22
By: Meghan Tschanz, and others
-
Raising a Rare Girl
- A Memoir
- By: Heather Lanier
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 97
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 89
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 89
Like many women of her generation, Heather Lanier did everything by the book when she was expecting her first child. But her daughter, Fiona, challenged all of Lanier's preconceptions. Born with an ultra-rare syndrome known as Wolf-Hirschhorn, Fiona received a daunting prognosis: She would experience significant developmental delays and might not reach her second birthday. Award-winning writer Heather Lanier's memoir about raising a child with a rare syndrome, defying the tyranny of normal, and embracing parenthood as a spiritual practice that breaks us open in the best of ways.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!
- By Julee on 01-23-21
By: Heather Lanier
-
Love Without Borders
- How Bold Faith Opens the Door to Embracing the Unexpected
- By: Angela Braniff
- Narrated by: Angela Braniff
- Length: 4 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 789
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 701
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 700
From the founder of This Gathered Nest YouTube channel, an uplifting story of Angela Braniff’s unusual path to becoming the mother to seven children through various methods of adoption and biological approaches, encouraging women and mothers to embrace the unique purpose that God has put in their lives.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
I Wanted To Love This...
- By Rachel T. on 04-29-20
By: Angela Braniff
-
How to Raise a Feminist Son
- Motherhood, Masculinity, and the Making of My Family
- By: Sonora Jha
- Narrated by: Sonora Jha
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 61
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 57
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 57
From teaching consent to counteracting problematic messages from the media, well-meaning family, and the culture at large, we have big work to do when it comes to our boys. Informed by the author's work as a professor of journalism specializing in social justice movements and social media, as well as by conversations with psychologists, experts, and other parents and boys, this book follows one mother's journey to raise a feminist son as a single immigrant woman of color in America.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A book for the times!
- By Amazon Customer on 08-20-21
By: Sonora Jha
-
One Day You'll Thank Me
- Essays on Dating, Motherhood, and Everything in Between
- By: Cameran Eubanks Wimberly
- Narrated by: Cameran Eubanks Wimberly
- Length: 5 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 883
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 759
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 753
Growing up in South Carolina with a family that goes back ten generations, Cameran Eubanks knew from a young age that Southern women are expected to want the white picket fence life. But Cameran has never been your typical Southern belle. Now, she takes you deeper into her life—from her first foray into reality TV to dating to the honest truth about her pregnancy and motherhood—to get to know the person behind the camera. Charming, hilarious, and a hell of a lot fun, One Day You’ll Thank Me is for anyone who has ever wondered if they should or can follow their dreams.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Was hoping for more of a story
- By Amazon Customer on 02-05-21
-
Oh Sis, You’re Pregnant!
- The Ultimate Guide to Black Pregnancy & Motherhood
- By: Shanicia Boswell
- Narrated by: Diana Blue
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 42
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 36
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 36
In the age of social media, how do pregnant women communicate their big announcement? What are the best protective hairstyles for labor? Most importantly, how many pregnancy guides focus on issues like Black maternal birth rates and what it really looks like to be Black, pregnant, and single today? Created for the modern pregnant Black woman, Oh Sis, You're Pregnant! is the essential companion to understanding pregnancy from a millennial Black mom's point of view.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Really great, but one minor reservation
- By Hiwote Bekele on 05-31-21
By: Shanicia Boswell
-
A Good Mom's Guide to Making Bad Choices
- By: Jamilah Mapp, Erica Dickerson
- Narrated by: Jamilah Mapp, Erica Dickerson
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 71
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 69
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 69
They are everywhere on social media. Images of perfect, pleasant women with perfect, pretty children in perfect, tidy homes—the epitome of “good” moms. But this model of motherhood is an illusion that far too many women either measure themselves against or simply cannot relate to in the first place. Enter Jamilah Mapp and Erica Dickerson: if you are sex-positive, cannabis-friendly, and love sharing NSFW stories with your fellow mom friends, you’re not doing anything wrong and you are definitely not a bad mother. And Jamilah and Erica are your tribe.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
LOVE IT
- By Alyssa Rowden on 05-09-23
By: Jamilah Mapp, and others
-
Dear Body
- What I Lost, What I Gained, and What I Learned Along the Way
- By: Brittany Williams
- Narrated by: Brittany Williams
- Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 65
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 62
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 62
Raised in a turbulent home, Brittany Williams learned to use food as a coping mechanism to manage her feelings at a young age. When she was 14, a family member’s comment “no man will want you with a pudgy figure like that” forever changed the way she viewed her body and opened a door, new and alluring, into the world of self-loathing, self-punishment, and dieting. Told with Brittany’s unflagging honesty and trademark vulnerability, Dear Body describes the tensions of growing up in a body that often felt more like a traitor than a friend.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
So inspirational
- By Lisa on 05-16-24
-
American Baby
- A Mother, a Child, and the Shadow History of Adoption
- By: Gabrielle Glaser
- Narrated by: Kathe Mazur, Gabrielle Glaser, Margaret Katz
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 211
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 175
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 173
The adoption business was founded on secrecy and lies. American Baby lays out how a lucrative and exploitative industry removed children from their birth mothers and placed them with hopeful families, fabricating stories about infants' origins and destinations, then closing the door firmly between the parties forever. Adoption agencies and other organizations that purported to help pregnant women struck unethical deals with doctors and researchers for pseudoscientific "assessments," and shamed millions of women into surrendering their children.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
I felt the love of my birth mom...
- By Mary H. on 02-03-21
By: Gabrielle Glaser
-
Domestic Extremist
- A Practical Guide to Winning the Culture War
- By: Peachy Keenan
- Narrated by: Peachy Keenan
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 48
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 47
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 47
Spot-on, often satirical, always insightful, contributing editor of The American Mind and mother of a brood Peachy Keenan argues that the only way we can save our families, ourselves, and the world—even California!—is by embracing our inner domestic extremists, and sweeping failed notions of third wave feminism and identity politics nonsense into the garbage can of history.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
The overall sentiment is 100% spot on, but author shamed women struggling with fertility.
- By Morgan on 08-13-23
By: Peachy Keenan
Publisher's summary
In Belabored, Lyz Lenz will "make you cry in one paragraph and snort-laugh in the next" (Chloe Angyal, contributing editor at MarieClaire.com).
Written with a blend of wit, snark, and raw intimacy, Belabored is an impassioned and irreverent defense of the autonomy, rights, and dignity of pregnant people. Lenz shows how religious, historical, and cultural myths about pregnancy have warped the way we treat pregnant people: when our representatives enact laws criminalizing abortion and miscarriage, when doctors prioritize the health of the fetus over the life of the pregnant patient in front of them, when baristas refuse to serve visibly pregnant women caffeine. She also reflects on her own experiences of carrying her two children and seeing how the sacrifices demanded during pregnancy carry over seamlessly into the cult of motherhood, where women are expected to play the narrowly defined roles of "wife" and "mother" rather than be themselves.
Belabored is an urgent call for us to trust women and let them choose what happens to their own bodies, from a writer who "is on a roll" (Bitch Magazine).
Critic reviews
"In Belabored, Lyz Lenz burrows inside our culture's myths and fantasies about motherhood, mining her own deeply personal experiences to reveal a far uglier and more complex truth. Lenz is that smart, acid-tongued friend who entertains you with jaw-dropping stories while daring you to think more deeply. Belabored is riveting, riotous, and bracingly honest." (Pamela Colloff, senior reporter at ProPublica and staff writer at the New York Times Magazine)
"This book is just wonderful, a pure distillation of righteous fury that is always timely, but especially now." (Sarah Weinman, author of The Real Lolita)
"A thoughtful, impassioned look at mothers and mothering." (Kirkus)
More from the same
Related to this topic
-
Ungovernable
- The Victorian Parent's Guide to Raising Flawless Children
- By: Therese Oneill
- Narrated by: Dara Rosenberg, Betsy Foldes Meiman
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 186
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 165
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 164
Feminist historian Therese Oneill is back, to educate you on what to expect when you're expecting...a Victorian baby! In Ungovernable, Oneill conducts an unforgettable tour through the backward, pseudoscientific, downright bizarre parenting fashions of the Victorians.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Unexpected and Hilarious
- By M. Huber on 05-21-19
By: Therese Oneill
-
Like a Mother
- A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy
- By: Angela Garbes
- Narrated by: Roxana Ortega, Angela Garbes
- Length: 7 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 696
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 605
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 601
What to listen to after What to Expect.... A badass, feminist, and personal deep-dive into the science and culture of pregnancy and early motherhood that debunks myths and dated assumptions, offering guidance and camaraderie to women navigating one of the biggest and most profound changes in their lives. Like most first-time mothers, Angela Garbes was filled with questions when she became pregnant. What exactly is a placenta? How does a body go into labor? Why is breast best? What are the signs and effects of postpartum depression?
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Microchimerism - interesting at first, then profoundly healing
- By Emily Virgil on 09-10-18
By: Angela Garbes
-
Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed
- Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids
- By: Meghan Daum
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller, Jo Anna Perrin
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 169
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 149
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 149
One of the main topics of cultural conversation during the last decade was the supposed "fertility crisis" and whether modern women could figure out a way to have it all - a successful, demanding career and the required 2.3 children - before their biological clocks stopped ticking. Now, however, conversation has turned to whether it's necessary to have it all (see Anne-Marie Slaughter) or, perhaps more controversial, whether children are really a requirement for a fulfilling life.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Am I the only sane childfree woman in here?
- By J. Malouin on 09-29-15
By: Meghan Daum
-
A Mind Spread Out on the Ground
- By: Alicia Elliott
- Narrated by: Kyla Garcia
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 54
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 45
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 45
The Mohawk phrase for depression can be roughly translated as a mind spread out on the ground. In this urgent, visceral work, Alicia Elliott explores how apt a description that is for the ongoing effects of the personal, intergenerational, and colonial traumas experienced by her so many Native people. Elliott's deeply personal writing details a life spent between Indigenous and White communities - a divide reflected in her own family - and engages with such wide-ranging topics as race, parenthood, love, art, mental illness, poverty, sexual assault, gentrification, and representation.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Important and powerful, but narrator ruined it
- By barbara on 01-19-24
By: Alicia Elliott
-
Smile
- The Story of a Face
- By: Sarah Ruhl
- Narrated by: Sarah Ruhl
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 109
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 96
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 96
With a play opening on Broadway, and every reason to smile, Sarah Ruhl has just survived a high-risk pregnancy when she discovers the left side of her face is completely paralyzed. She is assured that 90 percent of Bell’s palsy patients experience a full recovery—like Ruhl’s own mother. But Sarah is in the unlucky ten percent. And for a woman, wife, mother, and artist working in theater, the paralysis and the disconnect between the interior and exterior brings significant and specific challenges.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Synkinesis: I am there
- By Elizabeth Principi on 11-04-21
By: Sarah Ruhl
-
American Baby
- A Mother, a Child, and the Shadow History of Adoption
- By: Gabrielle Glaser
- Narrated by: Kathe Mazur, Gabrielle Glaser, Margaret Katz
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 211
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 175
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 173
The adoption business was founded on secrecy and lies. American Baby lays out how a lucrative and exploitative industry removed children from their birth mothers and placed them with hopeful families, fabricating stories about infants' origins and destinations, then closing the door firmly between the parties forever. Adoption agencies and other organizations that purported to help pregnant women struck unethical deals with doctors and researchers for pseudoscientific "assessments," and shamed millions of women into surrendering their children.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
I felt the love of my birth mom...
- By Mary H. on 02-03-21
By: Gabrielle Glaser
-
Ungovernable
- The Victorian Parent's Guide to Raising Flawless Children
- By: Therese Oneill
- Narrated by: Dara Rosenberg, Betsy Foldes Meiman
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 186
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 165
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 164
Feminist historian Therese Oneill is back, to educate you on what to expect when you're expecting...a Victorian baby! In Ungovernable, Oneill conducts an unforgettable tour through the backward, pseudoscientific, downright bizarre parenting fashions of the Victorians.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Unexpected and Hilarious
- By M. Huber on 05-21-19
By: Therese Oneill
-
Like a Mother
- A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy
- By: Angela Garbes
- Narrated by: Roxana Ortega, Angela Garbes
- Length: 7 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 696
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 605
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 601
What to listen to after What to Expect.... A badass, feminist, and personal deep-dive into the science and culture of pregnancy and early motherhood that debunks myths and dated assumptions, offering guidance and camaraderie to women navigating one of the biggest and most profound changes in their lives. Like most first-time mothers, Angela Garbes was filled with questions when she became pregnant. What exactly is a placenta? How does a body go into labor? Why is breast best? What are the signs and effects of postpartum depression?
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Microchimerism - interesting at first, then profoundly healing
- By Emily Virgil on 09-10-18
By: Angela Garbes
-
Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed
- Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids
- By: Meghan Daum
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller, Jo Anna Perrin
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 169
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 149
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 149
One of the main topics of cultural conversation during the last decade was the supposed "fertility crisis" and whether modern women could figure out a way to have it all - a successful, demanding career and the required 2.3 children - before their biological clocks stopped ticking. Now, however, conversation has turned to whether it's necessary to have it all (see Anne-Marie Slaughter) or, perhaps more controversial, whether children are really a requirement for a fulfilling life.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Am I the only sane childfree woman in here?
- By J. Malouin on 09-29-15
By: Meghan Daum
-
A Mind Spread Out on the Ground
- By: Alicia Elliott
- Narrated by: Kyla Garcia
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 54
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 45
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 45
The Mohawk phrase for depression can be roughly translated as a mind spread out on the ground. In this urgent, visceral work, Alicia Elliott explores how apt a description that is for the ongoing effects of the personal, intergenerational, and colonial traumas experienced by her so many Native people. Elliott's deeply personal writing details a life spent between Indigenous and White communities - a divide reflected in her own family - and engages with such wide-ranging topics as race, parenthood, love, art, mental illness, poverty, sexual assault, gentrification, and representation.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Important and powerful, but narrator ruined it
- By barbara on 01-19-24
By: Alicia Elliott
-
Smile
- The Story of a Face
- By: Sarah Ruhl
- Narrated by: Sarah Ruhl
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 109
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 96
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 96
With a play opening on Broadway, and every reason to smile, Sarah Ruhl has just survived a high-risk pregnancy when she discovers the left side of her face is completely paralyzed. She is assured that 90 percent of Bell’s palsy patients experience a full recovery—like Ruhl’s own mother. But Sarah is in the unlucky ten percent. And for a woman, wife, mother, and artist working in theater, the paralysis and the disconnect between the interior and exterior brings significant and specific challenges.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Synkinesis: I am there
- By Elizabeth Principi on 11-04-21
By: Sarah Ruhl
-
American Baby
- A Mother, a Child, and the Shadow History of Adoption
- By: Gabrielle Glaser
- Narrated by: Kathe Mazur, Gabrielle Glaser, Margaret Katz
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 211
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 175
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 173
The adoption business was founded on secrecy and lies. American Baby lays out how a lucrative and exploitative industry removed children from their birth mothers and placed them with hopeful families, fabricating stories about infants' origins and destinations, then closing the door firmly between the parties forever. Adoption agencies and other organizations that purported to help pregnant women struck unethical deals with doctors and researchers for pseudoscientific "assessments," and shamed millions of women into surrendering their children.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
I felt the love of my birth mom...
- By Mary H. on 02-03-21
By: Gabrielle Glaser
-
Cunt (20th Anniversary Edition)
- By: Inga Muscio
- Narrated by: Inga Muscio
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 54
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 48
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 48
In this fully revised anniversary edition of the classic testament to women's empowerment, Muscio explores with candidness and humor such traditional feminist issues as birth control, sexuality, jealousy between women, and prostitution with a fresh attitude for a new generation of women. Sending out a call for every woman to be the "Cuntlovin' Ruler of Her Sexual Universe", Muscio stands convention on its head by embracing the provocative and celebrating womanhood.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Best book ever
- By Paula Daniels on 07-28-19
By: Inga Muscio
-
Early
- An Intimate History of Premature Birth and What It Teaches Us About Being Human
- By: Sarah DiGregorio
- Narrated by: Ann Marie Gideon
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 36
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 31
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 31
The heart of many hospitals is the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). It is a place where humanity, ethics, and science collide in dramatic and deeply personal ways as parents, doctors, and nurses grapple with sometimes unanswerable questions: When does life begin? When and how should life end? And what does it mean to be human? Nearly 20 years ago, Dr. John D. Lantos wrote The Lazarus Case, a seminal work on ethical dilemmas in neonatology. He described the NICU as “a strong, strange, powerful place”. The
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Gripping read for this late preterm infant mom
- By R. Ash on 08-08-21
By: Sarah DiGregorio
-
The Sum of Our Days
- By: Isabel Allende
- Narrated by: Blair Brown, Isabel Allende
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 55
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 50
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 50
Isabel Allende reconstructs the painful reality of her own life in the wake of the tragic death of her daughter, Paula. Narrated with warmth, humor, exceptional candor, and wisdom, this remarkable memoir is as exuberant and as full of life as its creator. Allende bares her soul while sharing her thoughts on love, marriage, motherhood, spirituality and religion, infidelity, addiction, and memory - and recounts stories of the wildly eccentric, strong-minded, and eclectic tribe she gathers around her and lovingly embraces as a new kind of family.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
She does not disappoint
- By ChiChi's Rule on 06-01-22
By: Isabel Allende
-
On Our Best Behavior
- The Seven Deadly Sins and the Price Women Pay to Be Good
- By: Elise Loehnen
- Narrated by: Elise Loehnen
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 206
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 195
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 194
We congratulate ourselves when we resist the donut in the office breakroom. We celebrate our restraint when we hold back from sending an email in anger. We feel virtuous when we wake up at dawn to get a jump on the day. We put others’ needs ahead of our own and believe this makes us exemplary. In On Our Best Behavior, journalist Elise Loehnen explains that these impulses—often lauded as unselfish, distinctly feminine instincts—are actually ingrained in us by a culture that reaps the benefits, via an extraordinarily effective collection of mores known as the Seven Deadly Sins.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Autobiography in Disguise
- By Lindsey on 06-11-23
By: Elise Loehnen
-
Sex, Mom, and God
- How the Bible's Strange Take on Sex Led to Crazy Politics - and How I Learned to Love Women (and Jesus) Anyway
- By: Frank Schaeffer
- Narrated by: Frank Schaeffer
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 73
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 61
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 61
Alternating between laugh-out-loud scenes from his childhood and acidic ruminations on the present state of an America he and his famous fundamentalist parents helped create, best-selling author Frank Schaeffer asks what the Glenn Becks and the Rush Limbaughs and the paranoid fantasies of the “right-wing echo chamber” are really all about. Here’s a hint: sex.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Entertaining and enlightening
- By Listens-a-lot on 11-16-11
By: Frank Schaeffer
-
Beyond the Sling
- A Real-Life Guide to Raising Confident, Loving Children the Attachment Parenting Way
- By: Mayim Bialik
- Narrated by: Emily Durante
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 169
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 151
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 148
Mayim Bialik was the child star of the popular 1990s TV sitcom Blossom, but she definitely didn't follow the typical child-star trajectory. Instead, Mayim got her Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA, married her college sweetheart, and had two kids. Mayim then did what many new moms do - she read a lot of books, talked with other parents, and she soon started questioning a lot of the conventional wisdom she heard about the "right" way to raise a child. That's when she turned to attachment parenting.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Explains her style without condemning others
- By Mary on 03-28-12
By: Mayim Bialik
-
Birth
- The Surprising History of How We Are Born
- By: Tina Cassidy
- Narrated by: Angela Starling
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 127
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 108
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 108
From evolution to the epidural and beyond, Tina Cassidy presents an intelligent, enlightening, and impeccably researched cultural history of how and why we're born the way we are. Women have been giving birth for millennia, but that's about the only constant in the final stage of the great process that is human reproduction. Why is it that every culture and generation seems to have its own ideas about the best way to give birth?
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
important historical work, fascinating and fun
- By RT on 02-24-16
By: Tina Cassidy
-
Modern Loss
- Candid Conversation About Grief. Beginners Welcome.
- By: Rebecca Soffer, Gabrielle Birkner
- Narrated by: Meredith Mitchell, Josh Bloomberg
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 43
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 39
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 39
At a time when we mourn public figures and national tragedies with hashtags, where intimate posts about loss go viral and we receive automated birthday reminders for dead friends, it's clear we are navigating new terrain without a road map. Let's face it: Most of us have always had a difficult time talking about death and sharing our grief. We're awkward and uncertain; we avoid, ignore, or even deny feelings of sadness; we offer platitudes; we send sympathy bouquets whittled out of fruit.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Not What I Was Expecting
- By Bessie Mae on 03-01-23
By: Rebecca Soffer, and others
-
How to Be Sad
- Everything I’ve Learned About Getting Happier by Being Sad
- By: Helen Russell
- Narrated by: Helen Russell
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 33
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 31
Helen Russell has researched sadness from the inside out for her entire life. Her earliest memory is of the day her sister died. Her parents divorced soon after, and her mother didn’t receive the help she needed to grieve. Coping with her own emotional turmoil — including struggles with body image and infertility — she’s endured professional and personal setbacks as well as relationships that have imploded in truly spectacular ways. Even the things that brought her the greatest joy — like eventually becoming a parent — are fraught with challenges.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
More an self biography
- By Jaime Murillo on 04-27-24
By: Helen Russell
-
The Undying
- Pain, Vulnerability, Mortality, Medicine, Art, Dreams, Data, Exhaustion, Cancer, and Care
- By: Anne Boyer
- Narrated by: Amy Finegan
- Length: 5 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 54
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 47
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 47
A week after her 41st birthday, the acclaimed poet Anne Boyer was diagnosed with highly aggressive triple-negative breast cancer. For a single mother living paycheck to paycheck who had always been the caregiver, the catastrophic illness was both a crisis and an initiation into new ideas about mortality and the gendered politics of illness. The Undying explores the experience of illness as mediated by digital screens, weaving in ancient Roman dream diarists, cancer hoaxers and fetishists, cancer vloggers, pro-pain "dolorists", and the many little murders of capitalism.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Provocative and moving
- By C. FREEMAN on 05-13-20
By: Anne Boyer
-
The Natural Mother of the Child
- A Memoir of Nonbinary Parenthood
- By: Krys Malcolm Belc
- Narrated by: Krys Malcolm Belc
- Length: 4 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 26
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 25
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 25
Krys Malcolm Belc has thought a lot about the interplay between parenthood and gender. As a nonbinary, transmasculine parent, giving birth to his son Samson clarified his gender identity. And yet, when his partner Anna adopted Samson, the legal documents listed Belc as "the natural mother of the child." The Natural Mother of the Child journeys both toward and through common perceptions of what it means to have a body and how that body can influence the perception of a family.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent
- By Kathryn Bradley on 03-04-23
-
To Have and to Hold
- Motherhood, Marriage, and the Modern Dilemma
- By: Molly Millwood
- Narrated by: Molly Millwood
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 468
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 379
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 383
A clinical psychologist’s exploration of the modern dilemmas women face in the wake of new motherhood. When Molly Millwood became a mother, she was fully prepared for what she would gain: an adorable baby boy; hard-won mothering skills; and a messy, chaotic, beautiful life. But what she did not expect was what she would lose: aspects of her identity, a baseline level of happiness, a general sense of well-being.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Pretty good
- By C Sandell on 03-07-21
By: Molly Millwood
Love Books? You'll Love Audible.
Transform your day
Replace endless scrolling with endless listening. Chores can be fun.
Listen everywhere
Download titles to listen offline, wherever you are in the world.
Carry your entire Library
Your stories go where you go. Audiobooks don’t weigh a thing.
Listen and learn
Discover stories that can change your mind, your well-being, and your life.
Reach your reading goals
You can’t turn pages while you drive—but you can press play.
Find your niche
WIth thousands of titles to explore, there’s something for everyone.