Customer Reviews

Birth Day: A Pediatrician Explores the Science, the History, and the Wonder of Childbirth

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

From beginning to end, Birth Day is jam-packed with information about childbirth and a baby's first day of life. Dr. Mark Sloan skillfully combines scientific knowledge and medical history with personal anecdote to make for an informative and entertaining read. Be prepared to learn quirky facts about why and when women began to lie down to give birth, what a fetus senses inside the womb, and what it's like to enter a world of bright lights and giddy chatter, to useful information about C-sections and epidurals. Birth Day is must reading for all pregnant women and fathers-to-be as well as for women like myself who have given birth to two children but who had only rudimentary knowledge of childbearing. Time spent with Dr. Sloan is like having another obstetrician and pediatrician there to answer many of the questions your doctor doesn't have time for. Birth Day is full of wit, tender stories and wisdom. Do not give birth without it!

I'm only half-way through this book but already need to give it 5 stars. It's a wonderful book full of facts, history and tips for labor/delivery. I especially enjoy the historical facts like the story of the origins of having women labor on their backs. Amazing stuff. This is a great book for any expectant mother or anyone interested in the birthing history and process. Two thumbs up!!!

Of the half dozen baby/birth books I've read since I got pregnant, this was by far the best written. Dr. Sloan had me (and my husband) laughing every couple of pages. Filled with both insightful anecdotes and careful historical research, it's an informative and very fun read. Unlike most pregnancy/birth/baby books, it's downright hard to put down. It's also the single book that best educated me on what I might expect of a hospital birth and on the origins of today's hospital culture. There are plenty of books out there by "natural" birth advocates to describe birth at home or in a hippie commune, but a relative scarcity of hospital birth stories. Through his anecdotes, Dr. Sloan finally answered the questions I had as a first-time mom.

Let me admit a bias before I even start... We are extremely lucky to have Mark Sloan as our pediatrician. So when a friend told me she was expecting, I immediately recommended him and then remembered that he'd recently written a book. I thought it would make a good gift and serve as an introduction to the kind of doctor he is. I found the book on Amazon, got it a day later (thank you Amazon Prime!) and honestly, after skimming it, my husband and I fought over who got to read it first. We rarely read the same books, but this one has blown both of us away.
Sloan weaves real-life examples with amazingly detailed historical information in a way that's part history lesson, part first-hand experience -- and all fascinating.
While nothing can actually prepare you for childbirth, Birth Day provides first-time parents with a solid foundation and historical context that will make them feel a little less lonely and lost; and any parent will think (as I have), "Boy, I wish I'd known that before!"
It doesn't "dumb down" anything and Sloan's genuine humor adds moments of levity as well tender remembrances that will drive any hormone-laden mom-to-be to tears. From all the amazing magic that happens in a woman's body to help the pregnancy and labor move along, to the medical advances that we rely on, to the transformation of fetus to infant, there's a wealth of information here.
We've found our "go to" gift for expecting parents. Thanks Dr. Sloan!

From cover to cover, Dr. Sloan captivates the reader with fascinating science, historical events, biography and humor that remarkably explains the complex biology of human life. I don't even have children and I love this book. I would recommend it to every new parent and mother-to-be. And with Mother's Day just around the corner, Birth Day should be a no-brainer gift idea.

This excelent book about the day of birth combines history, science, and ancecdotes by the pediatrition author. Best of all, the book is interesting, packed with information AND told with a fine sense of humor and compassion. Great fun to learn so much while reading a well written book.

I read this book while pregnant with my first baby and found it totally enlightening, fascinating, and enjoyable. It is very well researched and documented, written by someone who's from the medical establishment. It's full of fascinating information on why we deliver babies the way we do today (e.g. lots of interventions in a hospital setting) and how we got here. I was really surprised by how much of the typical birthing practices we practice in the US are not necessarily in the mother's or baby's best interest.

Before reading this book (admittedly knowing very little about babies/birth before getting pregnant), I always considered a scheduled c-section logical and convenient. I don't think this was the author's intention, but I have to say this book put me down the path of seriously considering a totally natural birth with as little intervention as possible.

I LOVE this book. I am about to deliver my first child in just a few weeks, and for the last 9 months I have read dozens of books on pregnancy, childbirth and child rearing. Birth Day is such a refreshingly un-biased, interesting read. I love Dr. Mark Sloan's writing style, he is funny and entertaining while describing the otherwise dry history and science of subjects such as labor pain relief. His insight really makes me feel like I know what I am in for when begining labor.

I am currently only halfway through the book, but since I could go into labor any time, I wanted to get a review in while there was still time. If you are like me and like to gather all the information you can without a personal agenda of the autor clouding the facts, you might really enjoy this book.

I really enjoyed and learned from this book. As the father of 3 I wish it had been published 18 years ago before the birth of my first. The chapter on fatherhood was particularly elucidating and amusing. Looking forward to more books by Dr. Sloan. This book should be required reading for all pediatric and OB residents.

I'm usually not a non-fiction reader, but this book was incredibly well written. His stories are fascinating, and the way he links them into interesting information about pregnancy and childbirth is very well done.
It answered a lot of questions about the whole process that I hadn't even thought to ask. I recommend it for anyone, but specifically for women about to give birth because it explains so much that other books don't. I think it's very helpful to know the background of a lot of common medical practices, not to mention the evolutionary and medical reasons for the way childbirth works.