Belly Laughs By Jenny McCarthy

This is one of the books lining the pregnancy section of every bookstore. So I decided to read it. I neither expected it to be holistic nor give any real advice; in which case I was right. I can’t say that it was a boring read; it was fairly decent. It reads fast, which is a plus, but I also found it a waste of time and chances are if you follow our blog, you will too.

I have come to like Jenny McCarthy in recent years as she is very outspoken regarding vaccines and the injuries they cause. This thrills me. However, this book was written before all of that. In this book, McCarthy seeks to graphically illustrate and describe common discomforts surrounding pregnancy and birthing. Some of her descriptions are humorous, but she can be quite vulgar. No everyone’s cup of tea.

What I found with this book was that every pregnancy symptom is extensively exaggerated in an effort to be funny. I know there are some discomforts of pregnancy, believe me, I know. But gosh it’s really not that bad! I felt this book fell into our popular culture of things in which I take very seriously such as fear of birth, weight gain, epidurals, amongst other things. This book plays right into all too common misconceptions in our society surrounding pregnancy and birth with such phrases as “blowing your vagina out while squeezing something the size of a watermelon out.” For women truly scared of giving birth as are the majority of women in our country, this is not something that is helpful. What would have been helpful from this book would have been reassurances such as that your vagina is beautifully designed to stretch over your baby’s head in an incredible way with minimal pain while this happens.

I do like how honest she is in the book. I could do without the vulgarity. There are some things that are not pretty in regards to pregnancy. You will gain weight, maybe get stretch marks, and other things. But when McCarthy complains numerous times about her enormous a**, I have trouble feeling sympathetic. Many pregnant women feel very beautiful during their pregnancies despite not having the body of a previous Playmate. There are so many more important things to worry about than cellulite.

I would have liked the focus to be more on what a wonderful special time pregnancy is. There was not much mention of special ways to prepare for pregnancy or what a beautiful experience birth can be.

McCarthy also had a difficult birth. There is no education as to why her birth was difficult in this book, so I will elaborate. McCarty asks why would you forgo an epidural? Yes, this is all too common thinking in the pathetic birthing culture of our society. Well, I could list numerous reasons why someone would choose to forgo an epidural; our website goes into extensive detail. Interestingly, McCarthy ended up with a Cesarean section after 2.5 hours of pushing. Her baby’s heart rate was dropping. This having been undoubtedly caused by the epidural. It would be far too easy to think this doesn’t occur that often, but unfortunately, it is remarkably common. And do you know what women think after this happens? They just weren’t made to push the baby out as McCarthy admits was her fear the entire labor (which does interfere with labor). I could carry on, but for the sake of time, if you’re curious to know more, check out our giving birth section of our website.

McCarthy lost even more points in my book when she complained about the pain of engorgement caused by not breastfeeding. I have come to have little tolerance for those who don’t breastfeed by choice of laziness, noninterest, etc. I have deep compassion for issues related to the difficulty of breastfeeding, and I fully realize some women do have quite a hard time or are not able. This does not excuse the majority of women in our culture. It’s supposed to hurt if you don’t breastfeed because you are supposed to breastfeed!

Another issue that is important to address in this review is the simple fact that many of the related pregnancy discomforts mentioned by McCarthy can be prevented by having good nutrition. I wouldn’t expect McCarthy to talk intelligently on the subject of nutrition, but preterm labor, swollen ankles, and much else can be prevented from good nutrition. Certain things like swollen ankles may be common during pregnancy, but this does not mean they are normal or unpreventable.

In the end, this book may give a few pity laughs, but ultimately, you probably won’t learn much.