I Don’t Know How to Give Birth!, as you might expect from the title, falls into the same edutainment category as Little Miss P. But while that discussion was led by an anthropomorphic uterus, this is an autobiography about some of the author’s experiences from trying to conceive with her husband (who’s also a manga artist) to breastfeeding. Pregnancy is not a subject often covered in manga, especially from a personal perspective…and imagination. Because I don’t know where else you go to see a nipple personified as an RPG character. (And I probably don’t want to know!!)
Yes, the manga format allows Kazama and Konno to showcase their journey in delightfully quirky ways. Whether it’s dealing with an overly enthusiastic trainer, getting in touch with her inner (outer?) animal, looking like death incarnate, or thinking about the reactions if she dropped a jar of her husband’s “specimens”, I spent most of the manga cracking up thanks to the art, text, or both. The volume is made up of a series of short chapters centered around one of Kazama’s concerns. Each concludes with a one-panel comic and essay from Konno, and then Kazama does the same. Those too include some hilarious highlights and afterthoughts. (Sorched scones! Blasto-chan!) It’s so much more fun than the usual sitcom-style comedy of mood swings and cravings.
Still, despite the manga-styled jokes and exaggerations like arrows in heads, it’s still a heartwarming story about a couple undergoing the long process of delivering a child. There are a lot of myths and misconceptions about giving birth, and Kazama admits she grew up in a rather sheltered environment in regards to sex ed. Her husband, meanwhile, grew up reading dirty magazines since he was in elementary school. But both realize their knowledge has a lot of gaps when they find out getting pregnant is not going to be as easy as have sex = get baby.
While I compared this book to Little Miss P, perhaps the better comparison is The Bride was a Boy in that it’s very comedic, upbeat, and the main characters are a lot luckier than a lot of others in their situation. Sure, women having babies is hardly unusual even if you take into account fertility struggles, but not everyone has a partner that can work from home or be gifted a lot of baby merchandise. But I Don’t Know How to Give Birth!, like The Bride was a Boy, provides a good foundation and a stepping stone to knowing more from aspects as important as water breaking to the more everyday challenges like finding comfy underwear.
In addition, Kazama freely admits she was never one to long for a child. Not that she wanted to be childfree, but it wouldn’t have mattered much one way or the other. And we see her constantly wondering about what it means to be motherly, whether a maternal instinct will suddenly kick in and create a supermom. Yes, there are dangers if a woman has a child solely for her partner’s sake. But for Kazama, it’s something she gets more invested in as time goes on, from being too embarrassed to share details about her sex life to swearing she’s going to encourage her daughter to touch her nipples “for the sake of her future self!”
But whether you see yourself having children in the future, you already have some, or never intend on having children, I’m glad to see this manga added to the growing edutainment genre. I Don’t Know How to Give Birth! is an amusing glimpse at one couple’s experience in a way only manga artists can capture, and I wholeheartedly recommend it.