Customer Reviews

The Art of Giving Birth: With Chanting, Breathing, and Movement (Book & CD)

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Birth can be either one of the most magical or traumatic experiences in a mother's life. "The Art of Giving Birth: With Chanting, Breathing, and Movement" is a guide to having a comfortable, enjoyable birthing instead of the painful experience that scares so many women away from motherhood. Spiritual and practical, "The Art of Giving Birth" gives women many tips they need to make the process go as smoothly as possible. Enhanced with a music CD to help the mental aspect, "The Art of Giving Birth" is a top pick for mothers to be.

Short and easy to read, Dr. Leboyer's book provides both encouragement for the expectant mother and practical labor relaxation skills.

The encouragement comes through a variety of letters women have written Dr. Leboyer regarding their labor experiences. The reader is able to learn as the women share how they overcame their challenges to give birth in a gentle, peaceful way. Dr. Leboyer comments on the letters, offering additional information and encouragement.

For labor skills, Dr. Leboyer presents an often overlooked labor relaxation skill - vocalization. He explains how to use relaxing breathing and making noise - called tones - to stay centered during labor. The reader is encouraged to practice the tones during pregnancy along with the help of a CD that is included with the book.

The book focuses solely on breathing and vocalization exercises based on East Asian martial arts. Families seeking information on the full range of labor options, pain management techniques and the process of labor will find combining this book with other sources of information to be the most helpful.

*This is not Tim Linden reviewing this book, I can't seem to change it over to my name*

shocked- and had to laugh, at the condescending attitude of this writer. He has letters written by women about their births and using his techniques...then he "comments" on them. I love when a man tries to tell a woman what she should or shouldn't have done in a birth. Like when a woman went on all fours on her bed for some of her labor he writes, "why would you do that? That's not advisable"...REALLY? You KNOW that a woman's instinctive positioning in labor is BAD because the ONLY way to birth is to be standing a certain way, walking a certain way...there's NO other way? RIDICULOUS!! He also concludes and "proves" that if you're baby is born and doesn't instantly lock eyes with you, or if he/she was born in any other way then his basically, that it determines the baby's personality for life and the baby will grow up a worried child. He literally has two pictures of baby's, one born from an induced birth, and one born the "right" way, and then shows pictures of them grown up and talks about their worried vs. calm personalities. It looks like a joke, but he's being serious. Also a woman was holding her husbands hand during contractions- this he scolds her for!

The only little nugget I got out of this book was how to breath better and how to use sound to release tension during contractions. But there's GOT to be a different way to get that information then having to sift through the awfulness of the rest of the book. Yoga for example.

I did not use this book. I did have my last child at home and read the Bradley Method of Natural Child Birth and got a tremendous amount of information that really did help me and my husband prepare for having a home delivery. Even though I don't disagree with this practice I was just not in to learning singing the vowels of the alphabet while I was in labor. There is so much to learn and understand in giving birth that I focused on other natural things like understanding what was going to happen, what was important for the baby such as waiting to cut the umbilical cord and immediately putting the baby to my chest and other things like that. I also was very interested in water birth but was not able to do and thought the reading I did on orgasm during delivery was interesting. This book is another form of practice and may fit into someone's style. The most important thing is keeping the baby and mom calm and healthy. Best Wishes and God Bless!