If you want to learn how best to help an expectant mother have a happy and healthy childbirth, The Birth Partner, Third Edition is the only book you'll need. For almost 20 years, husbands, partners, friends, relatives, and doulas have turned to this book for guidance on being a supportive partner in the delivery room. The expanded third edition includes the most up-to-date information about techniques, devices, and medications for easing labor pain; tests and treatments of the fetus and newborn; strategies to help labor progress; potential medical procedures and interventions; and how best to help the mother during the early days after the birth. And, with its easy-to-use format and new illustrations, the The Birth Partner is the essential guide have on hand in the delivery room.
The Birth Partner, Third Edition
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Editorial Reviews
Review
The Birth Partner is the ultimate guide for mothers, birth coaches, and doulas. There is nothing else so complete, well balanced, and reassuring. --Kathleen Huggins, author of The Nursing Mother's Companion and The Expectant Parents' Companion
Destined to become the birth partner's bible, [this] book provides the answer to many a labor coach's prayer in a comprehensive yet easily referenced fashion. --Marian Thompson, co-founder of La Leche League International
Destined to become the birth partner's bible, [this] book provides the answer to many a labor coach's prayer in a comprehensive yet easily referenced fashion. --Marian Thompson, co-founder of La Leche League International
About the Author
Penny Simkin is a physical therapist, doula trainer, and a nationally renowned authority on childbirth. She is co-founder of Pacific Association for Labor Support and of DONA International (formerly Doulas of North America).
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More About the Author
Penny Simkin is a physical therapist who has specialized in childbirth education since 1968. She serves on the editorial board for Birth: Issues in Perinatal Care and the consultant boards for the International Childbirth Education Association and the Seattle Midwifery School.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
177 of 179 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
For first-time parents, giving birth to your little bundle of joy can be nerve-wracking. There is so much you don't know! And not-knowing can be a nasty breeding ground for fear. My wife and I are first-time parents, and while we weren't scared to death, we certainly wanted to know what we were headed towards. Knowing is half the battle, right? Because of how much there is to know, we even thought about hiring a doula (birth coach). Luckily, we found this book...373 pages of confidence-building.
THE BIRTH PARTNER is broken into 4 parts:
1) Before the Birth
This section is largely just introduction to the concept of pregnancy. It contains some good lists to remind you what to prepare to take to the hospital. Probably the most important stuff was on Kegel exercises and the Perineal massage. Oh yeah, and make sure to compile a list of friends and family to call or have someone call.
2) Labor and Birth
This section has crucial information about the pre-labor process, the signs of labor, the "bag of waters" breaking, false vs. true labor, timing contractions (there's a great chart to make copies of), and breeched babies. Her breakdown of the 3 stages of labor is especially helpful.
For those parents attempting a natural birth, she details the 5-1-1 rule for contractions, so you know when to head to the hospital. She walks you through a ton of strategic labor positions to use to relieve pain and allow gravity to do its work toward birthing the baby (these assume you haven't had an epidural...there's a whole section on epidurals and anesthesia).
She gives advice for the birth partner's role -- from leading her through breathing routines and rituals to knowing how to work with and sometimes against the doctors, depending on what they're saying. Fast labors, slow labors, irregular labors...they're all in here.
3) The Medical Side of Childbirth
Medicine, drugs, shots, tests, interventions and all that good stuff. To epidural or not to epidural? And what about Cesarean sections? It's all in here. Helpful information to keep you sane and in the loop. It's amazing what the doctors won't tell you unless you ask. Remember, it's a business.
4) After the Birth
Cleaning the baby, shots, warming, breastfeeding, postpartum depression and how to deal with it...what happens after the birth is almost nearly as important as the before and the during.
THE FINAL TAKE
This book is a mental lifesaver. Whether you're heading into the birth with complete trust of the doctors and the medical system or with a healthy (or unhealthy) bit of logical skepticism, there is a wealth of essential knowledge in here about what to look for, what to know, and what to ask about. You won't regret reading this book. It's concise and detailed in the all the right places and is clear enough that you know exactly what she's talking about. I'm a first-time, thinking-man's father-to-be, and I sure feel more prepared after reading it. After all, it's just my baby we're talking about here.
--- Reviewed by Jonathan Stephens
THE BIRTH PARTNER is broken into 4 parts:
1) Before the Birth
This section is largely just introduction to the concept of pregnancy. It contains some good lists to remind you what to prepare to take to the hospital. Probably the most important stuff was on Kegel exercises and the Perineal massage. Oh yeah, and make sure to compile a list of friends and family to call or have someone call.
2) Labor and Birth
This section has crucial information about the pre-labor process, the signs of labor, the "bag of waters" breaking, false vs. true labor, timing contractions (there's a great chart to make copies of), and breeched babies. Her breakdown of the 3 stages of labor is especially helpful.
For those parents attempting a natural birth, she details the 5-1-1 rule for contractions, so you know when to head to the hospital. She walks you through a ton of strategic labor positions to use to relieve pain and allow gravity to do its work toward birthing the baby (these assume you haven't had an epidural...there's a whole section on epidurals and anesthesia).
She gives advice for the birth partner's role -- from leading her through breathing routines and rituals to knowing how to work with and sometimes against the doctors, depending on what they're saying. Fast labors, slow labors, irregular labors...they're all in here.
3) The Medical Side of Childbirth
Medicine, drugs, shots, tests, interventions and all that good stuff. To epidural or not to epidural? And what about Cesarean sections? It's all in here. Helpful information to keep you sane and in the loop. It's amazing what the doctors won't tell you unless you ask. Remember, it's a business.
4) After the Birth
Cleaning the baby, shots, warming, breastfeeding, postpartum depression and how to deal with it...what happens after the birth is almost nearly as important as the before and the during.
THE FINAL TAKE
This book is a mental lifesaver. Whether you're heading into the birth with complete trust of the doctors and the medical system or with a healthy (or unhealthy) bit of logical skepticism, there is a wealth of essential knowledge in here about what to look for, what to know, and what to ask about. You won't regret reading this book. It's concise and detailed in the all the right places and is clear enough that you know exactly what she's talking about. I'm a first-time, thinking-man's father-to-be, and I sure feel more prepared after reading it. After all, it's just my baby we're talking about here.
--- Reviewed by Jonathan Stephens
54 of 54 people found the following review helpful
By Julia Ziobro
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Penny Simkin's first edition of this book was really helpful to me in my last pregnancy, and this edition is even better. Updated with modern information, my husband is finding it a great tool as I prepare for my third birth and he gets ready for his first homebirth... his daughter was born in a horrible hospital birth so he's really having to adjust his thinking.
He was worried that this book was going to be dry and boring but he hasn't put it down yet. :-) It has enough technical information to keep his "science mind" occupied, and the writing tone is friendly and accessible. He is realizing with the help of this book that he can be an active participant in this birth and that he can really help me by protecting me and making conditions ideal for me to do the work of birthing... this is in stark contrast to the very passive role that he was encouraged to take last time, and how helpless he felt in terms of being able to help his ex-wife as she struggled to birth despite lots of hospital-staff-ordered interventions.
We are also using the book together to identify the things I'd like to have for our birth in terms of people who are there, the atmosphere of the room, and procedures we want/don't want our midwife to do.
We're going through the interventions chapter together and identifying the things that would be 100% fine with us if the midwife thought them necessary, the things we'd tolerate after a risk/benefit discussion, and the things I'd never consent to unless my midwife (who I do trust with my life, and who attended my last birth too) says I'll die or the baby will die without.
We'll certainly have this book around with some tape flags in it during our birth.
He was worried that this book was going to be dry and boring but he hasn't put it down yet. :-) It has enough technical information to keep his "science mind" occupied, and the writing tone is friendly and accessible. He is realizing with the help of this book that he can be an active participant in this birth and that he can really help me by protecting me and making conditions ideal for me to do the work of birthing... this is in stark contrast to the very passive role that he was encouraged to take last time, and how helpless he felt in terms of being able to help his ex-wife as she struggled to birth despite lots of hospital-staff-ordered interventions.
We are also using the book together to identify the things I'd like to have for our birth in terms of people who are there, the atmosphere of the room, and procedures we want/don't want our midwife to do.
We're going through the interventions chapter together and identifying the things that would be 100% fine with us if the midwife thought them necessary, the things we'd tolerate after a risk/benefit discussion, and the things I'd never consent to unless my midwife (who I do trust with my life, and who attended my last birth too) says I'll die or the baby will die without.
We'll certainly have this book around with some tape flags in it during our birth.
46 of 48 people found the following review helpful
By K. BRYDEN
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
If you or someone you know is planning to have a baby, and you plan to be there, read this book. It will help you have a birth that is less painful, stressful, and physician-directed than you will have if you do not read it. It covers the normal course of labor and birth, complications in labor, comfort measures for the woman and the role of the birth partner and/or doula, explanations of the many possible interventions and drugs available during labor/birth/postpartum, breastfeeding basics, and care of the mother when she returns home. If you are the partner, this will help you feel that you know what's going on during birth, especially if complications arise, and it will give you lots of ideas for how to help your partner during labor and afterwards.
This book is pretty objective and not biased far towards the "no intervention for any reason/trust birth" camp, nor towards the "birth is a emergency, and babies can DIE!!!!" camp. It will help you clarify YOUR personal preferences and needs for your birth by providing you with knowledge needed to make informed choices based on your medical particulars, pain tolerance, philosophy about childbirth, attitude towards medications and interventions, and your birth setting.
There is a great questionnaire in the book about pain and medication preferences that will really help you decide what medications you might or might not want and at what point in labor you will want them, and a comprehensive list of all the medications, their effects and side-effects on mother and baby, when in the course of labor it is appropriate to receive them, and how they might interact with other drugs offered during labor.
This book is pretty objective and not biased far towards the "no intervention for any reason/trust birth" camp, nor towards the "birth is a emergency, and babies can DIE!!!!" camp. It will help you clarify YOUR personal preferences and needs for your birth by providing you with knowledge needed to make informed choices based on your medical particulars, pain tolerance, philosophy about childbirth, attitude towards medications and interventions, and your birth setting.
There is a great questionnaire in the book about pain and medication preferences that will really help you decide what medications you might or might not want and at what point in labor you will want them, and a comprehensive list of all the medications, their effects and side-effects on mother and baby, when in the course of labor it is appropriate to receive them, and how they might interact with other drugs offered during labor.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Birth Book Out There!
I am reading this book as a doula-in-training and am wondering how I made it through my whole pregnancy, reading so many books, without reading this one! It is amazing. Read more
Published 2 days ago by Cece
5.0 out of 5 stars
my husband found this very helpful
my husband was given this book by one of his friends who just became a father- he loved the way this book was set up- with sort of examples of scenarios that could happen, and... Read more
Published 5 days ago by Cleo
3.0 out of 5 stars
Content Fabulous - Kindle Formatting Appalling
The content of this book is great and worth 5 stars, but until they fix the formatting I can't give it full credit. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Jennie C.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great resource for first-time birthing partners
Simkin balances description and explanation in order to prepare birth partners (as much as they can be) for the moment (well, more like hours) of truth.
Published 1 month ago by Trey
5.0 out of 5 stars
Be an effective partner
You want to do everything right, but need a little coaching. Ther is nothing like experience and knowing what to expect.
Published 1 month ago by Ann George
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Resource
The Birth Partner is a great resource for future moms and their partners. It is chock full of information to help you have the smoothest birth possible. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Elizabeth Campbell
5.0 out of 5 stars
Filled with helpful information!
This book is excellent for getting necessary information about pregnancy, labor and support. For fathers and partners of pregnant women, it is clearly written with thoughtful ideas... Read more
Published 1 month ago by one light
4.0 out of 5 stars
good but
I like the book a lot and has a lot of good information, but it had some writing in it which I wasn't expecting
Published 2 months ago by alexandra
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bought for husband, but now it's MY favorite birth book
I'm pregnant with my first child. I'm aiming for a natural birth at a birth center. I bought this book for my husband, who very much wants to participate and help. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mama2Be
5.0 out of 5 stars
I have purchased so many of these books
My midwife friend and pediatrician sister swear by this book. I found it incredibly useful during my own pregnancy, while I prepared for delivery. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Lorinda Compton
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