Customer Reviews

Our Bodies Ourselves For The New Century (A Touchstone book)

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

When a friend bought me my first copy, I scoffed...until I desperately needed info one morning at 4 a.m.! This new edition is truly the most valuable, informative and comforting resource a woman can own. Like a 24-hr health helpline, it gives you complete, easy-to-understand info on even the smallest question you have about your body - often including "trade secrets" that many women have known and used for successfully years, but that doctors forego in lieu of relying solely on prescription meds. Written by women, OBOS not only tells you "what's normal" for most women's bodies, but also provides a quick guide to warning signs, technical terms, healthcare options - anything and everything you want to know when your body is at stake. Common cures; Herbal supplements; Preventative Care; Prescription drugs (and side effects); Support Groups; Diagrams; Photographs; Web sites ... it's all in here. And it's all about YOU.

A must for every woman. This book has been around for almost thirty years in one form or another, constantly expanded and updated. The present version, a dynamic combination of the old and the new, contains information we all need, and places our personal experiences with health care in a political context. What happens to you may be happening to others. You may have some new knowledge or insights. Use this book as a reference, and gather your friends together to discuss the subjects, adding your own stories, and band together to change adverse conditions. Women working together mean strength and accomplishment. You can keep the women's health movement alive. And remember, you don't have to be a "professional." The original authors of the book were guided by their passion and their will to change health and medical care for women. Good luck!

I read my first copy of this book at 14, and I don't know where I would be today without it. It taught me about birth control, sexually transmitted diseases and answered questions I had about my anatomy and emerging sexuality that I desperately needed to know, but didn't know who to ask. Every woman should have access to this book. I gave my little sister a copy for her 13th birthday. Providing her with such a wonderful wealth of information is the best gift I could ever give. I highly reccomend this book for woman of all ages, but especialy for those who are "comming of age". Who knows, it may even save her life.. It quite possibly saved mine.

This book helped me to learn not only the options available to me in certain health care situations, but let me feel comfortable requesting those options. It also gave information on how to be more aware of and comfortable with my own body. It is high on my gifts-to-give list this year.

Our Bodies Ourselves has helped my pregnant friends and I deal with their pregnancies and births as a positive natural process rather than as a disease requiring specialized intervention. Giving arguments for and against (and mostly against) many standard but unnecessary medical procedures and practices for pregnant women (that are perpetuated through an uninformed media) helped my friends choose good doctors and midwives to make their birth experience dignified. They know that they had the information to make the best decisions for themselves and their children whether the births were easy or traumatic.

As a heterosexual man, I learned so much about women in this book. Medical, sexual, racial, class, and political Our Bodies, Ourselves has it all. Reading level is very basic. This book should be a must read for any high school aged person, women and men alike. After reading this book, I discovered I was going about my conversations, relations, and sex with women all wrong. I used to be tense because of my lack of knowledge, but I find myself more at ease and more comfortable, less anxious.
I should have read this book fifteen years ago when my mother first suggested that I do so. Fifteen years later is better than never.

I have every edition of the book and have recommended it to my friends and family for 25 years!! It has only gotten better with age.

The book is strickly by women for women. Labor pains are not a theoretical concept in this group. These women know what they're talking about. The information is clearly presented and you can trust it. There is not doubt that the women speaking are political and have a point of view. You can skip reading the side bar discussions if left of center, feminist politics are not your thing (or you might read them and change your mind.) In either case, you need the medical and practical information. Personally, I found reading the personal thoughts of others in my situation was really helpful in dealing with my own feelings.

This book will empower you in dealing with any medical situation by giving you good information on anatomy, procedures, medications, side effects, etc. and will help you ask the right questions before anything is done to your body or that of your mother, daughter, sister, friend, and in some areas, the men in your life as well.

I had to use an edition of this book for a women's studies class in my freshman year of college. That class turned out to be one of the best things I ever did for myself, and the things I learned really gave me the help I needed to get through my first experiences as an independent person. I used this book to answer a lot of questions, and so did my friends. Not just about sexual health, but about nutrition, relationships, biology, and all the other things we deal with every day. I can't tell you how many important, personal conversations were centered around it. It helped us become much more informed about, and comfortable with, our bodies, which is very important for young women. It's definitely worth having in your home library, especially if you have daughters. It could help with all those awkward conversations parents need to have with their kids. It's very accessible, guys might want to read it too if they're curious about what's going on with us.

The Boston Women's Health Book Collective has done a fabulous job at bringing together important information for both women and men. Most likely, you won't read this straight through, but rather pick the sections pertinent to your current situation. No matter which chapter chosen, however, you'll be exposed to information that will help you make the best decision about your body. I especially enjoyed the chapters on pregnancy and childbirth, which dispel the currently held belief that births are complicated, messy procedures that must take place in a hospital.

Our Bodies, Ourselves takes a decidedly leftist bent, but is committed to showing men and women every option available for a healthy body and mind. If you're interested in learning about less accepted and holistic methods of health care, this is an indisposable reference.

I first read Our Bodies Ourselves in 1974 when the youngest of my three daughters was five. When they became teenagers, each one received her own copy. I teach in a community college with a culturally diverse population. Through the years I have recommended it to all my female students: those who come into my office seeking advice and those in my women's studies class. It is a must for every woman, regardless of their age or ethnic background. I keep buying the updated versions for myself.

"Our Bodies, Ourselves" is a classic in its own right -rather ironic for a book that's on the cutting edge of health politics. Sister, if you can't buy this, find a decent library and in any case having read it, you'll be better informed about both your body and your society.
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