Birth and Relationships: How Your Birth Affects Your Relationships [Paperback]

Sondra Ray (Author), Bob Mandel (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 164 pages
• Publisher: Celestial Arts (November 1, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0890874867
• ISBN-13: 978-0890874868
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #499,315 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So many questions Answered!!!!, September 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Birth and Relationships: How Your Birth Affects Your Relationships (Paperback)

I learned so much about myself and my past from this book. I highly reccommend it to anyone who wants to know where and how they developed their negative patterns in life. I don't think it all comes from birth trauma, but after reading this book I've realized that being born is one of the hardest things most of us ever do in our lives, and it's no wonder our experiences then continue to affect us for so long aftewards. You and your mate will make so much more sense to each other in the context of the information offered here!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars HOw Birthing effects our loving Relationships, August 13, 2009

By 

Michael B. Sprague "micheal sunanda" (Eugene, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Birth and Relationships: How Your Birth Affects Your Relationships (Paperback)

I read this in 1980s when i was Rebirthing deeply my bad karma from being orphaned at birth & suffering many ills & conflicts growing up. In 1980s living with young hippy families working out our childhood tramas, which seems impossible now? Sondra Ray pioneered 'Rebirthing' with Len Or in 1970s & discovered how our birth experience effects our health, family & lifelong relatiionships,
She learned further in leading LRT 'Loving Relationships Training' in 1980s. I did 100 of Rebirthing sessions to heal my bad karma, & 1000s with others learning deeply how our old patterns effect living now. B & R book connects how were born to how we relate to life, self & others together.
It deeply tells how 22 birthing 'complications' forms & hurts our life character & directly linking Rebirthing to our relationships. Its similar to deep psychology of our parents relationship imprinting how we meet & couple up from teenage on. Also" IMPRINTS - The Lifelong Effects of Birth Experience" by Art Janov of 'Primal Scream therapy' which is different than Rebirthing, but has found many similar birthing tramas hurting us, we can heal now if committed to working inside out, letting go of whatever is hanging up our creative energy in natural health, happiness & loving relationships.

.Imprints: The Lifelong Effects of the Birth Experience

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A needed reflection on birth, October 20, 2007

By 

Dawn (Arizona) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Birth and Relationships: How Your Birth Affects Your Relationships (Paperback)

Birth is an event few people consider from the perspective of the baby. I was eager to read "Birth and Relationships" because I believe that how a baby is introduced to the world can strongly influence their psyche. However, I can't bring myself to actually like it as much as I wanted to.

This book has value in that it encourages serious thought to be given to how a baby feels during the birth process, and I appreciate that the authors consider newborns as real people with real thoughts and feelings about what they are experiencing. So many books (and medical personell, too), do not even acknowledge the baby during birth except in the context of medical interventions being performed.

However, I had trouble getting past some of the "psychological" explanations for physical conditions, such as the assertion that asthma, bronchitis, and emphysema are caused by negative thought processes during the birth experience. There are also some strange "therapeutic" ideas, such as a week of milk-only diet to heal someone traumatized by not being breastfed. So, the person was basically given a cow's milk based formula as a baby, and now as an adult they should spend a week drinking nothing but cows milk to overcome their insecurities relatied to having had this very diet as an infant. This doesn't really make sense to me, but hey, whatever works for you...

I also found "Birth and Relationships" limited because it did not even acknowledge midwife-attended births and births that take place outside of a typical American hospital. Very little comparative experience is really given, even in what the authors consider a normal birth.

I recommend Frederick Leboyer's book "Birth Without Violence" for another perspective on a baby's experience. He does not do any "rebirthing therapy", but considering some of the ideas presented in this book, that may be a good thing.