An Interview with Angela Bickford, the Author of Beating Bed Rest

Bedrest is not my favorite thing to do when I had morning sick with both babies and even after the C-sections I “supposed” to be in bed rest for 3-4 weeks but I didn’t stay in bed for that long. I only could stayed in bed for a week!

When I was in bed, I didn’t feel rested. I was anxious and uncomfortable laying on my back all the time. The incision was hurt so bad when I laid on my side. I felt so useless that I couldn’t do anything. Lots of people helped and prayed for me. God gave me the strength to go through it all until I could stand up and moved around.

bed rest book sig image

A few weeks ago, Angela Bickford asked me and some other bloggers to review her new e-book, Beating Bedrest. I read the book and the first chapter, she said,

“You might be questioning why God would do this. Why he would make you feel like you might not make it … Honestly though… now isn’t the time to question Him.

Now is the time to hold on to your faith. Grab it and don’t let go. Pray fervently and have others do the same. Plaster your prayer requests all over Facebook. Don’t be shy about it either, you’d me amazed at the power of prayer.”

I couldn’t agree more with what Angela said. Prayer fervently! That is powerful and God is at work when we pray, He will give us everything we need to go through our hard times.

If you want to check about the detail and what what this book all about, you can go HERE.

Here’s a little interview with Angela about her background and why she wrote this book:

1) Tell us a little about yourself and your pregnancy

  • My husband and I married in 2007 and I have always wanted to be a mom. After 3 years of trying, we finally got pregnant – with triplets! Of course, this meant high-risk given it was three and because of my history of miscarriage. So, I pretty much did nothing from the beginning. The pregnancy was going very smoothly until about 21 weeks, when I started to have issues with my cervix not wanting to hold the babies in. Then, at 23 weeks, as it continued, I was put on hospital bed rest, where I stayed until they were born at 27 1/2 weeks. The bed rest was an enlightening time for me, since I’m quite the type-A personality, but I learned a lot and am now thankful that I had that time. Although we ended up losing one of the triplets, bed rest gave my other two more of a fighting chance and helped them survive.

2) Why did you decide to write this book?

  • When I was on bed rest, I searched for resources to keep me busy and also to help me understand what I had in store for what could have been 4 months. There was absolutely nothing other than one fiction book, which I read, and one very old history text type book that I knew I wouldn’t enjoy. I knew that I didn’t want other women to have to be alone in what they were going through, and I knew that a book would come out of my experience one day.

3) What was your favorite part to write?

  • Hmm… favorite part? Probably naming the chapters. I got to come up with some pretty funny names. It was so easy to write the first part – the part dealing with my experience, and I enjoyed adding in the quotes from other moms on bed rest. But what I really liked was how after putting together the resources section, I learned that there are now many other resources out there, which is awesome! Of course, my book is the best right? But, honestly, I think women on bed rest need a selection of materials to help them – it’s a tough job.

4) What was the hardest part about bed rest, for you personally?

  • Being away from my husband and pets. It got lonely. I could deal with the not getting showers and eating food that I didn’t like very much, but being lonely is really hard when you’re an outgoing person. Oh, and the lack of control. That was also highly difficult for me.

5) In your experience, what was the main difference between bed rest at home vs. in hospital?

  • Well, bed rest at home is easier in the sense that you can ‘cheat’. I don’t recommend it, but you can. If you’re home all day alone with no one to answer to and you really want something in the other room, who’s going to know? But, when you’re in the hospital, every one else is in control BUT you, and you don’t get much choice in the matter.

6) Any advice for significant others or family members of those on bed rest?

  • I think just being supportive in general. My husband came every evening after work and at least one person came during the day most of the time. That really helped. I have a chapter in the book about how to help your bed resting friend, and there are a lot of ideas in there as well. But, the bottom line, just be there and ask what they need from you, then do that.

7) I know you talk a lot on your blog about the loss of one of your triplets and how you’ve dealt with guilt about having to be on bed rest and ultimately going into preterm labor, can you talk to us a little bit about that?

  • Sure. I did feel guilty – and a lot of moms do. It’s perfectly normal, but it’s also not their fault. It took a long time to get to the point where I could forgive myself. If I had just not done this or that, then the babies would have stayed in, etc. Truth is, an incompetent cervix isn’t anyone’s fault. It just happens. Neither is pre-eclampsia or placenta previa or any other thing that causes a baby to come early. Most of the time, it’s nothing the mom did. But I think that it takes awhile to get to the point where you can forgive your body because it was supposed to be made to carry a baby, and it didn’t work right. To help myself overcome that guilt, I just reminded myself that I did all I could. I was a great bed rest patient, and I loved those babies more than anything and would have stayed in bed for the whole pregnancy if I had to. I told myself that even when I complained about being there, that didn’t mean I didn’t want to be there, it just meant I wasn’t having fun, and that’s normal! My advice for bed resting moms is to be kind to yourself – you’re going to have bad days, you’re going to deal with guilt. But, ultimately, you know you’d do anything for that little baby inside you, and you have – you stayed in bed for however long you had to!

8) How did your faith play into your bed rest experience?

  • Faith was a huge part of my bed rest time – really my whole pregnancy, the infertility before, and the NICU time afterwards. God never left my side and I learned how strong I truly am. I didn’t realize how much faith I had until I went through these experiences, and I am grateful that He continues to use them to help others and bring glory to His name.

The book is now available on Amazon for only $6.99! And if you buy from today until September 28th, you will get these 2 bonuses from Angela:

bed rest amazon specials copy

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One thought on “An Interview with Angela Bickford, the Author of Beating Bed Rest

  1. I’m guessing it must have been difficult to stay in bed but after suffering infertility and having miscarriages you really didn’t have much choice. For me, experience has been nearly the opposite. At 24 I got CFS. I suffered infertility for many years. I got pregnant with my first at 33 and my second at 39. I felt physically healthier when I was pregnant than I do normally. I was able to do more, never had morning sickness or anything. My first was 10 days early and 8 lbs and the second was induced 2 weeks early and was 8 lbs 10 ozs. Today inaddition to CFS, I have low B12, low iron and a low red cell count so I am back to spending a considerable amount of time in bed. Fortunately the boys are grown and other than driving them around and picking up after them they are reasonably self-sufficient when I am not well.