40 Weeks

What Humans and 81 Other Species Expect When They're Expecting

By: Anna Blix, Nichola Smalley - translator

Narrated by: Nathalie Buscombe

Matrescene meets the Golden Mole - discover what the animal kingdom expects when it's expecting

It takes 40 weeks to grow a human baby.

And the relationship between a foetus and a pregnant woman is a little like that of a parasite and its host. One takes and takes, while the other continues to give, risking their health in the process.

Is there a better way?

The Komodo dragon can reproduce via pathogenesis - fertilising its own eggs, so no male is needed.

The Surinam toad harbours live babies in craters under its skin - until they're ready to burst out into the world.

And the hyena . . . Well, best not mention the hyena . . .

Anna Blix takes the reader on a fascinating journey through her own pregnancy, introducing us in each of the 40 weeks to other creatures who have just delivered their next generation into the world.

This fun, informative and personable book provides evolutionary comfort throughout the long haul of pregnancy, and an explanation as to how we ended up here: as the smartest species with a tiresome, but perhaps not so bad way to reproduce. It could always be worse. Just ask the hyena.

Translated from the Norwegian by Nicola Smalley©2025 Anna Blix (P)2025 Quercus Editions Limited

Critic reviews

A compulsively interesting and original treatise, combining deeply personal testimony with scientific exactness. Blix takes us on a clear-eyed journey through some intriguing territory; an intellectual and literary delight! (Dr Andy Dobson, author of Flaws of Nature)

Reproduction varies wildly across the animal kingdom, and Anna Blix delivers a fascinating and insightful comparison to the complexities of her own, human pregnancy (Nick Caruso, co-author of Does it Fart?)

Highly entertaining and educational . . . A joy to read . . . Blix is a master at making complex science understandable to regular people (Klassekampen)