Customer Reviews

Assistant Coach's Manual

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you ever wanted to know how to be an effective assistant birth coach, this book is a valuable resource. It's well-organized in outline format with short, explanatory paragraphs. Its in-depth content about the assistant coach's role, responsibilities and how to recognize when it's time to act and what to do would be helpful to dads, doulas and other birth attendants.

However, I only rated this manual 3 stars due to its price. I'd pay $25.00 for a hardback, certainly. But this publication (I hesitate to call it a book) is a spiral, soft-bound one. Honestly, it looks like something printed at Kinko's. (It's possible the spiral binding is to provide ease-of-use in a labor setting, but I'd think it would be in the authors' best interests to bind this one more permanently, or at least have a hard-cover for it, so that it would be less easy to reproduce illegitimately.)

If possible, I recommend borrowing this one from your local Bradley instructors' library; according to my local instructor, it's required reading for Bradley teachers' recertification, so they should have a copy on hand. Also, Bradley instructors are able to purchase this one at a reduced price ($18.00, I believe, at the time of this review), so you may be able to order it through your instructor.

this is a great quick-read book. it provides you with the informational tools you need in order to have a successful natural birth.

I am a former AAHCC teacher and I used to recommend this to my students who were having parents or other people attend their birth who wasn't necessarily supportive of their natural childbirth decision. It has a lot of info, but is a little too wordy. You'd be just as well off sitting down with them with your student manual and going over some of the info that you want them to know and to tell them what YOU expect out of THEM. Just my opinion though :)

This book is an excellent resource for anyone who'll be helping a family during birth. This book gives suggestions on who should be chosen or hired as the assistant coach (family/friend/labor support person/doula helping the laboring couple during the birth). There's a list of questions that will help the couple and the assistant coach come to agreements on many things regarding the labor, such as when to come, what to do, when to step out, and even what pictures to take or not to take. The book gives a summary of labor and what the assistant coach should expect and guidelines for etiquette on interacting with the mom, dad, and the birth attendants. There's a list of what to bring to the birth, and advice for those who'll be watching older children. This is a valuable book to have.

This is a good quick summary to give to those unfamiliar with natural childbirth. It covers how to choose an assistant coach (doula), preparations, and then a large reference section on birth.