In Vitro

A meditation on in vitro fertilization that expands and complicates the stories we tell about pregnancy. In vitro: an exercise in patience, in hallucination, in uncertainty; an exercise--still, despite the progress of modern feminism--in secrecy. In Vitro: the book Isabel Zapata she wished she could have read during pre-pregnancy and pregnancy. In candid, graceful prose, Zapata diaries her experiences while reflecting on grief, uncertainty, gender inequality in medicine, and the societal norms around motherhood. In the tradition of Rivka Galchen's Little Labors and Belle Boggs' The Art of Waiting, In Vitro offers an eloquent and intimate account of the many kinds of transformation a woman undergoes during an in vitro pregnancy.