Birth Day

I delivered twenty babies in the summer of 1977. I was hardly more than a baby myself, just turned twenty-four and starting my third year of medical school."-from Birth Day So began Mark Sloan's three-decades-long exploration of the wonders and oddities of human childbirth. Pediatrician, husband, and father, the author has attended nearly three thousand births since that long-ago summer, encountering everything from routine deliveries to tense labor-room dramas. In Birth Day, Sloan draws on his personal and professional experience to weave the strands of memoir, history, science, and culture into a fascinating-and often funny-tapestry of this fundamental human passage. Birth Day takes the reader on a remarkable journey, from the dawn of human history to the quiet efficiency of a modern operating room; from Aristotle and Julius Caesar to a trailblazing, cross-dressing British army surgeon; from a recent past filled with the horrors of childbirth gone wrong to a present day, in which every pregnancy is expected to end happily. Some of Birth Day's many topics include - The evolution of human childbirth-or, why do gorillas have it so easy? - The first five minutes of life-scuba divers, astronauts, and the amazing adaptations that transform a fetus into an air-breathing, out-in-the-world baby - Cesarean section-a look at its origins, its future, and how it came to be the most frequently performed operation in American hospitals - Pain and politics-the age-old quest for painless childbirth, starring Adam and Eve, Queen Victoria, a nineteenth-century medical brawl, and the rise of today's "epidural monoculture" - Daddies-raging paternal hormones, hidden anxieties, and the emotional evolution of men (including the author, his father, and grandfather) as they approach fatherhood - The five senses at birth-does light enter the womb? how loud is it in there? what is a newborn baby searching for with those first anxious glances? - A tour of the newborn body-springy skulls, hairy ears, innies and outies, the advantages (and disadvantages) of looking like your father, and why the United States is one of the world's most circumcised nations Delightfully instructive and entertaining, Birth Day offers a fresh, sometimes irreverent take on a universally familiar topic. Warm, reassuring, and packed with stories from the author's work and life, this unique book is one pediatrician's meditation on the hiding-in-plain-sight marvels of human birth.

A mother tells her child about its first day of life from the moment of birth through the end of the birth day.

Moira’s afraid her parents might get upset if they find out she invited the whole school to her birthday party... so she just doesn’t tell them. The big day arrives, and grades 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, annnnd kindergarten all come knocking down her door. Before long, the house is a total disaster and Moira’s parents are going crazy trying to figure out how to get enough pizzas and birthday cake to feed everyone. Just leave it to Moira—she’ll figure it all out, and even get the house cleaned up in the process! A newly designed Classic Munsch picture book introduces this charming tale of the world’s most boisterous birthday to a new generation of young readers.

“Lovers who surmount the odds have always been intense emotional fodder, but rarely have we seen a story like Birthday...true and raw, haunting and undeniable.” —The New York Times Book Review Two best friends. A shared birthday. Six years... ERIC: There was the day we were born. There was the minute Morgan and I decided we were best friends for life. The years where we stuck by each other’s side—as Morgan’s mom died, as he moved across town, as I joined the football team, as my parents started fighting. But sometimes I worry that Morgan and I won’t be best friends forever. That there’ll be a day, a minute, a second, where it all falls apart and there’s no turning back the clock. MORGAN: I know that every birthday should feel like a new beginning, but I’m trapped in this mixed-up body, in this wrong life, in Nowheresville, Tennessee, on repeat. With a dad who cares about his football team more than me, a mom I miss more than anything, and a best friend who can never know my biggest secret. Maybe one day I’ll be ready to become the person I am inside. To become her. To tell the world. To tell Eric. But when? Six years of birthdays reveal Eric and Morgan’s destiny as they come together, drift apart, fall in love, and discover who they’re meant to be—and if they’re meant to be together. From the award-winning author of If I Was Your Girl, Meredith Russo, comes a heart-wrenching and universal story of identity, first love, and fate. “Beautifully written, Birthday is an altogether singular contribution to the gradually growing body of transgender literature and, indeed, to mainstream literature, as well.” —ALA Booklist, starred review

Discover the meaning behind your birthday, identify your ideal mate, and more with this handy little guide. Forget cookies and crystal balls—this little book has a personalized fortune for you and everyone you love. Harkening back to the 1930s, the nostalgic illustrations in the Fortune-Telling Birthday Book accompany a perennial calendar for you to keep track of (and interpret) the birthdays of all your friends and family. Other traditions and folklore are also included—birthstones and their meanings, astrological signs, ideal mates, flowers of the month, and anniversary symbols.