“Exploiting My Baby” by Teresa Strasser Review & Giveaway!

“Exploiting My Baby” by Teresa Strasser has won my heart. Teresa uses her pregnancy, her childbirth and her own difficult past to weave an amazing memoir that will have you both sighing in relief that someone finally understands you to laughing until tears are rolling down your cheeks.

When I had my first child I was too young to pay attention to anyone but my own Mother and as I was living with her and she seemed to know everything I didn’t bother reading many books. However, when I had my second 11 years later I felt as though I didn’t know a thing and picked up a lot of books that made me feel very inadequate and ignorant of something I was already doing.  I was once again new to the entire experience and this time alone without anyone to tell me what to do because I was supposed to already have known.

I went to the internet, much the same as Mrs. Strasser and was just as unnerved, worried and irritated as she was trying to find information. My first was a breeze that never caused me all the headaches most pregnancies caused but my second gave me every awful symptom from heartburn and bloating to sciatica and gestational diabetes. I wish I had this book on my nightstand as a comforting friend whispering in my ear every night understanding wisdom and helping me to feel a little less awful with her “People I Want To Punch” excerpts to make me laugh away my feelings of inadequacy. In fact I actually held off writing this review just so I could take this book to the hospital with me for my “Pain Management” appointment. I felt so close to her stories that I wanted to bring them with me since I was going in alone and I thought that at least I’d have this person who knows how embarrassing and how frightening some doctors appointments are.

Teresa Strasser, through this amazing and wonderful Memoir, removed years of secret guilt’s I’ve had on my heart since I first had gotten pregnant with my son Judah 2 1/2 years ago. I wanted to run out and buy hundreds of copies and stand outside of every hospital just to hand them to all the new Moms I could find. I don’t have the funds for that though! But I can give one of these books to one of you Mommy’s out there and maybe this book will erase your secret guilt’s, maybe it’ll make a new pregnant woman venturing off into the Mommy world feel a little less alone or that Mommy crying over a bowl of ice-cream mixed with peanut butter feel a little less inadequate knowing that not all Moms are perfect. At the very least it will uplift your heart, make you laugh and fall in love with her. Teresa Strasser is an award-winning writer with a very blunt, sometimes vulgar and shocking honesty but at the end of the book she will be your secret imaginary friend.

Buy It!