Lopez went from reading book to starring in film

By Rick Bentley

McClatchy Newspapers

LOS ANGELES

Motherhood didn’t start so great for actress/singer Jennifer Lopez.

She was in such pain after having a Caesarean section to deliver her twins in 2008, Lopez couldn’t hold the newborns. Despite all the pain, she turned down all offers of painkillers.

When the pain got so bad, a crying Lopez told her then-husband, Marc Anthony: “The babies don’t love me. They don’t love me. And they’re not going to know me, and they’re going to love the nurse.”

Anthony’s efforts to calm Lopez failed. The only thing that made her feel better was reading Heidi Murkoff’s book, “What to Expect When You’re Expecting.”

Lopez learned she was going through a hormone drop on the 10th day after the births — called “The Baby Blues” — that many women experience.

Now, Lopez is starring in a film version of the book that opens today.

Unlike her own experience, Lopez plays a woman who decides to adopt a baby. Her story is mixed with other pending-motherhood tales, played out by Cameron Diaz, Elizabeth Banks and Anna Kendrick.

Of the four main female stars, Lopez was the only one who truly knew what to expect when expecting.

Banks is a new mom, but via a surrogate. Neither Kendrick nor Diaz has gone through the labors of love.

“I found the book to be so incredibly accurate while I was pregnant, and honestly I just see why everybody has this book and why it’s the first thing that you get when you find out that you’re pregnant because it just takes you through everything,” Lopez says.

“When you get pregnant, it’s the type of thing, like everybody’s talked about your whole life, but you know nothing about when it’s happening to you. This book helps you to not freak out.”

There were plenty of times Lopez was ready to lose it during her pregnancy.

She was afraid she would never get to wear all of the wonderful shoes she owns because her feet grew one size.

There was also the panic attack that came with the realization she was about to become responsible for two new lives.