Manternity Memoir

Once the secret was out, curious teenagers rang the doorbell of their home, wanting to stare at the “pregnant man.” (Later, they left a lullaby music box on the doorstep.) Beatie also had to improvise “manternity” clothes to cover his baby bump. With this book, he transforms his story from freak show to family circus, calmly recounting his lifelong struggle to make his exterior match his interior. “Define Normal” is the defiant title of his first chapter, and also the name of his screen-printing business in Bend. His daughter, Susan, now four months old, enters the world with two baby books on her shelf, and with a book of her own to write, should she choose to, down the line: “Define Family.”

The first male ever to give birth to a baby has written a memoir. Liesl Schllinger tells Thomas Beatie's remarkable story on the New York Times Papercuts blog. There's more here too.