Customer Reviews

Prenatal Yoga & Natural Birth

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

 

 

Review of Prenatal Yoga & Natural Childbirth - Silver Anniversary edition
by: Jeannine Parvati Baker
by: Robin Lim

My copy arrived by mail. I felt the stork had dropped a bundle on my
doorstep. I so loved the first and later editions of Prenatal Yoga, and
was nervous to see how 'she' had matured.
First - the cover is delicious. Inside I found everything I always
loved about prenatal yoga. The photos. The YOGA. The stories. A poem I
treasure. Everything new in this book is ancient knowledge, wise words
which I as a woman need to read over and over again.
This book and I have a long 'herstory'. In 1975 to 76 I was a
pregnant teenager. My midwives in Santa Barbara loaned me their 1st
edition copy of Prenatal Yoga. I loved it so much that I bought one for
myself. Following Jeannine's simple instructions for centering and healing
my body through yoga, I achieved a blissful pregnancy, and an ecstatic
passage into motherhood.
I have always believed that, the quality of an expectant woman's fine level
of feeling during pregnancy, greatly influences the wholeness of the baby's
soul. Today, as I write, that first baby of mine, Déjà, is in
Johannesburg, South Africa. She is a U.N. delegate at the World Summit on
Sustainable Development. She is an advocate for human rights regarding
HIV/AIDS policies for the poor. Today I cannot help but wonder if the
quiet neck rolls, cat stretches, pythons, pelvic rocks and deep delicious
breathing I did, daily while she grew under my heart, had an effect.
The book Prenatal Yoga & Natural Childbirth, guided me through all
five pregnancies. I have lost this book so many times. Loaned it out,
given it away. Always when she comes home to me, I rejoice, and gobble up
each word.
As a midwife I plan to have many copies in my lending library. I do find
that the women I help who practice prenatal yoga, have smoother deliveries.
This makes my job less stressful. With the release of the silver
anniversary edition I am certain that the next generation of mothers and
their babies will be blessed. As a grandmother I intend to keep it on my
shelf forever.

While there are numerous books on yoga few, if any, provide details for prenatal yoga. When I was pregnant I wondered what postures I could still do and for how long. Then I found Prenatal Yoga. My concerns were immediately put to rest as I found wise guidance and plentiful visual examples for happily continuing my yoga practice. I felt assured and confident with the author's teachings and experiences, all of which eventually led to my own beautiful and successful natural home birth. Highly recommended!

I had been doing yoga on and off for years but when I became pregnant, I found that my body was in such turmoil, I wasn't sure if it was the right thing for me to continue. Then I read PRENATAL YOGA and realized that this was precisely what I did need. I began right away and found that many of my aches & pains subsided. My body once again became more flexible & my mind became more at ease. All around, I felt better. I think it even helped me with my birth. I just breathed my child out! A must read for anyone interested in having an easier pregnancy. Also the pictures are great!

My copy arrived by mail. I felt the stork had dropped a bundle on my doorstep. I so loved the first and later editions of Prenatal Yoga, and was nervous to see how 'she' had matured.
First - the cover is delicious. Inside I found everything I always loved about prenatal yoga. The photos. The YOGA. The stories. A poem I treasure. Everything new in this book is ancient knowledge, wise words which I as a woman need to read over and over again.
This book and I have a long 'herstory'. In 1975 to 76 I was a pregnant teenager. My midwives in Santa Barbara loaned me their 1st edition copy of Prenatal Yoga. I loved it so much that I bought one for myself. Following Jeannine's simple instructions for centering and healing my body through yoga, I achieved a blissful pregnancy, and an ecstatic passage into motherhood. I have always believed that, the quality of an expectant woman's fine level of feeling during pregnancy, greatly influences the wholeness of the
baby's
soul. Today, as I write, that first baby of mine, Déjà, is in
Johannesburg, South Africa. She is a U.N. delegate at the World Summit on Sustainable Development. She is an advocate for human rights regarding HIV/AIDS policies for the poor. Today I cannot help but wonder if the quiet neck rolls, cat stretches, pythons, pelvic rocks and deep delicious breathing I did, daily while she grew under my heart, had an effect.
The book Prenatal Yoga & Natural Childbirth, guided me through all five pregnancies. I have lost this book so many times. Loaned it out, given it away. Always when she comes home to me, I rejoice, and gobble up each word. As a midwife I plan to have many copies in my lending library. I do find that the women I help who practice prenatal yoga, have smoother
deliveries. This makes my job less stressful. With the release of the silver anniversary edition I am certain that the next generation of mothers and their babies will be blessed. As a grandmother I intend to keep it on my shelf forever.

Prenatal yoga is the perfect companion for a beautiful, conscious birth. Here is a book for women who embrace the true meaning of what yoga is: Union with the absolute. It is not merely a book of postures for improving common pregnancy discomforts, but a true guide to being a woman with child, in all that this encompasses: living in our bodies as in the temple of the Goddess and of the child to come, embodying the tremendous energy and power that are ours to reclaim through the initiations of pregnancy and childbirth. Along with potent asanas preparing women for the journey of childbirth and becoming aligned and established in their true selves, are the author's own odyssey and growth into motherhood.

This is a very personal book, both because Jeannine Parvati Baker invites us into her sacred space, and because she constantly invites us to find our own sacred space through the postures, conscious parenting decisions, and contemplation. It is a book to treasure and return to long after pregnancy, simply to steep in the sancticity of pregnancy. It is one of those gems of childbirth publications that makes you want to find a quiet space to relish being woman, and simply being.

In addition, Prenatal Yoga not only is an honest look at the state of birth in the modern world, but a relief from those books that anesthesize families into thinking everything will be just fine if only they choose the right doctor. Through the examples of Baker's six births, ranging from doctor assisted to finally a freebirth, waterbirth, lotus-birth, the book urges women to look within to find their truth. She narrates how her truth was to birth ecstatically with the Goddesses and her partner as sole support. It is a choice she presents as both accessible and responsible when well-prepared.

Finally, you will enjoy Prenatal Yoga for the quality of the prose, the vivid poetry, and beautiful photographs of the author and her growing family. A must-read!

I loved this book. When I read it I felt like someone out there was really in touch with the other side of birth, someone not afraid to live the ecstatic reality of creation in her own life as well as while giving birth.
I know in my bones that Jeannine Pavrati Baker is holding the space for the birth of a new/ancient reality that is of utmost importance in our times: Freebirth.
The gentle yoga is powerful and easy to follow. The birth stories are treasures I will read over and over.
I highly recomend this book.

Twenty-five years ago, as a young mother in my twenties, I cherished "Prental Yoga and Natural Birth" as by Best "Yoga" Friend throughout the Childbearing Mysteries.Today, as a grandmother, I wholewheartedly recommend this classic to any expectant mother seeking a timeless guide on the sacred journey through pregnancy and childbirth. Breathing, squatting, Shakti ~~ it's all still here! And the Progressive Relaxation process remains the most profound in its field. "Your participation in life's oldest ritual will be totally conscious, and yet you will retain non-attachment, the flow..."the author wrote way back in the 1970's~~~when no one else was "speaking that lamguage" for birthing women. Jeannine Parvati Baker and I have birthed and raised our families, side by side, over the years. And all along, I have honored this groundbreaking book as my Perennial Support Companion. "Prenatal Yoga and Natural Birth"deserves its next audience, among our daughters' generation! May these new mothers gain courage and inspiration from Parvati's Real Life Birth Stories and her stunning family photo album. Yes! All of this ~~~ and much more ~~~ lies between the covers of this latest edition of "Prenatal Yoga and Natural Birth." "Giving birth is initiation into women's mysteries," says the author, who has dedicated her life to midwifing other womeninto this most universal of initiations.

One of the most significant things to me about this guide to Yoga in pregnancy, is the incredible birth stories. Jeannine,the Author, offers the reader her experiences of birth, and they sure are inspiring! Pregnant women love to read about other women's births, its the way we learn best, telling each other our stories. The yoga is adapted perfectly to pregnancy and was in fact the first prenatal yoga book written in our modern age!Its a great book for pregnant women looking to really connect with the magic of pregnancy, I thoroughly recommend it.

As a midwife I keep reading and rereading this book. I just ove it. Any woman expecting a baby should have this book, to guide her. Thank heaven for Jeannine Parvati Baker and her wise words.

I have absolutely no reservations about recommending this revised edition of a classic! As a woman who has given birth, a mother who practices yoga, a doula, and a midwifery student, I wholeheartedly encourage women to read this book. Even if you do not have a yoga practice or intend to give birth at home, it is worth its weight in gold, just for the birth stories. It is so very important for women to have exposure to birth stories and images that will provide a contrast to the frenzy and chaos that is widely shown in/on popular media as being a normal part of the birth experience. Somehow, the truth that only an extremely small number of babies being birthed need anything AT ALL besides calm loving parents, a warm, dimly lit room, and the
perfect nourishment of their mother's breast is usually
forgotten. I applaud Jeannine and her family for being beautiful reminders of this fact.