THE BIRTH DEBRIEF
by Illiyin Morrison
Quercus, Summer 2022
Despite being a trained midwife, Illiyin’s own birth experience was traumatic and led her to examine the effects of birth trauma more deeply. She has grown to appreciate the need for greater understanding of what took place during childbirth and why, in order to facilitate healing during the postnatal period. Using her own experience as a midwife and mother Illiyin plans to dispel myths and taboos around pregnancy and give women and birthing people the tools to manage and alleviate the effects of birth trauma. Illiyin will also be giving practical tips and exercises throughout the book to help readers understand and manage any birth related trauma while transitioning into postnatal life – whether it is the first or fifth baby.
Illiyin Morrison now offers a birth debriefing service, facilitating postpartum recovery and care. Illiyin’s Instagram page started in March 2020 to empower and educate women on birthing experiences and recovery, and now has over 17,500 followers. She has always had a passion for empowering women during pregnancy and childbirth and is extremely passionate about birth education. She offers an international Birth Debrief service to women and birthing people from all walks of life. Her debriefs are in such high demand and are fully booked until the end of March 2021.
The nose sits in the middle of the face, yet most people know surprisingly little about it. Yet our ENT department manages a large part of our perception – apart from breathing. Next to the eyes, the nose, ears and throat form our most important connection to the outside world. Dr. Christine Löber explains in best pop science manner how smelling works, where the voice comes from and why cotton swabs have no place in the ear. She makes us impressively aware of the influence the ENT area has on our psyche. And she gives tips on how to keep the throat, nose and ears healthy. The great knowledge book about the throat, nose and ears.
The news out of China was not good: there were signs that a new disease might be big―scary big, like a brushfire coming at you uphill. Authorities, medical and political, saw no reason to worry and little need for tests. Michael Lewis’s riveting nonfiction thriller pits a rogue band of visionaries, working under the radar, against the weight and disinterest of officialdom. It is a race against time, and the deadline is now… or yesterday.
Even as millions of Americans suspect they’re suffering from a gastrointestinal disorder, they may spend years in pain before they figure out just what’s going on with their gut. And while irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is commonly diagnosed, SIBO, a disorder with basically all the same symptoms, is not. So, what is SIBO? The acronym stands for Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth, a disorder in which bacteria that usually grow in other parts of the gut start to proliferate and take up residence in the small intestine. This causes a whole confluence of symptoms, ranging from bloating and cramps, to uncontrollable weight gain or weight loss, to even malnutrition when the bacteria eat up vital nutrients from our food. Even though several studies have shown that as many as 84 percent of patients with IBS also tested positive for SIBO, it remains understudied and underdiagnosed. After decades of dealing with debilitating symptoms with no relief, Shivan Sarna’s life changed when she was diagnosed with SIBO. As she eliminated her symptoms one by one through lifestyle changes and help from her physicians, she started to synthesize her personal experiences with Western and naturopathic medicine and dedicate herself to advocating for those suffering from SIBO, or those who think they could be.
The clitoris is the final taboo in the world of gender equality. For centuries, science thought women were inside-out men, and anxiety about female sexuality framed attitudes and perpetuated inaccurate information. The reality of women’s sexuality was ignored, repressed, or defamed. THE SWEETNESS OF VENUS takes a rigorous romp through science, religion, philosophy, and psychology, to unravel the history of the clitoris, and then uses this context to explore the language, literature, and art around it. Much of the clitoris’s story has been defined by those who discovered and mapped her. However, even after the true anatomy of the clitoris was finally fully mapped with 3D imaging in 2005, it still hardly gets a mention in America’s bestselling teen sex education book for girls, and no mention at all in the parallel book for boys. Equality when it comes to sex has not been achieved, yet.