
Ghostbelly
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $19.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Coleen Marlo
About this listen
Ghostbelly is Elizabeth Heineman’s personal account of a home birth that goes tragically wrong—ending in a stillbirth—and the harrowing process of grief and questioning that follows. It’s also Heineman’s unexpected tale of the loss of a newborn: before burial, she brings the baby home for overnight stays.
Does this sound unsettling? Of course. We’re not supposed to hold and caress dead bodies. But then again, babies aren’t supposed to die.
In this courageous and deeply intimate memoir, Heineman examines the home-birth and maternal health-care industry, the isolation of midwives, and the scripting of her own grief. With no resolution to sadness, Heineman and her partner learn to live in a new world: a world in which they face each day with the understanding of the fragility of the present.
©2014 Elizabeth Heineman (P)2014 Audible Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Midwife of Auschwitz
- By: Anna Stuart
- Narrated by: Sophie Aldred
- Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ana Kaminski is pushed through the iron gates of Auschwitz beside her frightened young friend Ester Pasternak. As they reach the front of the line, Ana steps forward and quietly declares herself a midwife--and Ester her assistant. Their arms are tattooed and they’re ordered to the maternity hut. Holding an innocent newborn baby, Ana knows the fate of so many are in her hands and vows to do everything she can to save them.
-
-
Wrongly represented as a midwife book
- By Mary Watkins on 03-27-23
By: Anna Stuart
-
This Common Secret
- My Journey as an Abortion Doctor
- By: Susan Wicklund
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In This Common Secret, Dr. Susan Wicklund chronicles her emotional and dramatic twenty-year career on the front lines of the abortion war. Growing up in working class, rural Wisconsin, Wicklund had her own painful abortion at a young age. It was not until she became a doctor that she realized how many women shared her ordeal of an unwanted pregnancy - and how hidden this common experience remains.
-
-
Gripping
- By Scott Schottler on 03-07-18
By: Susan Wicklund
-
Birth
- The Surprising History of How We Are Born
- By: Tina Cassidy
- Narrated by: Angela Starling
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From evolution to the epidural and beyond, Tina Cassidy presents an intelligent, enlightening, and impeccably researched cultural history of how and why we're born the way we are. Women have been giving birth for millennia, but that's about the only constant in the final stage of the great process that is human reproduction. Why is it that every culture and generation seems to have its own ideas about the best way to give birth?
-
-
important historical work, fascinating and fun
- By RT on 02-24-16
By: Tina Cassidy
-
Birth Without Fear
- The Judgment-Free Guide to Taking Charge of Your Pregnancy, Birth, and Postpartum
- By: January Harshe
- Narrated by: January Harshe, Cynthia Barrett
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Birth Without Fear, January Harshe - founder of the global online community Birth Without Fear - delivers an honest, positive, and passionate message of empowerment surrounding everything that involves having a baby. It's a guide that fills in the considerable cracks in the information available to women and families when they're preparing to welcome a child - covering care provider choices, medical freedom, birth options, breastfeeding, intimacy, postpartum depression, and much more.
-
-
Deceiving title, disappointing
- By James J. on 07-25-19
By: January Harshe
-
The Birth Partner
- A Complete Guide to Childbirth for Dads, Partners, Doulas, and All Other Labor Companions (5th Edition)
- By: Penny Simkin, Katie Rohs
- Narrated by: Rina Ríos
- Length: 16 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Now, in audio for the first time, The Birth Partner remains the definitive guide to helping a woman through labor and birth. The Birth Partner includes thorough information on preparing for labor and knowing when it has begun; normal labor and how to help the woman every step of the way; epidurals and other medications for labor; pitocin and other means, including natural ones, to induce or speed up labor; non-drug techniques for easing labor pain; and more.
-
-
struggling to finish.
- By holly gilbert on 09-09-21
By: Penny Simkin, and others
-
This Boy We Made
- A Memoir of Motherhood, Genetics, and Facing the Unknown
- By: Taylor Harris
- Narrated by: Iesha Nyree
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One morning, Tophs, Taylor Harris’ round-cheeked, lively 22-month-old, wakes up listless, only lifting his head to gulp down water. She rushes Tophs to the doctor, ignoring the part of herself, trained by years of therapy for generalized anxiety disorder, that tries to whisper that she’s overreacting. But at the hospital, her maternal instincts are confirmed: something is wrong with her boy, and Taylor’s life will never be the same.
-
-
Parts of this were beautiful parts of it were awkward and offputting
- By Susan P on 04-26-22
By: Taylor Harris
-
The Midwife of Auschwitz
- By: Anna Stuart
- Narrated by: Sophie Aldred
- Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ana Kaminski is pushed through the iron gates of Auschwitz beside her frightened young friend Ester Pasternak. As they reach the front of the line, Ana steps forward and quietly declares herself a midwife--and Ester her assistant. Their arms are tattooed and they’re ordered to the maternity hut. Holding an innocent newborn baby, Ana knows the fate of so many are in her hands and vows to do everything she can to save them.
-
-
Wrongly represented as a midwife book
- By Mary Watkins on 03-27-23
By: Anna Stuart
-
This Common Secret
- My Journey as an Abortion Doctor
- By: Susan Wicklund
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In This Common Secret, Dr. Susan Wicklund chronicles her emotional and dramatic twenty-year career on the front lines of the abortion war. Growing up in working class, rural Wisconsin, Wicklund had her own painful abortion at a young age. It was not until she became a doctor that she realized how many women shared her ordeal of an unwanted pregnancy - and how hidden this common experience remains.
-
-
Gripping
- By Scott Schottler on 03-07-18
By: Susan Wicklund
-
Birth
- The Surprising History of How We Are Born
- By: Tina Cassidy
- Narrated by: Angela Starling
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From evolution to the epidural and beyond, Tina Cassidy presents an intelligent, enlightening, and impeccably researched cultural history of how and why we're born the way we are. Women have been giving birth for millennia, but that's about the only constant in the final stage of the great process that is human reproduction. Why is it that every culture and generation seems to have its own ideas about the best way to give birth?
-
-
important historical work, fascinating and fun
- By RT on 02-24-16
By: Tina Cassidy
-
Birth Without Fear
- The Judgment-Free Guide to Taking Charge of Your Pregnancy, Birth, and Postpartum
- By: January Harshe
- Narrated by: January Harshe, Cynthia Barrett
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Birth Without Fear, January Harshe - founder of the global online community Birth Without Fear - delivers an honest, positive, and passionate message of empowerment surrounding everything that involves having a baby. It's a guide that fills in the considerable cracks in the information available to women and families when they're preparing to welcome a child - covering care provider choices, medical freedom, birth options, breastfeeding, intimacy, postpartum depression, and much more.
-
-
Deceiving title, disappointing
- By James J. on 07-25-19
By: January Harshe
-
The Birth Partner
- A Complete Guide to Childbirth for Dads, Partners, Doulas, and All Other Labor Companions (5th Edition)
- By: Penny Simkin, Katie Rohs
- Narrated by: Rina Ríos
- Length: 16 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Now, in audio for the first time, The Birth Partner remains the definitive guide to helping a woman through labor and birth. The Birth Partner includes thorough information on preparing for labor and knowing when it has begun; normal labor and how to help the woman every step of the way; epidurals and other medications for labor; pitocin and other means, including natural ones, to induce or speed up labor; non-drug techniques for easing labor pain; and more.
-
-
struggling to finish.
- By holly gilbert on 09-09-21
By: Penny Simkin, and others
-
This Boy We Made
- A Memoir of Motherhood, Genetics, and Facing the Unknown
- By: Taylor Harris
- Narrated by: Iesha Nyree
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One morning, Tophs, Taylor Harris’ round-cheeked, lively 22-month-old, wakes up listless, only lifting his head to gulp down water. She rushes Tophs to the doctor, ignoring the part of herself, trained by years of therapy for generalized anxiety disorder, that tries to whisper that she’s overreacting. But at the hospital, her maternal instincts are confirmed: something is wrong with her boy, and Taylor’s life will never be the same.
-
-
Parts of this were beautiful parts of it were awkward and offputting
- By Susan P on 04-26-22
By: Taylor Harris
-
Happiness: A Memoir
- The Crooked Little Road to Semi-Ever After
- By: Heather Harpham
- Narrated by: Heather Harpham
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Happiness begins with a charming courtship between hopelessly attracted opposites: Heather, a world-roaming California girl, and Brian, an intellectual, homebody writer, kind and slyly funny, but loath to leave his Upper West Side studio. Their magical interlude ends, full stop, when Heather becomes pregnant - Brian is sure he loves her, only he doesn't want kids. Heather returns to California to deliver their daughter alone, buoyed by family and friends.
-
-
Long & Tedious. If Only She'd Had a Good Editor.
- By Carolyn on 07-05-18
By: Heather Harpham
-
Tell Me More
- Stories About the 12 Hardest Things I'm Learning to Say
- By: Kelly Corrigan
- Narrated by: Kelly Corrigan
- Length: 4 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's a crazy idea: trying to name the phrases that make love and connection possible. But that's just what Kelly Corrigan has set out to do here. In her New York Times best-selling memoirs, Corrigan distilled our core relationships to their essences, showcasing a warm, easy storytelling style. Now, in Tell Me More, she's back with a deeply personal, unfailingly honest, and often hilarious examination of the essential phrases that turn the wheel of life.
-
-
hard but worth it
- By erssmith on 09-19-18
By: Kelly Corrigan
-
Through the Eyes of Hope
- Love More, Worry Less, and See God in the Midst of Your Adversity
- By: Lacey Buchanan
- Narrated by: Lacey Buchanan
- Length: 5 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What happens when things don't go as planned? What happens when the storm you face is completely out of your control? The Buchanans' precious son Christian was born with a medical condition that is so incredibly unique, it's one of only 50 known cases in the world. This story has captured the hearts of hundreds of thousands.
-
-
Couldn’t get through it
- By Kelly Doke on 03-07-24
By: Lacey Buchanan
-
Second Nature
- A Love Story
- By: Jacquelyn Mitchard
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
- Length: 13 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sicily Coyne was just thirteen when her father was killed in a school fire that left her face disfigured. Twelve years later, a young surgeon, Eliza Cappadora, offers hope in the form of a revolutionary new surgery that may give Sicily back the grace and function she lost. Raised by a dynamic, tenacious aunt who taught her to lead a normal life, and engaged to a wonderful man who knew her long before the accident, Sicily rejects the offer: She knows who she is, and so do the people who love her.
-
-
Fascinating read
- By Brendolynne on 06-03-12
-
Safe Infant Sleep
- Expert Answers to Your Cosleeping Questions
- By: James J. McKenna PhD
- Narrated by: Stephen Bowlby
- Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why do current medical guidelines insist that cosleeping is unsafe? What is the difference between SIDS and SUID, and are they related to cosleeping? What should parents do to make a safe sleep space for their infant? If a family chooses to cosleep, how should they respond to reproach from friends, family, or medical professionals? In Safe Infant Sleep, the world's authority on cosleeping breaks down the complicated political and social aspects of sleep safety, exposes common misconceptions, and compares current recommendations to hard science.
-
-
The other side to the SIDS story
- By my humble opinion on 02-08-22
-
I Wasn't Strong Like This When I Started Out
- True Stories of Becoming a Nurse
- By: Lee Gutkind
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This collection of true narratives reflects the dynamism and diversity of nurses who provide the first vital line of patient care. Here, nurses remember their first "sticks", first births, and first deaths and reflect on what gets them though long, demanding shifts and keeps them in the profession.
-
-
A nurse must read!
- By Janet on 08-16-15
By: Lee Gutkind
-
An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination
- A Memoir
- By: Elizabeth McCracken
- Narrated by: Elizabeth McCracken
- Length: 3 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A prize-winning, successful novelist in her 30s, McCracken was happy to be an itinerant writer and self-proclaimed spinster. But suddenly she fell in love, got married, and two years ago was living in a remote part of France, working on her novel, and waiting for the birth of her first child.
-
-
Grief and loss explored and shared.
- By Sara on 01-29-14
-
Expecting Adam
- A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic
- By: Martha Beck
- Narrated by: Joyce Bean
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the moment Martha and her husband, John, conceived their second child, all hell broke loose. They were a couple obsessed with success. After years of matching IQs and test scores with less driven peers, they had two Harvard degrees apiece and were gunning for more. But the dream had begun to disintegrate. Then, when their unborn son, Adam, was diagnosed with Down syndrome, doctors, advisers, and friends in the Harvard community warned them not to keep the baby.
-
-
True Life Fairy Tale
- By Desarae on 11-27-13
By: Martha Beck
-
Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Newborn
- The Complete Guide
- By: Penny Simkin PT, Janet Whalley BSN, Ann Keppler MN, and others
- Narrated by: Suehyla El-Attar
- Length: 23 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Parents love this book because it puts them in control; experts love it because it's based on the latest medical research and recommendations from leading health organizations. Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Newborn provides the information and guidance you need to make informed decisions about having a safe and satisfying pregnancy, birth, and postpartum period - decisions that reflect your preferences, priorities, and values.
-
-
Very Informative
- By Amazon Customer on 08-15-22
By: Penny Simkin PT, and others
-
Juniper
- The Girl Who Was Born Too Soon
- By: Kelley French, Thomas French
- Narrated by: Kelley French, Thomas French
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Juniper French was born four months early, at 23 weeks' gestation. She weighed one pound, four ounces, and her twiggy body was the length of a Barbie doll. Her head was smaller than a tennis ball, her skin was nearly translucent, and through her chest you could see her flickering heart. Babies like Juniper, born at the edge of viability, trigger the question: Which is the greater act of love - to save her or to let her go? Kelley and Thomas French chose to fight for Juniper's life, and this is their incredible tale.
-
-
Best Non-Fiction Story of the Year - A Must Read!
- By Diana Jo on 09-28-16
By: Kelley French, and others
-
Killing the Black Body
- Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty
- By: Dorothy Roberts
- Narrated by: Shayna Small
- Length: 14 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is a no-holds-barred response to the liberal and conservative retreat from an assertive, activist, and socially transformative civil rights agenda of recent years - using a Black feminist lens and the issue of the impact of recent legislation, social policy, and welfare "reform" on Black women's - especially poor Black women's - control over their bodies' autonomy and their freedom to bear and raise children with respect and dignity in a society whose white mainstream is determined to demonize, even criminalize their lives.
-
-
Terribly sad but very informative. Highly recommend.
- By Jaecey Adams on 01-17-21
By: Dorothy Roberts
-
Suddenly
- By: Barbara Delinsky
- Narrated by: Carol Monda
- Length: 15 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the idyllic small town of Tucker, Vermont, life flows at a rhythmic pace for pediatrician Paige Pfeiffer. But when Mara O'Neill, her best friend and medical partner, inexplicably kills herself, Paige's comfortable world is suddenly shattered. Temporarily caring for Mara's newly adopted baby daughter while she comes to grips with her grief, Paige clings to the hope that, in time, her orderly life will return.
-
-
Parent guide! (not romance)
- By christine on 10-10-11
By: Barbara Delinsky
What listeners say about Ghostbelly
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Shelby A.
- 11-18-17
Deeply Moving and Thought Provoking
I often felt as if I was walking in Elizabeth's shoes as I listed to this memoir. I was sad and cried a lot throughout the book, but I kept wanting to hear more. I often found myself tuning out the world around me as I listened to the voice that I thought of as Elizabeth, although I knew it wasn't. I am glad that it wasn't the ending I expected, but still one that put joy into Elizabeth and Glen's lives. I am training to be a bereavement doula, and I truly feel that I have a much deeper understand of loss, grief, and mourning now-to help me to support those suffering through it. Thank you so much for sharing your story. And happy belated 9th Birthday Thor! I will always be reminded of him when I hear that name. ❤
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- ngsquared
- 04-17-23
Healing
As a mother of a child lost too soon (and also lost my mother within the same month) it is healing to also listen to a life experience of suddenly and great loss. The narrator was amazing. I did listen to it sped up because I was trying to cram it before a therapy appointment.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Zozz
- 05-21-16
great story, mediocre performance
Midwifery, a frequently used word, is mispronounced. Shouldn't a voice over actor know, or check on things like this? And if not, then the producer.
This is a great story, and a great service to women.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 10-09-22
Required reading for Doulas and anyone companioning the bereft
As a life-span doula I am grateful to the author for sharing her story of losing Thor and the ensuing grief with such raw insight and open hearted truth. Her words penetrated my soul.
I consider this required reading for Doulas and anyone companioning the bereft following pregnancy or infant loss.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!