The Colors of Birth

An anthology of stories about the experience of
giving birth...

After childbirth, a woman joins the largest sorority on our planet: women who are mothers. Pregnant with child and hope and expectation, each mother makes her choices: hospital birthing room or water birth at home, obstetrician or midwife, epidural or natural childbirth—often forsaking all plans when unforeseen variables threaten her or her child. But enduring such a trial to bring a new life into the world provides a life-changing experience for the new mother, as exemplified by the women who share their stories in Ellyn Stanek Hutton’s new compilation, The Colors of Birth.

The stories are gripping and grounded as they are at the very core of human drama. They are tales of love, fear, pain, and uncertainty; of rigorous planning and unexpected obstacles; of surrender and insurmountable joy. You won’t be able to read just one.

The Colors of Birth creates community by reinforcing and refreshing the emotional bond that is motherhood. It will stimulate conversations with friends, family members, mothers, doctors, and midwives. A loving and thoughtful shower gift, it will help the pregnant woman sort through a full spectrum of birth stories as she identifies her own approach—and offer reassurance should her plans go awry.

The stories might offer some women a way to heal from experiences that were unexpected and difficult. The reader will bask in the miracle that is birth as she is drawn once again into a archetypal drama as old as time, yet made new with each writer’s voice and her unique set of circumstances. Join in our collective memory of birth by posting comments on the Contact page, or by submitting your own story for consideration in future editions on that same page.

• The Colors of Birth
• Author: Ellyn Stanek Hutton
• Publication Date: December 26, 2006
• Price $19.97   Pages: 186
• ISBN: 10 1-42430136-3
• ISBN: 13 978-1-42430196-6
• Contact: 1 866 743.1902

In The Colors of Birth, Ellyn Stanek Hutton introduces us to a group of women whose vivid accounts of childbirth encompass an array of approaches and outcomes. We meet ecstatic moms and frustrated moms, first-time moms, and experienced moms. We witness expected and unexpected deliveries, employing traditional and alternative methods. We watch as the women face their vulnerabilities, learn lessons of empowerment and acceptance, and undergo deep and undeniable transformations.