Book Review: "Assume The Position: Memoirs of an Obstetrician Gynecologist"

I know, I know. You must already be thinking wtf??? just at the title of this one, but it came up as a recommended book after I read Baby City, and honestly the title both made me giggle a little and intrigued me at the same time. (Plus, I was hoping maybe it might take away a little bit of my own phobias surrounding gynos, but no such luck.)

This book is, predictably, an autobiography of a former OB/GYN. I was hoping perhaps this book might have the same sort of excitement and flavor as Baby City, but honestly... I hate to say this about someone's life story, but it was actually pretty dull. (I was also put off by the many numerous typos. This is one thing that irks me about Kindle Direct Publishing and the fact that literally anyone can publish a book now; there's no editors who come in and check for these things anymore.) It details the whole journey, from med school through this man's entire career, and everything in between, as well as life after medicine. Given it's a field I once thought I might go into myself, I'll admit that I thought perhaps I could live vicariously a little here, but again, no such luck, since the book seems to focus more on things like how this job affected the author himself in his life rather than what goes on behind closed doors. (I realize there's patient confidentiality to take into account here, and this actually makes him a very good doctor for respecting that, but in terms of an author, maybe not so much.) Honestly I'm not quite sure what I was expecting here, but the whole book just felt like it was lacking a certain something I can't quite put my finger on, and I was never able to shake that feeling. For that reason, I'm rating it a 3 out of 5 stars. Not the worst book on the planet, but not the most gripping of tales, either.

Book Review: "Baby City - An Inside Look At Labor & Delivery"

Baby City: An Inside Look At Labor & Delivery by Freida McFadden & Kelley Stoddard is not exactly a memoir; it's based in truth, on real life, but with just enough details changed to where it cannot necessarily be considered so much a memoir as a realistic fiction. That said, the book itself purports that everything between its covers IS based in true happenings lived by the authors on the maternity ward. However, the story is told as a first-person recounting of events -- as a singular someone. You can begin to see where this starts to make sense in how these are stories that happen every day in maternity wards around the country, but at the same time, has just enough fiction peppered in as well as to make it uniquely their own.

Anyway, this is the tale of a resident at Cadence Hospital (may or may not be the actual name of a real hospital) who works all hours on the maternity ward, and has to put up with trying to train new medical students on rotation -- some of who are more annoying than others (if you read this book, there's one in particular who you'll know exactly who I'm talking about). There's many different personality types at play, both amongst the staff and of the patients, and this book is also a wonderful example that no two births go exactly the same -- even with a veteran mother who's already had five children. It's also a perfect example of just how quickly things can turn tragic in the blink of an eye, and even in our modern age, there are no assurances when it comes to childbirth. There's a lot of humor included in the stories throughout the book, but overall, there's a brutal reminder of humanity, and that it is not just an industry; these are people's lives, their hopes, and their dreams we're talking about.

The book isn't perfect -- it has a lot of typos throughout it and could have been edited a lot better than it was, but ultimately, I found it to be a very enjoyable read and would recommend it highly to anyone who has an interest in the medical field, be it obstetric or not. I rate this book a 4 out of 5 stars!