Customer Reviews

Childbirth without Fear: The Principles and Practice of Natural Childbirth (Import)

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book describes why and how all women can and should go through pregnancy, labor, childbirth, and all of their reproductive functions without fear or pain, but rather in joy. While acknowledging the hard work and courage involved, the author (Grantly Dick-Read, by the way- only the forward is by Michel Odent) writes to help women understand what is happening in their bodies as they make their babies.

The Philosophy of the Book
What I love about this book is that the author continually re-emphasizes his faith in women, and his belief that all women are strong enough to successfully bear healthy, happy children and that this is one of their great purposes and one of the great joys of humankind.

Above all the author seems to have used his common sense when writing. He respects the common sense and experience (though not always supersitions) of ordinary women around the world, especially those who have successfully borne children happily and without pain or fear. I love that he points out that no male OBGYN has never actually done this- though being a doctor himself he does respect medical science for what it can provide.

The book has a healthy respect of religion and Dr. Dick-Read includes an entire chapter on the curse of pain on Eve and the translation of the Bible on this particular point. Humanists can skip this chapter if they don't care and I think they will find the book very inspiring from the humanist/naturalist point of view. A number of times I felt like there should be a Walt Whitman poem inserted at the beginning or end of a chapter.

Informative
It contains sections on psychological preparationg for childbirth, good nutrition, how to prepare physically for labor, pregnancy, childbirth and related issues around the world and in modern society, breastfeeding, and other related topics. There are a number of stories of happy, healthy deliveries.

Not a Reference Book
The book is not a reference book. It has a number of benefits (including the force of a well-argued essay that will help to convince people with lingering fears) that reference books do not, and there IS an index. However if you want a reference book you would want to get that in addition to this.

Old Fashioned Style?
Some commented that the style is old-fashioned. I would just emphasize that this only refers to the *style* (think: C.S. Lewis or Bertrand Russell), and not the vocabulary. The book is obviously targeted at the general population and there are not a lot of fancy words.

I am seven months pregnant and I am so happy to have found this book. It's alleviated so many of my fears and given me so much solid information. I would recommend it to all pregnant women, even if they think they can't finish the whole book before they give birth, and to their husbands.

I read an earlier edition of Grantly Dick-Read's book and it was extremely enlightening for me. I had taken the Bradley Childbirth classes in preparation for the birth of my first baby and, unfortunately forgot everything I had been taught as soon as labor started. When I got pregnant with number 2, I decided to prepare a little better. Upon the suggestion of a friend, I read "Childbirth without Fear" and that, combined with hiring a doula and learning self hypnosis techniques (hypbirth.com) made for a very easy, quick (less than 6 hours from 1st contraction to delivery) labor. Get this book!!!

I have to admit that there were times that this book made me giggle simply because its age dates it and there were times that I felt that he was far too repetitive. That said, however, the ideas in this book are incredibly powerful. I was one of those people who wanted a natural birth but didn't want to spend a lot of money on classes and didn't get around to practicing much with the exercizes we learned in the hospital lamaze class (or the ones in this book, for that matter). It was the ideas in this book, in particular those concerning the fear-tension-pain cycle, that got me through what turned out to be an easy, unmedicated birth. I am firmly convinced that it was the relaxation that Dr. Dick-Reed recommended that made my labor both relatively easy and quick.

In my opinion, everyone, especially future moms and dads, should read this book. God put this book in my path during my pregnancy, and my husband and I prepared for the birth according to Dick Read (except for the outdated nutritional suggestions). We had a wonderful birth, and I suffered no pain. There was only a few contractions at the end of the first phase of the birth where I felt overwhelmed and I got scared - Dick Read actually mentions this in his book, and had I remembered, I would not have gotten scared, and it would not have felt so overwhelming. Our baby was born naturally, without pain relief, without pain, and without complications. It was hard work though, but the book mentions that as well. One big factor is faith. Without God, I would not have found this book at the right time, nor would I have been able to fend off the fear that attacks from every side (especially other women!), nor hang on during the birth. If anyone wants to know more about our preparation or birth, [...]

I read this book between my first and second babies over 20 years ago. I had a normal amount of pain with my first child, but no pain and no fear with the second one. IT IS POSSIBLE! I had a completely natural birth with each baby. I only wish I had read it before my first child! I would encourage any woman to read this wonderful book!

The key for me was simply allowing myself to believe that painless childbirth was possible. This is harder than it sounds. I had heard so many stories about how frightening and painful childbirth was, but none about how wonderful it can be. It is a completely natural process, and I just needed to hear that and embrace it.

Admittedly the book is a little tougher than some to get through due to the style of writing. Please stick with it. If you read with an open mind it can make a big difference for you.

Best wishes!

While in the Navy back 1990, I was told I could never deliver normally due to my small hip size. The combination of a good midwife and this book changed my course of life. Instead of checking out the cesarean books from the military library like I had been, I checked this book out and learned how to have a natural birth. It affected me so that I began teaching natural childbirth classes and became a doula/doula trainer, and ultimately wrote the book Christ Centered Childbirth of which the foundation is based on the principles in Dr. Dick-Reed's book. (Even dedicated my book to him!) Get this book if you want to have an easier birth, the birth God intended!

I found this deeply spiritual book used in local book store when I was pregnant with my daughter and was capivated with it from the very first chapter. I defines the history of our fears and helps us redefine a new conclusion with practical meditations and understanding. I applied the simple principles during deliverly and had an amazing experience in the birth my daughter. Not everyone will get it but those who do will be profoundly inspired.

This book was written in the 1940s by Dr. Grantly Dick-Read, a British obstetrician. He had a few experiences of watching women with pain-free childbirths and became obsessed with finding out why some women experience pain in labor and others don't. His conclusion? It's fear.

This book thoroughly describes how fear actually causes pain and hinders labor. It also provides you with infomation that will hopefully reduce your own fears, and with exercises to help you prepare for labor.

I really like the tone of this book. Dr. Dick-Read sounds genuinely excited about his discovery and what it could mean if doctors and women took the principles to heart. It's amazing to me that he wrote it so long ago, and yet it's still relevant today.

This is an excellent book - but if I'd had a chance to leaf through it beforehand, I probably wouldn't have bought it. It's a fascinating social commentary on how birth used to be (first edition was written in 1944 and this is the 1952 revision), but if you're looking for practical advice, it's pretty thin on the ground. His writing style is old-fashioned and therefore quite hard to trawl through compared to today's more snappy, conversational books. He spends a lot of time in "defensive" mode, explaining and re-explaining concepts and ideas that were probably very new and challenging at the time, but are pretty easy to accept for the modern reader, and it's tedious to spend five or six chapters getting across a few simple ideas. Also, it seems aimed more at the medical student than the mother-to-be (which probably accounts for the dry tone). The last two chapters have some useful information on relaxation techniques and some (very dated-looking) exercises, but for the most part Dick-Read talks around the subject giving you a lot of background and not a lot of substance. I'm glad I read it, but I'd rather have taken it out of the library than bought it.

Obviously many people who are proponents of natural childbirth have read and loved this book. It was because of them that I bought and read it. (It has quite an impressive list of reviewer comments on the back jacket.)

I am a Bradley-trained mother-to-be and plan to deliver naturally, and have read several recommended resources to help prepare for this experience which I am very excited about. This book was one such recommended resource, but I think that while it was very interesting and I liked the message that he had, I would have found a lot more value in it had I been a class instructor, midwife, someone unconvinced about natural childbirth, etc. vs. an individual already on-board with natural childbirth philosophy who's looking for practical guidance for my own birth experience. (For anyone who's interested in other suggestions, my husband and I found Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way to be the most helpful resource we read.)

Pros: eloquently written, sensible and heartfelt appeal to the medical community to not interfere with what doesn't need interference, philosophy believes in the inherent strength, grace, and capacity of women, challenges assumptions about experiencing pain in labor/interpreting strong sensations as pain, challenges blanket dispensing of pain relief in labor and points out there's no way it won't affect the baby at some level

Cons: modern context needs a lot of translating - not medically current (eg - includes exercises for pregnant women that include lying on one's back), written ABOUT women instead of FOR them - this seems like a manual or series of articles that were written for the benefit of his contemporary peers, a bit all-or-nothing: if a woman experiences anything uncomfortable in pregnancy or labor & delivery it is because neuroses have been planted in her and she has been deprived of the proper education to overcome them (eg - morning sickness, labor pains - anyone who is properly enlightened should not experience these and other common complaints), pooh-poohs techniques that others claim work (eg hypnosis) and goes to great length to describe why he doesn't think those ways should work (ironically hypocritical much? :-) )

Not a bad read, but if I had it to do over I'd personally skip it.