Ina May's Guide to Childbirth: Updated With New Material

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S. While the tone of the book is much too touchy-feely/hippyish for me, I have to admit that it is well worth reading regardless of whether you're planning a natural childbirth or a fully tech'ed out hospital one. Hotjar sets this cookie to know whether a user is included in the data sampling defined by the site's pageview limit. We need to change the view that childbirth is something dangerous and unnatural, and that the only way for women to survive it is to be heavily medicated and close to an emergency room. These stories are all from the 1970s so I felt like I was reading a history book since I am so far removed from that age group.

While a lot of her outrage seemed justified to me, it wasn't very helpful in a book that was supposed to be a "guide" to childbirth. I believe that pain during childbirth is something that shouldn’t be attempted to be eliminated out of fear or the belief that you cannot handle it, but we should learn to cope with it, something in Gaskin’s book with which I agree. and reading the whole first section, with all these AMAZING stories of natural childbirth just made me feel like i was a complete and total failure and less than a real woman for never having gone that route. In the end (I had my baby two days ago), I think this hysteria about hospitals did ultimately help me.The book makes the assumption that a pregnant woman will feel more comfortable and cared for in the company of other women because her wishes will be respected. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously.

Although Ina May may seem hippie dippie to some (she does include some out there ideas), her relationship to OBs in Tennessee, her birth stats from the thousands of births she’s attended, and her balance between respecting ancient wisdom/intuitive, physiologic birthing and scientific data all make her a wonderful person to learn about the beautiful process of birth from. The whole intense experience was deeply invigorating and actually GAVE me the energy I needed to cope with the first couple of difficult weeks with a new baby. They teach us the occasional difference between accepted medical knowledge and the real bodily experiences that women have--including those that are never reported in medical textbooks nor admitted as possibilities in the medical world. Donna asked if I wanted to go see a midwife, but I decided to hold off until I was sure I wasn't getting excited over nothing. I also liked subtle nuances such as helping the baby's head stretch the mother out without tearing, not relying on cold machines such as ultrasound and internal fetal monitors, knowing how to deliver breech babies, and having faith in the universe.I raised my eyebrows when she stated that routine Rhogam injections at 28 weeks was internationally controversial.

Finally, for those who might want to read this book on the subway (like me), be forewarned that there are some pretty graphic photos of childbirthing in this section. Overall I took one star away for the amount of birth stories (127 pages worth) and the fact that they were very old. Ultimately the reality is that every mother's experience is different, and there's no technique, approach, or solution that works for everyone. I come back to the issue of goodness of fit -- just like one looks for an OB who's a good fit, one looks for a birthing book that's a good fit.I learned a lot and would even recommend this book as long as it is not the only book a future mother reads. After half a dozen birth stories I found myself stressed, slightly horrified and definitely not (as the author says she intends) empowered. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. I also didn't like how biased it was, I was hoping for an open view of childbirth and what I got was a really negative view of hospitals and doctors.