Customer Reviews

Pregnancy & Childbirth Secrets

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I recently had an Open House for my business, Life Song Perinatal Services, and had a chance to show off my chosen class text, "Pregnancy & Childbirth Secrets" by Gail Dahl. This is a wonderful book; she included so many great articles, the kind I normally have clipped out or copied out of journals and saved in my teaching stack. Anyway, I love the book, and was thrilled to find it. I had this book out for all to see - it was a wonderful gathering of midwives, childbirth educators, doulas, past class participants and mommas - and the book had resounding reviews. I just really appreciate all Gail's "straight-talk" re: epidural anesthesia and its mother baby effects, induction, cesarean. She also talks about Optimal Fetal Positioning, comfort measures, positions for birth, connecting with your baby while en utero, etc. She is a true Birthkeeper and believer of sacred, normal, physiological birth. It was beautifully written. In addition, I enjoyed all the "gray boxes" which captured some of the "best of" articles by so many birth gurus, including Michel Odent MD, Gloria Lemay,Penny Simkin, Jean Sutton, Sheila Kitzinger MD, Ina May Gaskin, Mardsen Wagner MD, Dr. Thomas Verny, CIMS and WHO recommendations, to name a few. Wonderful! Thank you, Gail, for writing such a book, and for compiling this excellent resource. I look forward to sharing it with my students. It is just what I was looking for in a childbirth class book.
-- Mary Burgess, Life Song Perinatal Services, Bellingham, WA.

Pregnancy & Childbirth Secrets provides parents with practical and compassionate tools for a safe, normal, birthing experience, from conception through the magnificence of birth and bonding to the precious first days, months, and years of a baby's life. Gail Dahl offers positive parenting suggestions that will help a parent get the most out of the incredibly empowering, ecstatic experience of creating, birthing, and parenting a precious baby. This is the book grandparents wish we'd had!

Marilyn Fayre Milos, RN, Executive Director, National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers (NOCIRC)Doctors Re-examine Circumcision

Gail Dahl has researched and gathered information that makes pregancy a gentle, soft, safe experience. In this day of information it is amazing to me that mothers must still search and hunt for what is needed to bring a mother and baby safely through the amazing experience called BIRTH. Gail's dedication to bring healthy happy babies into this world makes her a pioneer in her field. Thank you Gail, I so appreciate your committment.
Jollean Sandwell-Schantz

I read several books before I had my son and this was by far my favorite. I really wanted a natural childbirth and I credit my easy, beautiful labor in part to this book. I read the final chapters over and over again before giving birth and this gave me to confidence to go into my labor with excitement. It also encouraged me to write a birth plan to make sure I got exactly what I wanted and I was very glad I did. I never once thought of asking for drugs and was never offered them. I also progressed very quickly and I think one of the main reasons was because I included that I did not want to be checked or bothered until I was ready to give birth (as discussed in the book). It is a great read for any one who wants a drug free birth for their baby.

Thanks Gail for giving us the insight into what childbirth should really be.
Salli Gonzalez, Licensed Midwife
San Antonio, TX

This book has a lot of great information in it. I love that it includes information from The Coalition for Improving Maternity Services (CIMS), like "Ten Steps of the Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative" and "Problems and Hazards of Induction of Labor." However, it reads like a hodgepodge of scattered ideas with no clear topical categories.

The chapters are titled by gestational month (First Month, Second Month, etc.), yet many subjects covered really have nothing to do with that particular month. For example, "Choosing Your Health Team" is in First Month, yet "Midwives" and "Doulas" are in Second Month, while "The Wise Woman" (a section on why many women are choosing midwives) and "Chiropractic Care and Pregnancy" are in Fifth Month. Those all sound like they belong together to me.

Or again, why does Eighth Month include sections about breastfeeding (when Chapter 13 is all about breastfeeding), Childcare, Siblings, Planning a Waterbirth, and Natural Remedies for Yeast Infections. Huh??

Each chapter also has a section titled, "What You Need To Know Before You Have Your Baby" with random information about labor and delivery included in it. This seems odd to me when Chapter 11 is titled, "Secrets to Having a Safe and Gentle Labor and Delivery" and seems like just the place for ALL that information!

After reading through this book I felt a bit confused by all the little chunks of information scattered throughout the chapters in random paragraphs. It's too unplanned and haphazard to be a good reference book on pregnancy and childbirth, despite the fact that most of the information is great.

I would recommend a well-organized, clearly laid-out, systematic book like "Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Newborn: The Complete Guide" by Penny Simkin or "the Pregnancy Book" and "The Birth Book" by William and Martha Sears.