A Mother's Story: The Truth About the Baby m Case - Hardcover

Although Schwartz-Nobel is a prize-winning reporter and author, she seems to have served only as an ear to Whitehead's story. A surrogate mother under contract to Bill and Betsy Stern, Whitehead gave birth to the infant known as Baby M in 1986, but refused to deliver her to the Sterns, giving rise to a case that generated worldwide publicity and furious arguments. The couple was awarded full, parental custody of the baby by a New Jersey court that forbade Whitehead all contact with her child. But in 1988, the State Supreme Court granted the biological mother visiting rights with "Sara," named "Melissa" by her adoptive parents. Thanks to strong public support, Whitehead won out over adversaries calling her unfit, to gain recognition as a woman who should be allowed the company of her child. But her intemperate attacks here on the Sterns could weaken the empathy she garnered in her hard-won battles. Her remarks about the couple rival the epithets hurled at her that "made me feel like Hester Prin sic," she writes. The book, full of unblushing self-praise, adds to the growing numbers of significant warnings against producing humans for sale. 125,000 first printing; $125,000 ad/promo; first serial to Family Circle; author tour.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

By presenting her surrogate mother story simply and clearly, from the birth of Sara/Melissa to the final court decision two years later, Whitehead allows many readers to sympathize with her for the first time, and to revise unwarranted assumptions about this famous case. Even though Whitehead lost custody of her baby, her tale is so well constructed by journalist Schwartz-Nobel that it is far more interesting and upbeat than that of another personal account, Elizabeth Kane's Birth Mother: The Story of America's First Legal Surrogate Mother (LJ 5/1/88). Libraries that also want to get the polemics, accounts of the publicity, and excerpts from the trial documentation will have to buy Phyllis Chesler's Sacred Bond: The Legacy of Baby M ( LJ 8/88) as well.
- Janice Dunham, John Jay Coll. Lib., CUNY
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.