Labor of Love: The Story of One Man's Extraordinary Pregnancy (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: legal male, baby bump, taking testosterone, Susan Juliette, The Advocate, Thomas Beatie (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Best known as the world's first pregnant man, transgendered father and husband Beatie recounts, in touching detail, his difficult path to the 2007-08 pregnancy that briefly captured the world's attention. Born a girl in Hawaii to a violent, unpredictable father and a caring mother (who committed suicide while Beatie was a teen), Beatie learned to understand the nature of his identity against a backdrop dominated by fear and instability. Beatie is a detailed and engaging writer, relating his upbringing, his romance (with wife Nancy) and the process of transitioning from female to male with humility, honesty and plenty of opinion, and little to court sensation or controversy. For better and worse, the memoir reads predictably until Beatie and Nancy, 200 pages in, begin their struggles to get pregnant with daughter Susan. Once Beatie finds his focus in the obstacles he and his wife faced and overcame, his account becomes a compelling, unique narrative. Beatie's straightforward, apolitical style and compelling, elemental story-one man's struggle, against all odds, to create a family-will make it easy for most readers to identify.
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From Booklist

Hawaii-born Thomas Beatie and his wife, Nancy, “are just like any other married couple,” except that he is the first legally defined male to become pregnant and give birth. Born female, tomboy Tracy took testosterone to build muscle mass and chose surgical breast removal in his twenties but not the surgical construction of a penis, nor removal of the female reproductive organs needed to bear a biological child, the author’s heart’s desire. Hawaii requires only two conditions for legal gender change: a medical doctor’s letter attesting to a legitimate psychological reason for the gender switch and irrevocable gender-altering surgery. Thus, the onetime lesbian woman could marry Nancy as her husband and carry their child since Nancy had had a hysterectomy. After an abusive childhood with a rageaholic  father (who still refuses to acknowledge his granddaughter) and an ill-fated relationship with an alcoholic, Beatie sought, above all, a close, caring family and finds in his new life “the heart that I call home.” An unforced, unpretentious, and very readable account, sure to draw attention. --Whitney Scott

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 280 pages
• Publisher: Seal Press; illustrated edition edition (November 10, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580052878
• ISBN-13: 978-1580052870
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #12,954 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Triumph of Love and Family, December 21, 2008

By	Christopher J. Phoenix (Menlo Park, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Two things stand out in this book: the normality of the Beatie family, and "the system's" astonishing resistance to their desire for children.

Normal? Sure. Thomas had a difficult childhood, but so do lots of people. Thomas became legally male by choice - slightly less common, but still a choice a lot of people make and succeed at. Thomas and Nancy love each other, built a marriage and a business together, and wanted children.

In the second half of the book, we learn what happens when this all-American couple tries to have a child. There's one minor issue... well, it should have been minor. Thomas has female reproductive organs, and Nancy doesn't. So, with typical American make-it-work-ism, they decide that Thomas will carry their baby.

This is the shocking part of the story: not the "pregnant man," but the reaction of institutions that should have supported this family, or at least remained neutral. Several doctors sabotaged their attempts to get donor sperm. Other health care professionals broke confidentiality, eventually forcing the Beaties to make their story public before people they cared about heard it from the rumor mill. Gay, lesbian, and transgender organizations withdrew support. Some Americans threatened them with death - though their neighbors were supportive.

The story of the Beaties is simply heartwarming: a couple triumphs over a tragic childhood and technical difficulties to have a loving family and a baby. But the story of the reaction to them is uncomfortable reading. This book will make you think. I highly recommend it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book - inspiring story, November 24, 2008

By	Boris Henn (Cologne, Germany) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is truly an inspiring story about real family values. Very well written it gives an insight of a man's journey to find his true identity, of a family fighting for the right to have a baby and society partly not being ready to accept the fact that "family" can be defined in more than one way. But more than anything else it is a book about love.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars very good read!, November 23, 2008

By	Simon Mall - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I really connected with this book. I'm what you would call a "typical person" with a "typical family". But the story really inspired me to be more and taught me to appreciate people who are more. His journey and his perspective are both full of virtue and love. I simply couldn't put it down.