The bestselling author of The Beauty Myth uses the personal to explore the 'birth myth', the culture and practices of pregnancy and childbirth, with ferocity and passion. Every year, millions of women have their lives turned inside out by the experience of pregnancy. A contemporary woman find herself caught in an absurd paradox- while in the grip of one of the most primal, lonely, sensual and, in some ways, psychologically debilitating and physically dangerous experiences, she is overwhelmed by invasive, trivialising and infantilising cultural messages about what is happening to her - and who really owns the experience.