A Week of Giveaways, Day 2: Frankly Pregnant

Author Stacy Quarty recently sent me a copy of her new book Frankly Pregnant. In it, she shares the journal she kept while pregnant with her second child.

With a mind to this book, Stacy documented every physical craving, ache and peculiarity of her entire pregnancy. In detail. Yes, it can be painful (she doesn't call them "horror-mones" for nothing).

But Quarty's upbeat, humorous take on what havoc pregnancy wrought carries the day, as does loads of useful information. The book contains a large section of "embarrassing" or unusual pregnancy questions gathered from women writing in to her Web site Frankly Pregnant: The Reality Site of Pregnancy.

Co-author Miriam Greene, M.D., practices in Manhattan. And? She served as a medical consultant and actress on HBO's Sex and the City. She delivered Miranda's baby! She's also a medical advisor to Family Circle Magazine.

Kris: How did you conceive the idea for this book?
Stacy Quarty: My main occupation is graphic design. After 9/11, some of my clients were just gone and others cut advertising budgets drastically. I had no work. I already had one daughter so I tried my hand at being a stay-at-hom mom (SAHM). Wow, is that hard work! I give SAHMs so much credit-- they are usually so overworked and underappreciated. Anyway, I knew I wanted to do something more. I needed an artistic outlet and knew that I always wanted to write a book.

I became pregnant with my second child and the subject became clear. Nobody had ever told me all that I wanted to know about pregnancy and childbirth, not even my own sister. I had read dozens of pregnancy books. Most of them were too clinical and never candid enough. Someone had to put all the gory details out there. Why not me?

Kris: Good God, woman! You seem to have had every symptom under the sun! Was this pregnancy much different than your first?
Stacy: My second pregnancy was so different from my first, which I later found to be very common. I carried differently, gained less weight, had worse hemorrhoids, delivered vaginally and was more confident, being that it was the second time around. The book covers more than just that second pregnancy though. There are several comparisons to what symptoms I had during that first pregnancy as well as experiences of all of my maternal girlfriends.

I don’t think my amount of pregnancy symptoms were overly abundant. I believe, as with the pain of labor and delivery, you forget about it after it’s over. It slowly gets erased from your memory banks. Women that are pregnant and reading my book tell me, “Thank God you had all these symptoms too. I am normal after all.” My goal was to give a true, personal, detailed account of pregnancy. I wanted to let other pregnant women know that they are not alone in their bodily and emotional oddities.

Kris: You run a Web site, FranklyPregnant.com. How did that come to be?
Stacy: Shortly after completing the journal portion of my book I started the site to communicate with the pregnant public. I wanted to find out what women really wanted to know about the experience of pregnancy and childbirth, so I began the Q&A bulletin board, “Ask Your Most Embarrassing Pregnancy Questions.”

The site’s content and popularity quickly grew and I confirmed what I had already guessed: That most women want to know everything about pregnancy, from third nipples and hormonal rages to labor and delivery. Pregnant women want confirmation that they, in fact, are “normal” when experiencing stabbing vaginal pains or uncontrollable flatulence. Hey, it happens to the best of us.

Kris: How exciting was it to connect with Dr. Green, the doctor from Sex in the City! Were you bowled over by that?
Stacy: I got lucky with my connection to Miriam. She and I have the same frank and wacky sense of humor and it all kind of fell into place. Also, she’s just so cute and fun in person. Did you notice I was holding her in the photo on the back cover. I just couldn’t resist.

And, yes, I was bowled over. I actually got the doctor that I had wished for while watching Sex in the City.

Kris: What’s next for you?
Stacy: I belong to the great Herstory writing group and I'm working on my third book. I have a feeling this one will take me some time to write, years maybe. I can’t tell you what it’s about but, I will tell you it has nothing to do with pregnancy.

Stacy welcomes comments on her book or Web site. Contact her at stacy@franklypregnant.com.

Would you like to win this book? Just leave a comment now through Sunday at midnight, EST. I will draw a name on Monday. Feel free to mention A Week of Giveaways on your blog.