Pregnancy

It has been nearly a decade since actor Claire Danes first appeared as CIA agent Carrie Mathison on the Showtime series Homeland. Now that the show is in its eighth and final season, Danes is feeling reflective about its run.

Almost 10 years ago, journalist Hillary Frank was pregnant and planning to give birth without medication or surgery — but things didn't go according to her plan.

As a first-time mother, journalist Angela Garbes craved unbiased, scientific information — not just anecdotal advice. Her new book debunks myths and assumptions about pregnancy and childbirth.

Writer Maggie O'Farrell has survived some terrifying episodes. She's had a machete pressed to her throat during a robbery, once contracted amoebic dysentery while traveling and nearly bled out while giving birth to her first child.

New Yorker staff writer Ariel Levy was five months pregnant when she went to Mongolia on assignment. Her doctor had cleared her for travel, and she was excited to pursue one last adventurous story before settling down with an infant.

Pamela Eren's incisive new book Eleven Hours features only two main characters and is an incisive novel about birth.

Emily Gould's first novel stars 30-something single women in New York City who are figuring out what's important in life. It's worth picking up for its sharp social observations and inspired wordplay.

New York Times correspondent Elisabeth Rosenthal is spending a year investigating why American medical bills are so much higher than in other developed countries.

Mare's-urine cocktails? Do-it-yourself forceps? Randi Hutter Epstein's new book Get Me Out: A History of Childbirth From the Garden of Eden to the Sperm Bank is full of delightful — and sometimes disturbing — anecdotes about the history of pregnancy and childbirth.

Elizabeth McCracken's new memoir, An Exact Replica Of A Figment Of My Imagination, details the devastating loss of the author's stillborn baby. Maureen Corrigan offers a review.

Journalist Tina Cassidy was inspired to write about cultural birth practices after hearing many accounts of birth experiences. Cassidy is a former reporter for the Boston Globe and writes for other publications including The New York Times Magazine.

Ann Fessler talks about her new book, The Girls Who Went Away. Using her own story of adoption as a basis for her book, Fessler tells the story of over a million women who surrendered children for adoption prior to legalized abortion. Fessler is a photography professor at the Rhode Island School of Design.

A mother who gave birth to a severely handicapped child has sued her obstetrician for not providing data that would have allowed her to abort the fetus. Elizabeth Weil wrote about the case in The New York Times Magazine.

Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews "Junior," Ivan Reitman's new comedy in which Arnold Schwarzenegger gets pregnant.

The travel writer has a new book called "Wall to Wall: From Beijing to Berlin by Rail." She took the trip five years ago as reforms were beginning to be implemented in the Soviet Union, and before the government crackdown in Tiananmen Square and the Eastern European revolutions. She's particularly interested in what it's like to travel abroad as a woman alone.

Dr. Perri Klass writes extensively for magazines and newspapers, and has published a collection of short stories. Her new memoir, A Not Entirely Benign Procedure, details her experiences as a med student at Harvard.