Customer Reviews

Cesarean Section: Understanding and Celebrating Your Baby's Birth (A Johns Hopkins Press Health Book)

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

 

 

I found this book really good and helpful. I read it overseas when I was about to try for a vaginal birth after my first Csection (VBAC) The authors explained everything that was involved and how the main thing is to have a healthy baby, that was very reassuring. In the end I had another C but felt I had done my best. It is full of information about going home after a C, how to cope, getting over the surgery that I wished I had known the first time, and it does talk about painful scars. I recommend it to anyone who has had or might have a Csection. Queenie

I am the mum on the cover. I was approached to have the photos when I was due with my 3rd child. If I had this book when I had my first child I would have been more prepared for the let down I suffered from not being able to deliver my child naturally. I feel that this should be part of any childbirth class. Too little focus is put on C-Sections. Being unprepared for them is a very daunting experience that I would hate for anyone to go through.

By the way, baby and mother are doing fine here down under.

This is a very good book with an excellent examination of the whys and hows of C-sections. I'm recommending this one for the library at my birth center because it's very helpful in presenting medical information to a layman audience without talking down to them, and it even helped me understand my medical record. While I believe my C was necessary for the health of the child (whether or not I should have been induced is another issue) and I did not have any depression about it, I really liked that the authors want people to understand what happened to them and to hopefully receive some peace about having had a C if they have feelings of failure.

We are happy to agree with Rfolger. Cesareans should be for medical indications and that is exactly what we say in the book. Our figures are also close to his/hers. However there are also some women who having considered the options request the operation without major medical indications - that is a matter for them and their doctors, like everything else in a woman's decisions about her reproductive functions.Our aim is to provide sensible accurate information to women who have already had a Csection or face the prospect of having one. Not every woman can safely have a vaginal birth and no woman should end up feeling bad about her birth method because she had a Csection.Caroline de Costa

You couldn't ask for a better look at "surgical birth", as the authors call it. While this is quite a thin book, it adequately covers everything an expectant mother needs to know. Chapters include "Why are Cesarean Sections Performed?", "A Brief History of Cesarean Section", "What Happens in Cesarean Section and Who Performs the Surgery", "Considering the Risks of Cesarean Section" as well as discussions of recovery, postpartum depression, and contraception choices. This book takes the hype and argument out of C-sections. I've read several of the "big" books of childbirth, and none of them covered Cesareans as completely and honestly as this one.

This is a phenomenal book about an issue that is obviously important to many current and soon-to-be mothers. Making the decision to give birth with a c-section is not something to be taken lightly, nor is it one that can be made by anybody other than the mother and doctor. I'm writing this as a husband and father who is about to help -- in as much as I can -- his wife give birth again. My wife was sharing some of the negative reviews of this book earlier, and I had to put my thoughts down. My purpose here is two-fold: to endorse this book and to also counteract the unnecessarily personal attacks of the few negative reviews.

First, this book. We read through it in the library last night and were awe-struck at the fact that there was finally an objective description of what a c-section is, how and why it's done, and any complications that may arise. Our first was born 10 years ago through emergency c-section after 17 hours of what can only be described as Herculean labor. He wasn't dropping, but my wife was fully dilated and experience chart-breaking contractions. Induction could have either harmed him or her, so we opted for the operation. We thought we had failed in our quest for the perfect birth. Even though he's awesome, healthy, and both he and my wife came out shiny, we thought we had failed. If this book was around at that time, perhaps we would not have been living in guilt all this time.

Secondly, to those of you who seem to think that a negative review of this book is the same as a slam against women who choose c-sections. Who do you think you are? The whole purpose of feminism and equal rights is to allow all people -- male and female -- the right to make their own decisions in their own way. This book is a tool in that decision-making process, and as a tool it is a really good one.

Maybe your objections are to the perception that doctors push for cesareans more than they should. If that's the case, then aim your vitriol at those doctors, not at the women who are being pushed. Perhaps your objections are based on the idea that you feel there isn't enough objective information out there for a woman to make a good decision. If so, then help provide that information. Don't you dare, however, spend your time simply mouthing off with your own possibly ill-conceived and misunderstood ideas about what's "right" and "wrong". Especially don't do that if you think you're a proponent of equal rights, because what you're doing is what the original feminists were fighting against. We did not fail because we went through a c-section the first time, nor are we bad parents because of it. If this time through we are faced with a similar situation, it will again be no reflection on the success or failure of the birth.

My wife found the book to be not only informative but a joy to read. The personal style, clear language, and tendency to speak to the reader as though she were an intelligent person were welcome and -- frankly -- all to rare in books like this. This book does the one thing right that is -- in my view -- the most important thing during pregnancy: provide the necessary information and support a woman needs for making the right decision for herself.

I was looking for a book that would tell me more than just the politically correct viewpoint of c-sections, and I found it in this one. The information on recovery was particularly good. Even though it didn't cover the reason for my c-section (cord presentation), or what one of my best friends experienced during her delivery (vasa previa), I felt it did give me plenty of information about other reasons a c-section might be used.

Best of all, it didn't give the usual "sorry about that, honey....maybe next time you can have a VBAC and finally be a REAL woman" tone when it came to discussions about what could happen with subsequent births. That alone made it a must-read for anyone recovering from the procedure.

In November, 2004, my wife and I had our first baby. We were told in October that the baby would need to be born by a cesarean and we were terrified. Fortunately, a friend recommended this book and it gave us all the information that we needed and did this in a non-scary way. I wish we had read it earlier in the pregnancy so that we would have been better prepared for the things that can happen. Our baby is healthy and beautiful and we are very happy that all went well.

As a mother who had a cesarean with her first child, I wanted to be fully informed as I try to make the decision between a repeat cesarean and a VBAC. I *wish* I had read this book before I went into labor with #1!

First of all, I don't think that the book at all leans toward anything but preparing moms for something that can happen to all of us. And they're quite realistic by saying that nearly 25% of all US births are cesareans, so it's better to be prepared for the possibility than to not be prepared. This book is designed to give you the tools you'll need to prepare for said possibility.

I so wish I'd read this before my first child was born, but like most of us, I didn't think that it could happen to me. I love that it gives you possible reasons for having one in a very non-judgemental way. C-sections are stressful enough to contemplate, especially stressful if you have to have one, and this book emphasizes that it's no one's fault if you end up being a c-section mom. It tells you how to deal with recovery and emphasizes that having a problem that leads to a cesarean doesn't mean that you're less of a woman. It's just another way to give birth.

I especially enjoyed the sections on getting yourself back in shape after a c-section. I had no idea that a cesarean would affect my abs the way that it has, and I didn't know how to get them back. This book outlines an abdominal exercise routine to start after a cesarean, although I think it can be used after a vaginal birth, too.

I still haven't made my final decision, but I wanted to be a bit more informed about both options. I found that too many VBAC proponents try to make you feel that cesareans are the work of Satan, and I just didn't feel that way after they prevented my daughter from being injured by a vaginal birth when it was discovered (just as they were about to tell me to start pushing) that she was a footling breech. The book actually says to keep an open mind about VBAC and gives you examples of both successful and unsuccessful VBACs. I think that it's fair to tell women that it might not work out if they decide to try for one, since only 60-80% of attempted VBACs are successful. Meaning that 20-40% aren't and that you need to consider that, even if you're trying for and really want a VBAC, you might not get what you want.

I had a c-section with my first and am going to attempt a vbac this time. I thought the book had good information on what to expect in a c-section, why to have one and some good points. It is clear that they swing to the surgical birth side, but so what, there facts are correct and there are way more books out there that tote the no pain meds, natural birth process ect. So it is kind of good to have a book out there that stands up for women who have had to have c-sections. Because truthfully when you are in the hospital and faced with the decision, you don't have the time or mental capacities to sit there and ask 5000 questions, you just want a safe, healthy baby and that is what the book says too. It could go into vbacs more as they are becoming more popular and studies show that they are safe and can be successful and so on, but I don't think that is the authors goal.