The Birth Partner - Revised 3rd Edition: A Complete Guide to Childbirth for Dads, Doulas, and All Other Labor Companions (Birth Partner: A Complete Guide to Childbirth for Dads, Doulas, &) [Paperback]

Penny Simkin (Author)

Book Description

Series: Birth Partner: A Complete Guide to Childbirth for Dads, Doulas, & | Publication Date: January 15, 2008

Since the original publication of The Birth Partner in 1989, new mothers’ mates, friends, and relatives and doulas (professional birth assistants) have relied on Penny Simkin’s guidance in caring for the new mother from the last few weeks of pregnancy through the early postpartum period. Fully revised in its third edition, The Birth Partner remains the definitive guide for preparing to help a woman through childbirth and the essential manual to have at hand during the event.

 

This completely updated edition includes thorough information on:

Preparing for labor and knowing when it has begun;
Normal labor and how to help the woman every step of the way;
Epidurals and other medications for labor;
Non-drug techniques for easing labor pain;
Cesarean birth and complications that may require it;
Breastfeeding and newborn care;
And much more.

 

For the partner who wishes to be truly helpful in the birthing room, this book is indispensable.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Penny Simkin, P.T., is a physical therapist, childbirth educator, doula, and birth counselor. She is nationally recognized as a premier authority on childbirth, having helped 9,000 expecting women and birth partners in childbirth and attended hundreds of couples though the birth process. Simkin is a prolific author and serves on more than ten different consultant and editorial boards, including the journal Birth: Issues in Perinatal Care, The International Childbirth Education Association, and The Seattle Midwifery School, where she also provides training for doulas and lectures for the students. Students of Penny Simkin glean from this proficient, natural teacher a thorough education on the birthing process and the best ways to serve childbearing women. Simkin’s wisdom, accrued knowledge, and comforting approach are manifested in the pages of The Birth Partner.

Simkin graduated from Swarthmore College in 1959, where she received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in English Literature. She continued her studies at the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned a Certificate in Physical Therapy, and went on to obtain her certification in Teacher Training from the Childbirth Education Association of Seattle. She has written myriad articles, book chapters, pamphlets, and books including The Birth Partner: Everything You Need to Know to Help a Woman Through Childbirth (Harvard Common Press, 1989, 2000), Pregnancy, Childbirth and the Newborn: The Complete Guide (Meadowbrook Press, 1984, 1991, 2001), When Survivors Give Birth: Understanding and Healing the Effects of Early Sexual Abuse on Childbearing Women, and Labor Progress Handbook: Early Interventions to Prevent and Treat Dystocia (Blackwell Scientific Press, 2000, 2005). She is also co-founder of DONA International (formerly Doulas of North America) and The Pacific Association for Labor Support. In addition to providing childbirth education, birth counseling, and labor support, Simkin travels extensively throughout the country, lecturing and presenting at conferences and workshops.

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Common Press; 3rd Edition edition (January 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558323570
• ISBN-13: 978-1558323575
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (70 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,637 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #12 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Personal Health > Women's Health > Pregnancy & Childbirth

More About the Author

Penny Simkin is a physical therapist who has specialized in childbirth education since 1968. She serves on the editorial board for Birth: Issues in Perinatal Care and the consultant boards for the International Childbirth Education Association and the Seattle Midwifery School.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

125 of 126 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Mental Lifesaver, June 20, 2008

By 

Jonathan Stephens "Jonathan Stephens" (Huntington Beach, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Birth Partner - Revised 3rd Edition: A Complete Guide to Childbirth for Dads, Doulas, and All Other Labor Companions (Birth Partner: A Complete Guide to Childbirth for Dads, Doulas, &) (Paperback)

For first-time parents, giving birth to your little bundle of joy can be nerve-wracking. There is so much you don't know! And not-knowing can be a nasty breeding ground for fear. My wife and I are first-time parents, and while we weren't scared to death, we certainly wanted to know what we were headed towards. Knowing is half the battle, right? Because of how much there is to know, we even thought about hiring a doula (birth coach). Luckily, we found this book...373 pages of confidence-building.

THE BIRTH PARTNER is broken into 4 parts:

1) Before the Birth

This section is largely just introduction to the concept of pregnancy. It contains some good lists to remind you what to prepare to take to the hospital. Probably the most important stuff was on Kegel exercises and the Perineal massage. Oh yeah, and make sure to compile a list of friends and family to call or have someone call.

2) Labor and Birth

This section has crucial information about the pre-labor process, the signs of labor, the "bag of waters" breaking, false vs. true labor, timing contractions (there's a great chart to make copies of), and breeched babies. Her breakdown of the 3 stages of labor is especially helpful.

For those parents attempting a natural birth, she details the 5-1-1 rule for contractions, so you know when to head to the hospital. She walks you through a ton of strategic labor positions to use to relieve pain and allow gravity to do its work toward birthing the baby (these assume you haven't had an epidural...there's a whole section on epidurals and anesthesia).

She gives advice for the birth partner's role -- from leading her through breathing routines and rituals to knowing how to work with and sometimes against the doctors, depending on what they're saying. Fast labors, slow labors, irregular labors...they're all in here.

3) The Medical Side of Childbirth

Medicine, drugs, shots, tests, interventions and all that good stuff. To epidural or not to epidural? And what about Cesarean sections? It's all in here. Helpful information to keep you sane and in the loop. It's amazing what the doctors won't tell you unless you ask. Remember, it's a business.

4) After the Birth

Cleaning the baby, shots, warming, breastfeeding, postpartum depression and how to deal with it...what happens after the birth is almost nearly as important as the before and the during.

THE FINAL TAKE

This book is a mental lifesaver. Whether you're heading into the birth with complete trust of the doctors and the medical system or with a healthy (or unhealthy) bit of logical skepticism, there is a wealth of essential knowledge in here about what to look for, what to know, and what to ask about. You won't regret reading this book. It's concise and detailed in the all the right places and is clear enough that you know exactly what she's talking about. I'm a first-time, thinking-man's father-to-be, and I sure feel more prepared after reading it. After all, it's just my baby we're talking about here.

--- Reviewed by Jonathan Stephens

45 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very helpful for dads and others, January 31, 2008

By 

Julia Ziobro "JuliaZ" (Bellevue, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Birth Partner - Revised 3rd Edition: A Complete Guide to Childbirth for Dads, Doulas, and All Other Labor Companions (Birth Partner: A Complete Guide to Childbirth for Dads, Doulas, &) (Paperback)

Penny Simkin's first edition of this book was really helpful to me in my last pregnancy, and this edition is even better. Updated with modern information, my husband is finding it a great tool as I prepare for my third birth and he gets ready for his first homebirth... his daughter was born in a horrible hospital birth so he's really having to adjust his thinking.

He was worried that this book was going to be dry and boring but he hasn't put it down yet. :-) It has enough technical information to keep his "science mind" occupied, and the writing tone is friendly and accessible. He is realizing with the help of this book that he can be an active participant in this birth and that he can really help me by protecting me and making conditions ideal for me to do the work of birthing... this is in stark contrast to the very passive role that he was encouraged to take last time, and how helpless he felt in terms of being able to help his ex-wife as she struggled to birth despite lots of hospital-staff-ordered interventions.

We are also using the book together to identify the things I'd like to have for our birth in terms of people who are there, the atmosphere of the room, and procedures we want/don't want our midwife to do.

We're going through the interventions chapter together and identifying the things that would be 100% fine with us if the midwife thought them necessary, the things we'd tolerate after a risk/benefit discussion, and the things I'd never consent to unless my midwife (who I do trust with my life, and who attended my last birth too) says I'll die or the baby will die without.

We'll certainly have this book around with some tape flags in it during our birth.

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive guide to labor and childbirth, June 9, 2008

By 

K. BRYDEN (Iowa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Birth Partner - Revised 3rd Edition: A Complete Guide to Childbirth for Dads, Doulas, and All Other Labor Companions (Birth Partner: A Complete Guide to Childbirth for Dads, Doulas, &) (Paperback)

If you or someone you know is planning to have a baby, and you plan to be there, read this book. It will help you have a birth that is less painful, stressful, and physician-directed than you will have if you do not read it. It covers the normal course of labor and birth, complications in labor, comfort measures for the woman and the role of the birth partner and/or doula, explanations of the many possible interventions and drugs available during labor/birth/postpartum, breastfeeding basics, and care of the mother when she returns home. If you are the partner, this will help you feel that you know what's going on during birth, especially if complications arise, and it will give you lots of ideas for how to help your partner during labor and afterwards.

This book is pretty objective and not biased far towards the "no intervention for any reason/trust birth" camp, nor towards the "birth is a emergency, and babies can DIE!!!!" camp. It will help you clarify YOUR personal preferences and needs for your birth by providing you with knowledge needed to make informed choices based on your medical particulars, pain tolerance, philosophy about childbirth, attitude towards medications and interventions, and your birth setting.

There is a great questionnaire in the book about pain and medication preferences that will really help you decide what medications you might or might not want and at what point in labor you will want them, and a comprehensive list of all the medications, their effects and side-effects on mother and baby, when in the course of labor it is appropriate to receive them, and how they might interact with other drugs offered during labor.