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What you need to know to have the best birth experience for you. Drawing upon her thirty-plus years of experience, Ina May Gaskin, the nation's leading midwife, shares the benefits and joys of natural childbirth by showing women how to trust in the ancient wisdom of their bodies for a healthy and fulfilling birthing experience. Based on the female-centered Midwifery Model of Care, Ina May's Guide to Natural Childbirth gives expectant mothers comprehensive information on everything from the all-important mind-body connection to how to give birth without technological intervention. Filled with inspiring birth stories and practical advice, this invaluable resource includes: - Reducing the pain of labor without drugs-and the miraculous roles touch and massage play - What really happens during labor - Orgasmic birth-making birth pleasurable - And much more.… (more)
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The first half of the book is birth stories, usually written by the mother giving birth. They are moving, amazing, intimate peeks into one of life's biggest adventures. So many of them start out with: "I had my first kid(s) in the hospital and it was awful. There has to be a better way! So I went to The Farm for this one. " They definitely don't have to be read in order. I found it useful to open the book at random and read the story I found there.
The second part of the book is more scholarly. There are references to statistics and studies that show how different pregnancy and baby care is in North America compared to the rest of the world. I was quite alarmed to learn about some things, such as stitching up a uterus after a Cesarean birth in one layer rather than two, and Ina May's experience that this practice dramatically increased dangerous hemorrhaging during subsequent labours. Stitching up in one layer is done to save time, and is one of many examples in which time and money has come to take precedence over maternal and baby health.
This book made me want to buy a bunch of land and build my own hippie commune.
What helped my mental preparation was Ina May's persuasive and rational argument for midwifery. Her research appears solid and should be read more widely. For
What I loved about this book was part 1 - the stories by women who had a natural childbirth
Roughly the first half of this book is birth stories. Almost all of them are midwife-assisted births
The second half of the book is a collection of essays by Ina May on the current state of birthing in the United States. (Primarily it's about this country anyway, there is also a lot of data from other countries for comparison.) The latter chapters are sometimes hopeful, sometimes chilling, but mostly make me glad we're trying for a midwife-assisted home birth this time.
But this book is mostly famous in our house for two pictures of a face-presentation. Jefferson was looking over my shoulder one day as I was reading this book and liked all the pictures of babies. So I started flipping through it with him looking for the pictures. Most were standard mom and baby post-birth posed shots, but on page 58 there is a picture of a baby where only the face has emerged from the birth canal, and then another of the baby right after delivery, with its poor face all smooshed and swollen. I was a little worried about Jefferson's reaction, as I hadn't intended to give him quite such a graphic introduction to "where babies come from," but he loved the pictures, and for a while developed a nightly routine of wanting to see the baby pictures before bed. At one point he even indicated the face presentation and told me he wanted me to have that baby. I told him no matter how much I loved him and wanted him to be happy, I would never wish for a face presentation.
Anyway! I loved this book. Very authoritative and informational. Would recommend to anyone interested in a more natural version of childbirth.
Still, with under 6 weeks to go, I don't have much time to do more than skim. The parts that are useful are very useful; the parts that weren't were easy enough to flip past.
I purchased this book knowing that I'd like to have a natural birth and avoid an epidural and Caesarean section. I hoped this book would give me the courage and strength to move forward with my birth plan and I think it's done just that. The first half of the book offers several empowering birth