The Life Within: Celebration of a Pregnancy

by Jean Hegland, Gayle Hegland (Photographer)

This special book is for every woman who has ever been pregnant, or is now experiencing her first pregnancy, as well as all those hoping to better understand pregnancy's powerful feelings and events-the joy, the pain, the wonder, the bonding, the miracle of new life!

Genres: Nonfiction

114 pages, Hardcover

First published May 20, 1991

About the author

Jean Hegland's first novel, INTO THE FOREST, has been translated into eleven languages and is a frequent choice for campus- and community-wide reading programs. A film version starring Ellen Page and Evan Rachel Wood is scheduled for release in spring 2015. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY promises her second novel, WINDFALLS, is “a good prospect for reading groups.” Excerpts from her non-fiction work, THE LIFE WITHIN: CELEBRATION OF A PREGNANCY, have appeared in a junior high school science textbook, a college English textbook, and a guided journal for pregnant women. STILL TIME, her most recent novel, celebrates the work of William Shakespeare while taking a hopeful look at the harrowing challenges of dementia. Jean is a frequent presenter at writers' conferences and has taught creative writing for many years, both in California and abroad. She lives in the Northern Californian woods where she is always at work on another book.

Reviews

[Brenna Crotty · Rating 5 out of 5]

A deeply meditative look at pregnancy. It's not here to give advice or prepare you for the experience of giving birth, but it sits in that liminal space of anticipation, nervousness, dread, and excitement beautifully and poetically.

[HeavyReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sort of a diary of a pregnant woman. I can't remember if it is the author's actual diary or just a fictional account of pregnancy.