Birth Without Violence: The Book That Revolutionalized the Way We Bring Our Children into the World [Paperback]

Frederick Leboyer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1995

A revised edition of the classic that changed the way children are met when they enter our world

• The original book that challenged society’s beliefs about awareness in the newborn

• Shows how gentle lighting, a quiet atmosphere, and a warm bath allow a newborn to ease the transition from womb to world without trauma or fear

• Includes a new preface by the author, the founder of the gentle birth movement

Birth without Violence is the first book to express what mothers have always known: babies are born complete human beings with the ability to experience a full range of emotions. First published in 1974, it revolutionized the way we perceive the process of birth, urging us to consider the birth from the infant’s point of view. Why must a child emerge from the quiet darkness of the womb into a blaze of blinding light and loud voices? Why must an infant take its first breath in terror, hanging upside down as its vulnerable spine is jerked straight? Why must the infant be separated from its mother after spending nine months inside her nourishing body?

Examining alternatives to technocentric approaches to childbirth, this new edition of the classic text, complete with a new author preface, shows us how we can ease the transition from womb to world without trauma or fear. Birth without Violence illustrates how to create an environment of tranquillity in which to welcome our children: a relaxed mother, gentle lighting, soothing atmosphere, and a warm bath that mirrors the child’s prenatal surroundings. Dr. Leboyer’s simple techniques demonstrate how a birth without violence has far-reaching implications for improving the quality of human life physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“One of the twenty books that changed the world.” (Utne Reader)

“Birth without Violence is a work of art, and Frédérick Leboyer is the artist who will have the greatest influence on the health and way of life of the next generations.” (Michel Odent, M.D., author of Birth Reborn)

“Birth without Violence is a sensual experience, visually and verbally, as its poetic prose blends with the pictures like the unfolding of a happy dream. . . . The impact is strong, [Leboyer’s] appeal inviting.” (The Boston Globe ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 114 pages
• Publisher: Inner Traditions (September 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0892815450
• ISBN-13: 978-0892815456
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,994,152 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 50 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Pregnant or not, read this book ! April 16, 2005

By Daniel Brown

Format:Hardcover

A single 30 year-old male, I saw a small notice that Dr. LeBoyer was to give a talk about "birthing" to our comunity. Not at all interested in the subject,(geez I didn't even have a girlfriend!) I only went to see this guy because he had presided over 10,000 births! If he had done that many anythings(like knitted sweaters) I would probably also would have gone!

When he entered the room, I was surprised how short he was, and how handsome. I was moved by what he had to say. A year later I read the book and tears were streaming down my cheeks. Such was its profound truth and beauty. Never before or since has reading had this effect on me.

1979 I was the mid-wife for my daughter's birth, and followed the book's advice exactly. At thirty minutes old she was immersed in the water, her clenched fingers relaxed, the vernix disappeared,the wrinkled skin filled out, her whole body relaxed, she looked straight into my eyes and smiled!

Now this same daughter is pregnant with her first child and I am buying a copy of Leboyer's book for her.

I recommend this book to everyone, everywhere.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The ultimate in common sense, poetic beauty April 28, 2002

By Earl Hazell VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

This book is so full of common sense, compassion and beauty while still being founded upon simple yet so often unpracticed scientific priciples that is almost annoying to read. "How is it possible that we haven't been doing this for ten thousand years? How is it possible that we don't do this today as a matter of course?"; these will be just some of the first questions that will pop up in your mind. It is so clearly written and so important, that the attributes of this not just life-altering but culture-altering book about the first moments of life for a newborn child cannot be understated. It reads, and to a large degree is constructed, like great poetry--in much the same way the work of Galileo and Darwin and Alice Miller and Stephen Hawking read like epic poetic novels as they sing with human, universal truths.

One of the most beautiful things about this book is LeBoyer's confident, unashamed way of admitting that he merely observed a small, hidden community in India and their childbirthing practices. He discovered that their lives in this aspect, and those of their children, were a reflection of, according to Western medical principles, a scientific impossibility. With that discovery he saw the differences between the simplicity of nature, the imposed myopia of culture and the limitlessness of human potential--in an area of human life where he once unconsciously (like most of us) thought the three were essentially one and the same. He then allowed that to forever change his life. Consequently, given what he learned, he wrote this masterpiece (given its easy to digest structure, poetic/psychological tone and its overwhelming lack of antecedents), and changed ours. The cultural/philosophical and spiritual bridge from the West to the East he created by this approach to childbirthing is momumental in its implications, in a way most of the New Age literature of the past thirty plus years, including that of American writers who willingly reveal their Eastern philosophical inspiration, really just isn't.

This is a beautiful book. I have one wonderful son. If and when I have other children, this book charts how they will essentially come into the world and spend their first moments in it. I'll see to it.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I highly recommend this book to all expectant parents! April 23, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

Even though I went through a "normal" delivery, my husband and I utilized several of the principles that Dr. LeBoyer recommends in this book. The quietness and the bath automatically soothed our baby boy. The nurses were amazed at the calmness that enveloped our son as soon as he was placed into the bath. Please read this book and adapt its principles to your delivery.