Customer Reviews

Gentle Birth Method

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

 

 

I've read them all from What to Expect to Belly Laughs, from Pregnancy Sucks to Birthing from Within, and this book was the one that I will keep and share with others. It has some priceless information, beginning with avoiding wheat and sugar to prevent swelling and oversized babies that can cause c-sections. They have a great website also!

If you want to use this book you need to read it before you actually get pregnant. I am at the end of my second trimester and all of the rules in this book are overwhelming. I recommend the Husband-coached childbirth: The Bradley Method. I spoke with my midwife about this book,the gentle birth method, she pretty much told me to get rid of it. The only things I liked in the book were the massage methods and yoga positions. So, I give it one star for each of those things.

If I had gotten this book with my first preganacy my delivery would had been wonderful as my second pregnancy and delivery was. This book focuses on YOU the mother, it gives you the knowlege and power to have a beautiful preganacy I read them ALL and only this book made me feel strong and in power to defend my pregnancy from doctors that some times bully you into things that you do not want or you do not need. For people that are not use to holistic and natural medicine could be a little difficult to adapt or difficult to find the herbs and homeopathic remedies but if you really want to try this option search on line for the remedies and teas, you will find them and open your mind to a new experience.

This is my first ever review at Amazon. I do it because thanks to Dr. Motha I had such a beautiful, relaxing, and hassle-free pregnancy. I suffered no swelling or pain throughout, and had a light, bounciful attitude to the whole experience. Her visualizations helped me take away the fear of labor that has been hammered in our heads through scary movies and shows. Indeed, they helped me embrace every second of the experience.

Her nutritional guidelines allowed me to put just the weight I needed - no more. The belly massages were just amazing and I could feel Lucas responding to them inside the wound! I credit her method also with allowing me to remain extremely healthy when i needed to recover from unforseen post-labor hospitalizations.

Pregnancy is such a beautiful moment in a woman's life. Our bodies are amazing instruments and with the right care they will respond to provide us with a memorable experience. Any book/method that helps us remember this and helps us along the way should be considered. It brings necessary balance to the cacophony of fear and medical attitudes towards pregnancy. Remember, you are not sick, you are just pregnant!

A friend lent me this book and while there are some very useful things such as massage techniques, mind excercises, and yoga routines I found most of it to be not very helpful. The focus on diet is really just common sense (no refined sugars, wheat etc), but also often unnecessarily restrictive (i.e. no bananas or grapes!!). She also focuses too heavily on many many herbal remedies that are complicated and hard to source. I also assume Dr Mothi has no children of her own because she often lacks empathy for pregnant women and shuns comments like 'I was so sick, all I could stomach was toast' (welcome to the realities of morning sickness). The whole time I was reading the book I could not shake the feeling that it would all be my fault if I had a big baby, my labour went over 9 hours, or I needed medical interventions while Dr Motha would be tsk tsking in my brain. Phrases like 'conjested' and 'bloated' vaginas are really no better than the medical establishment using things such as 'failure to progress' in laying the blame of complicated childbirths on the mother.

If you are hoping for a natural childbirth I recommend other books such as 'Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way'. While it is still overtly political about medicalized births (I don't believe women should not be made to feel guilty for things not going to plan) this book is much more empowering in terms of the language used. It begins with the premise that we are capable of delivering babies naturally (even if it takes 24hours) and the book provides the mental and physical tools to help do this.