Twice Alive: A Spiritual Guide to Mothering Through Pregnancy and the Child's First Year (Paperback)

by Beth Osnes (Author) "Expect to feel well-loved by this book, mother..." (more)
Key Phrases: insular world, foster daughter, South Africa, Aye of Discovery, Mother's Day (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
...As much an inner journey with unexpected spiritual dimensions as it is a witness to one woman's courage. -- Renate Wood, author of The Patience of Ice

Product Description
Twice Alive is a compassionate guide through the rich terrain of pregnancy and early motherhood. Each of the three trimesters get special treatment, as well as birth, being over-due, and the first months of life with the baby.

Each chapter has spirited reflections on the stage of pregnancy and new mothering, as well as loads of really [practical suggestions about how to make it sane and special.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 184 pages
• Publisher: WovenWord Press (February 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971938385
• ISBN-13: 978-0971938380
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,432,628 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Mothering Book of the year, April 14, 2005

By	boulder mom "daily camera - Boulder" (Boulder Colorado) - See all my reviews

Subject: Twice Alive Book review/Boulder Daily Camera

By Carlotta Mast, For the Camera
April 10, 2005

Twice Alive: A Spiritual Guide to Mothering Through Pregnancy and the Child's First Year by Beth Osnes. WovenWord Press, 186 pp. $17.50.

Since being greeted by that little blue line on a home pregnancy test 2 1/2 years ago, I've soaked up just about every book on motherhood I could get my hands on. I've spent the wee hours of the morning, which is when my son has the hardest time sleeping and usually wants to nurse, devouring everything from practical parenting tomes such as "The Baby Book" by Dr. William Sears to more political fare, including Ann Crittenden's "The Price of Motherhood" and, most recently, Judith Warner's "Perfect Madness: Motherhood While these books delve into important issues facing mothers ­ from whether to co-sleep and how long to breast feed to the guilt, anxiety and regret that can suffocate today's American mothers ­ each left me feeling like something was missing.

But for me, "Twice Alive: A Spiritual Guide to Mothering Through Pregnancy and the Child's First Year" by Boulder mother and writer Beth Osnes filled this void. More than a practical pregnancy and parenting book, "Twice Alive" transcends the realities and complications of motherhood to focus on the personal, spiritual effects of creating, raising and loving another human being.

In the spirit of "Operating Instructions," Anne Lamott's funny and honest account of mothering her infant son, Osnes uses the journal she kept during her pregnancy and first year with her daughter Melisande to give voice to the spiritual gifts of pregnancy and early parenthood. Like Lamott, Osnes doesn't sugarcoat the experience. From the ravages of morning sickness, which Osnes says can make a woman feel "like biting the head off of a dog," to her pleas with God to help her new baby fall asleep so she can get some shut-eye, Osnes makes room for the unpleasant and, at times, overwhelming, emotions and sensations that accompany creating and caring for a new baby.

Yet, she does not dwell on the negative. Rather, Osnes peels back the layers of her own expectations and fears to reveal the spiritual essence of motherhood in its purest, rawest form. In one passage, Osnes describes the existential wonder that permeates her pregnancy: "Who is leading this child by its new budding hand," she writes, "drawing the human form out of a miracle of cells and life energy?"

Later, as she prepares for birth, Osnes reflects on the more surreal realities of her situation: "I walk my walk and talk my talk and do my mundane, daily chores, all with another human being's head wedged upside-down in my pelvis."

Along with Osnes's own experiences, "Twice Alive" provides tools to help women reap the greatest benefits from their own spiritual journey through pregnancy, birth and motherhood. The book, for instance, offers advice on how to design a baby shower. The focus is not on choosing the right party games or appetizers, but on creating a ceremony that will celebrate and honor the "genuine majesty" of this time in a woman's life.

"With no malice inten(ded)," Osnes writes, "baby showers propagate a commercialism that belittles and makes 'cute' the birthing experience. You, brave mother, are just the gal to usher in a more soul-nourishing tradition. As with any foray from the status quo, it takes a concerted effort and a bit of spirited courage to travel new and richer ground."

While "Twice Alive" is focused on the individual experience, it reaches at times beyond the personal to explore the need for mothers to share their values and work together to have them represented in government policies and corporate practices. It is in these moments that Osnes's own activism shines through. Osnes is a founding member of Mothers Acting Up, a movement aimed at mobilizing mothers to ensure the health, education and safety of all children, and her convictions and ideas for accomplishing this important feat make reading "Twice Alive" an even richer experience.

But in perhaps the most inspiring and moving passages of "Twice Alive," Osnes uses the story of her own mothering decisions ­ from asking her older brother and his wife to raise her first son, Ben, a child born when Osnes was in college and not ready for motherhood, to allowing herself to fall in love with a daughter she had not yet been granted permission by the South African government to adopt ­ to communicate the difficult yet crucial choices all mothers must make.

It was through these experiences that Osnes reaches her conclusions: Motherhood is a precious, powerful and potentially fleeting gift, one that should be cherished and supported by both women and the societies around them. Such a message is particularly important in an age where women are frequently criticized for being less-than-perfect mothers, yet are often not provided the resources necessary ­ such as affordable health care, flexible work options or adequate paid family leave ­ to care for their children.

Osnes invites us, as mothers, to honor and love ourselves and to use our combined political voice to make the job of mothering easier for women everywhere. That makes "Twice Alive" a welcome and important addition to the growing canon of literature on parenting and motherhood.

Carlotta Mast is a mother and writer living in Boulder.
in the Age of Anxiety."

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A voice of passion and grace, March 17, 2005

By	J. P. Osnes "Omnia Libre" (Boulder, CO USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is truly like no other. Part biography, part political manifesto but always provocative and sensitive. Even though Twice Alive's subtitle suggests something along the lines of a 'self-help' book, Beth Osnes writes viscerally and passionately of the human experience beyond that of motherhood. Her prose is thick with energy and frequently becomes lyrical on a huge variety of topics.
The perspectives of this book gives counterpoint to the current American trend of self-absorbed competitive ("Baby Einstein"-style) parenting and focuses instead on the richness of the child parent relationship with all of its doubts, confusions and beauty. Much of Twice Alive reads like high comedy and will elicit knowing laughs from parents while it alleviates much of the stress from the shoulders of the parent to be.