Like many mothers, I ended up being put on bed rest during my first pregnancy. My enforced confinement was due to complications from a severe flu and meant I used up most of my paid maternity leave before the baby was even born. I only spent about four weeks on the couch, which is nothing compared to what many women go through, but the isolation and complete lack of independence were real shocks to me. I remembered those weeks again when I came across the work of Sarah Bilston, the author of both the novel Bed Rest and of a recent op-ed about bed rest for pregnant women, both of which address the realities of bed rest.

mamazine: You're an English professor and a mother, both time-consuming professions. What made you decide to write Bed Rest? How do you fit writing into your life?

Sarah Bilston: First, thanks very much to mamazine for offering to interview me!

I started writing Bed Rest when I was on bed rest myself a couple of years ago. I was on leave from my job and this was my first pregnancy, so I had plenty of time to write, although as anyone knows who has been on bed rest, it's tricky typing while lying on your left side 24/7!

I decided to write the novel for several reasons. First, I thought it was important to publicize the experience of bed rest. I'd never even heard of it until my OB prescribed it. Then I started hearing all these stories about friends of friends and relatives of friends who were going through the same thing. I did some research online, and I discovered that 750,000 women a year are placed on bed rest. That's 1 in 5 of all pregnant women. It seemed to me that this was a big story waiting to be told.

So the second reason I wrote Bed Rest was because I saw that the experience could make for an interesting novel. I'd been writing fiction for a few years before I turned to Bed Rest, mostly children's stories that are still lurking in a dark drawer… But once I got the idea for Bed Rest (my husband helped a lot in the planning stages, he was fantastically supportive) the novel moved quite quickly. It took me about 18 months from start to finish. Of course, there was a big break when my daughter arrived! But I just kept working whenever I had the time. I love to write, so it was always a treat to spend a few hours each day working on the manuscript.

mamazine: You published a New York Times op-ed recently in which you noted that there's some doubt about the positive effects of bed rest during pregnancy, and you also wrote eloquently about the very real challenges of being on bed rest. What was the reaction to that piece? What's next for you in this arena?

Sarah Bilston: I had fascinating responses to the op-ed. The morning it came out, my inbox filled up with emails from women across the country (even from other countries) thanking me for talking about bed rest and sharing their experiences with me. It was very moving. Every woman who wrote to me said, basically, I would have done anything to save my child's life, but I experienced a range of side effects, physical and psychological; as a community we need better evidence bed rest really helps before we put more women through this.

Responses across the internet varied. Most of the mommy sites that commented on it were supportive, which was wonderful. Some medical sites, on the other hand, were severely critical; some practitioners argued that I should simply have ignored the advice, rather than complaining about it (I think the word was 'whining'!). Personally, I think that's a weird response. As I said in the op-ed, it's one thing to ignore medical advice when our health is on the line, it's quite another when our children's life is at stake. Women have to follow the advice they are given. But they have a right to expect that the medical profession is giving GOOD advice.

I want to stress that my own practitioners were lovely, kind, caring people who did the best for me that they could. My complaint is not against individuals; it's against the profession in general for failing to research bed rest while adopting a practice of prescribing it for just about any pregnancy complication. (If 750,000 businessmen every year were told to leave their jobs and lie on their left sides for months on end, I have a funny feeling there would be a lot more research done on bed rest!)

The publication of the novel is giving me an opportunity to talk about these things in more detail. I've also really enjoyed communicating with women on bed rest, hearing their stories, and offering what support I can. For example, last week I did an online chat organized by Sidelines, an organization devoted to supporting and mentoring women on bed rest. I'm hoping to do a follow-up later this summer.

mamazine: What are you reading these days? And what's next for Q?

Sarah Bilston: My husband just bought me the latest novel by Alexander McCall Smith, Blue Shoes and Happiness. I love the pace of his Ladies' Detective stories, the sense of wide open spaces and of happiness from little things.

Meanwhile I'm working on Sleepless Nights, the sequel to Bed Rest. It will center the same characters and pick up the thread of Q's story, although I'm changing the narrative structure a bit to give myself new challenges. I also have a website devoted to Bed Rest and the experience of bed rest generally, www.bedrestdiary.com, which I update regularly with posts by Q—so to speak—about how to survive, and come to terms with, bed rest. (I also have an author website, www.sarahbilston.com.)