The Unassisted Baby Book Review

Title:  The Unassisted Baby.

Author: Anita Evensen.

Genre: Nonfiction, Self-Help, Pregnancy, Childbirth, Newborns, Medical.

Plot: Anita Evensen is a self-published author and mother of three. Through her own personally experience and research, she has discovered that women’s bodies were meant to give birth and that giving birth unassisted {without the help of even a midwife} is actually a good idea for many women. In her book, she confidently and very eloquently walks the readers through hospital intervention uses and side-effects, do-it-yourself prenatal care, easy to figure out birth check lists, a prenatal growth chart, cheat sheets for you and your husband, postpartum care for you and your baby, and lots of sound encouragement for birthing unassisted.

Throughout the book, Mrs. Evensen combines a wealth of information, a good sound reality check, positive humor and a healthy dose of encouragement – which is really what we need. She doesn’t claim to be a medical professional or that unassisted birth is for everyone, but she gives you the tools to figure out if it’s for you or not. Personally, I think it’s doable for me and a good way to avoid the hospitals. While my own birth story is positive, it wasn’t exactly what I’d wanted.

Likes/Dislikes: This book is beautifully and comprehensively written. There is hardly any repeat information {a rarity among books like this}, it’s straight-forward and includes tons of information. Because it’s a self-published book, some of the formatting was a little off, and several words were a little off. There was a lot of “they” instead of “the” for example, but I didn’t mind too much. There is also a wonderful short section for the husbands to read so they don’t have to read the whole book if they don’t want to. I highly enjoyed this book and will be adding it to my personal collection.

Rating: PG-16 and up, mainly for content {it’s all about giving birth and such}. Highly Recommended.

Date Review Written: January 5, 2015.

Galavant Pilot

In a fun new four-week series named after the star, we meet the hilarious hero Galavant. He’s the greatest warrior in five kingdoms and happily in love with a sweet fair maiden named Madeline. But when the king kidnaps Madeline and forces her to marry him, Galavant rides to the rescue and interrupts the wedding – only to have his ladylove stomp on his heart, declaring she’d rather have “fame and fortune.” Fast-forward a little and now we have Galavant, a sad sorry drunk with no inclination to do anything other than wallow in sorrow and ale. Madeline, now queen, begins to show her true colors by cheating on her husband yet keeping him at a frigid arms’ distance. The king, a rather unmanly man, teams up with his chef and his bodyguard to butch up for his queen while sending a captive princess to lure Galavant to his death. Intermixed in this complex tale are loads of funny scenes and hilarious songs. This show is gonna be so good!

Agent Carter Pilot

Hayley Atwell stars as Agent Peggy Carter, the unique female spy from Captain America. Since the war, Carter still works in the office, but it's a dreary boring job without the thrill and sense of purpose she used to have. On top of that, she also resents being treated like a simple secretary by all the men in her department - except for one named Daniel Sousa who lost a leg in the war and can relate to how useless Carter is feeling. When famous Howard Stark approaches Carter in a roundabout way to help clear his name, Carter embarks on a dangerous secret mission with only Stark's loyal butler, Edwin Jarvis, as her backup.

This was a highly anticipated show by me and I loved every minute of it! The plot is wonderfully complex and has a compelling storyline to it that I'm keen to learn more about. And I love the characters - particularly how Carter and Jarvis interact and get along. This is gonna be a great show!

Forever 1.12

In a brand new episode of Forever, Henry Morgan returns after a three week absence to investigate the suspicious death of a wall street trader. With the secrets piling up, this is a case that looks like one thing and ends up being something else. Abe and his old army buddies even get involved at one point, to Morgan's horror. I was quite enjoying Detective Jo in this episode. Compared to Detective Beckett on Castle, she is very low-key and doesn't talk often, but when she does - it's usually worth listening to. And we get to dive into her past in next week's episode! Oh goody!

Downton Abbey 5.1

In the brand new fifth season of Downton Abbey, we have quite a lot going on and the first episode sets up the drama nicely. Sweet Anna and Bates are whispering about having a child someday, while the ladysmaid eyes them and earns Thomas’ wrath by not sharing her suspicions with him. When he finally threatens her position, the ladysmaid takes Moseley’s advice and tells Lady Cora about her past, beating Thomas to the punch and getting him into trouble at the same time. Edith, the secretive child of the family, is busy nursing her broken heart and visiting the farmer Drewe and his family to see her little daughter Marigold. With Mrs. Drewe getting suspicious of her reasons for being there, Drew and Edith begin to come up with a plan for her to still visit Marigold and more. And it’s Cora and Robert’s thirty-fourth wedding anniversary. Rose causes trouble by inviting Branson’s teacher friend Emily to visit. When she expresses her strong opinions at dinner, Robert and Branson have an interesting discussion afterwards that prove both have grown and changed so much. In Sybil’s death, Robert may have lost a daughter, but he gained a son in Branson. That night, visiting guest Tong Gillingham proposes a scheme to Mary, the footman James gets up to no good and Thomas redeems himself by saving Edith when she accidentally sets her room on fire. So much going on and only the first episode!

I don’t like Gillingham; he’s very creepy. I liked the other suitor from the previous season better. And I do hope that Anna and Bates can have a baby; it’d be wonderful!

The Librarians 1.6

And we have a fairy tale twist this week, courtesy of The Librarians. When the clippings book sends them to a little out-of-the-way town to investigate a suspicious truck accident, the group finds more than they bargained for. With someone reading the original Grimm’s fairy tales out of a certain deadly book, the townspeople begin to change, reflecting the stories. Jake turns all huntsman when he kills an overly large wolf and cuts little red riding hood out of the wolf’s belly, while Eve gradually turns into a princess and Cassandra {very weirdly} becomes Prince Charming. The only one unaffected is the “lovable rogue” Ezekiel who, by chance, manages to save the day. I really liked this fairy tale twist on things; it was fun!