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Baby B
"First published as an essay in "The New Yorker," Baby B is a fascinating story of technology, babies, and unconditional love"
"I have been telling my friends that what I am injecting into my wife, Doreen, this week is crushed, powdered Chinese hamster ovaries. This is not quite the truth. I am injecting her with cells from Chinese hamster ovaries subjected to recombinant-DNA technology, genetically engineered to become a human follicle-stimulating hormone that will help produce multiple eggs . . . "
"Baby B "is an embryo-one of four that have been implanted into Michael Ryan's wife, Doreen. Their story is told from the rarely voiced perspective of the hoping-to-be father. As they face the prospect of failure one day and of quadruplets another, the couple must endure an emotional roller coaster of fear, exhaustion, and self-doubt.
With candor and humor, Ryan chronicles an adventure and a love story: a strange and awe-inspiring medical process that, if everything goes just right, results in human life.
"I have been telling my friends that what I am injecting into my wife, Doreen, this week is crushed, powdered Chinese hamster ovaries. This is not quite the truth. I am injecting her with cells from Chinese hamster ovaries subjected to recombinant-DNA technology, genetically engineered to become a human follicle-stimulating hormone that will help produce multiple eggs . . . "
"Baby B "is an embryo-one of four that have been implanted into Michael Ryan's wife, Doreen. Their story is told from the rarely voiced perspective of the hoping-to-be father. As they face the prospect of failure one day and of quadruplets another, the couple must endure an emotional roller coaster of fear, exhaustion, and self-doubt.
With candor and humor, Ryan chronicles an adventure and a love story: a strange and awe-inspiring medical process that, if everything goes just right, results in human life.
144 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2004
About the author
Michael Ryan
15 booksAuthor of a memoir / biography of being the partner of someone undergoing fertility treatment.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 31, 2008
One of the perks when I was a volunteer at a library, shelving the new books, was that I'd get to see so many interesting books -- which helped my eclectic reading style even more.
Baby B is the story of a couple's experience with infertility, written by the husband. He jokes about telling people that he's injecting his wife with hamster hormones (well, that's true. It just sounds funny). He agonizes when of the four fertilized eggs that are implanted, most die off one by one ... and he rejoices in the development of "Baby B" who survives her siblings (A, C, and D).
Reading this helped me to understand more of what people dealing with infertility must go through. I really enjoyed this book.
Baby B is the story of a couple's experience with infertility, written by the husband. He jokes about telling people that he's injecting his wife with hamster hormones (well, that's true. It just sounds funny). He agonizes when of the four fertilized eggs that are implanted, most die off one by one ... and he rejoices in the development of "Baby B" who survives her siblings (A, C, and D).
Reading this helped me to understand more of what people dealing with infertility must go through. I really enjoyed this book.
October 16, 2013
As another reviewer put it: a succinct, poignant book about one couple's journey through infertility. What I really "enjoyed" is the Michael's writing style - concise, yet filled with meaning. And I really love the way he loves his wife and the ways he tells and shows her (and us).
It really was a lovely story about a loving couple and what they went through to have child(ten) of their own.
It really was a lovely story about a loving couple and what they went through to have child(ten) of their own.
May 22, 2008
so good..and i lent this one to someone one day...haven't seen it since.
February 9, 2010
A poignant, succinct book about the pain of infertility and the joy of finally having a baby
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews