Mother's Intention: How Belief Shapes Birth - A Commonsense Guide to Safe, Comfortable, Guilt-Free Birth in Five Simple Steps [Paperback]

Kim Wildner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2003

Is guilt-free, drug-free, pain free birth possible? Whether your goal is comfort or empowerment, this book is your guide to better birth.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...I highly recommend this book for all my patients, all women contemplating pregnancy, and all obstetrical medical providers." -- Lorne R. Campbell Sr., M.D., Associate Professor, Dept. of Family Medicine, State University of NY Buffalo Scholl of Medicine

"...It is a must read!" -- Marie F. Mongan, Founder-HypnoBirthing(R) Institute

"...You will have a new outlook on life and birth when you are done with this book." -- Dee Nipper, Producer and Host of The Real Side of Birth Radio Show and San Diego Birth Planners

"If everyone were to read this book...(birth)would no longer be feared. It would be anticipated with joy..." -- Lynette Prentice, A.A.H.C.C. Birth Instructor and mother of three

From the Publisher

Thousands of women are having fairytale births. If you'd like to be Cinderella, you have to know what they know and do what they do.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Harbor & Hill Publishing (August 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0974287601
• ISBN-13: 978-0974287607
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #217,596 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Don't waste your time, May 19, 2007

By 

Leigh "Mom of two girls" (Miami, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mother's Intention: How Belief Shapes Birth - A Commonsense Guide to Safe, Comfortable, Guilt-Free Birth in Five Simple Steps (Paperback)

There are many well-written, persuasive books on how to have a great birth. This is sadly not even close. What you have here is a rambling, punctuationally challenged, poorly written, typo-ridden excuse for a book. There is one excellent point made (thus 2 stars given), which I will summarize here to save you the trouble of reading this book: If you are pregnant and you want to be one of the ones talking about how great your birth was, do what the people who rave about their births do: hire a good midwife, take Hypnobirthing classes, and have a homebirth. If you want to be one of the women with a horror story to tell, do what the women who tell horror stories do: hire an ob (surgeon), take no classes or only the hospital-offered ones, and go to the hospital. There. That is the ONLY thing worth reading from this book, and I've given it to you fast and free. Now go on to read a really excellent book about birth, like something from Henci Goer.

22 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars What a horrible book!, January 22, 2006

By 

M. Cain "maggiecain" (Glendale, WI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mother's Intention: How Belief Shapes Birth - A Commonsense Guide to Safe, Comfortable, Guilt-Free Birth in Five Simple Steps (Paperback)

I am pregnant and want a home birth using hypnosis, both of which this author is very enthusiastic about. I was looking forward to a positive, informative book about the wonders and benefits of natural birth, and instead was treated to the longest rambling rant I've ever had the displeasure of reading. I'll admit, I only made it to page 178 before I gave up. The entire first section was this stream of consciousness explosion of raving against OBs, parents who smoke, women who work after their children are born, and this imaginary and yet (in her opinion) large portion of women who schedule unnecessary C-sections so they can plan the day their baby will be born.

The problem isn't that what she says is untrue, it's just that she says is in such a bitter, angry judgmental way. For example, on page 149 there is a section called Skillful Midwifery. I thought, "Finally, a break in the invective for a calm, peaceful positive section on midwives and the many benefits they offer." Well, that was less than a page long. Then she spent 2 pages setting up a scenario with a mother-to-be who smokes and lies about it to the nmidwife and also lies about seeing a traditional OB, and when the midwife drops her a as a client she ends up delivering in a hospital with major complications. Then, the doctors in the community ostracize the midwife, refusing to give her any medical care when she is in need of it. It's just a paranoid, self-serving horrible story, and such a disappointment when I wanted to read something nice for a change.

The author is just so snippy and superior. The book starts out not with a wonderful peaceful explanation of a good birthing experience, but with dictionary definitions of the words like "biased" and "judgmental" (and I mean actual copied dictionary definitions, like we never graduated from gradeschool) and a lengthy explanation of why she isn't any of those things. Defensive much?!? I'm clearly not the first person to think this way about her. She calls women who prefer hospital births "sad" (page 169) - I mean really, I learned not to call people names in kindergarden. She is pulling people onto the guilt train, making them feel inferior if they aren't like her and ridiculing others. It was just so unpleasant to read.

There are so many positive birth books out there that say the same things but in a nice, non-insulting way, please read one of them instead! Try Birth without violence by Frederick Leboyer. And also, try the HypnoBabies self-hypnosis course, it takes a wonderful, gentle and peaceful approach to childbirth education.

PS. On a more picky note, she repeats herself constantly. For example, she has quotes in boxes off to the side, and quotes the same traditional Iriquois nation saying 3 times (possibly more, as I said I didn't finish the book). There are typos and grammatical errors as well. She needs a good editor.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A little overwrought, sort of elementary if you're already a convert, October 3, 2005

By 

High Expectations (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mother's Intention: How Belief Shapes Birth - A Commonsense Guide to Safe, Comfortable, Guilt-Free Birth in Five Simple Steps (Paperback)

If you are someone just coming to the idea that natural childbirth is best, its an important work (thus the 4 stars).

I appreciated the intentions of this book, but it was not my bag stylistically. I already think natural/home childbirth is probably ideal (haven't done it yet)--and that a woman's intentions and psychology play a central role, so a lot of this book was kind of elementary to me. I didn't need the effusive justifications and hand-holding to get past the OB paradigm. This may be nitpicking, but it did get in my way: I am also a voracious high-level reader and thought the writing could have used more polish.