"And Then My Uterus Fell Out" by P. R. Newton

 

Like many of us, P. R. Newton had never heard about prolapse until it happened to her.

 

Following the birth of her first child, she was plunged into an unfamiliar world of disability, conflicting medial advice, and a lack of truly feasible treatment options. She spent years dealing with not only her level 3 uterine prolapse, but also depression - a common experience for women diagnosed with prolapse. 

 

In part, I enjoyed her memoir "And Then My Uterus Fell Out" so much because I empathised with the way that Newton dealt with her prolapse. She wrote about her experiences to try and help other women, and also to find meaning in what had happened to her. That is exactly why I started this blog - to try and combat the silence that surrounds prolapse.

 

Another strength of Newton's account is its completeness. While online support forums can be a great source of information, they can also give an overwhelmingly negative view of living with prolapse. This makes sense because most people post on these forums while in crisis. One of the really enjoyable aspects of Newton's memoir is that it shows her experience of prolapse in the context of her whole life - her life before she fell pregnant, and the good and bad times in her life after the prolapse occurred. This gives newly diagnosed women a much more balanced view of life with a prolapse than panicked one-paragraph posts on a forum.

 

Regardless of whether you agree with the treatment and management options that Newton chooses, or if you share her belief that things happen for a reason, Newton's memoir will be helpful to anyone who just wants to see that someone else has gone through similar experiences.

 

Newton's humorous and unflinchingly honest account would be a valuable addition to the discussion about prolapse, even if there were many more like it. Because detailed accounts of living with prolapse are so few and far between, it makes Newton's work all the more valuable.

 

 

The review copy of this book was purchased by the reviewer, who has no financial interest in this book. This review is provided only as a subjective opinion, rather than a commercial endorsement.