Customer Reviews

Women Giving Birth

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Discernment? Yes, if you are expecting a child, thoughtfully inform yourself of the care you will accept! Yes, accept. Go beyond the mindframing of "receiving" care. This is good advice. It requires of you a little thoughtful study of childbirth, and childbirth practices and what constitutes good care. For a good start, you will find this book helpful- it is one of the books I like my expectant parents to read and enjoy. It offers both excellant information and a pleasureable reading experience. The book is a rich visual feast with it's many beautiful photographs of families moving through labor and greeting their precious newborns. The book is delightful in it's solid presentation of a well-kept secret: Birth Works! There is nothing radical in this book. Simply that a woman actively giving birth with an upright posture in labor, with a relaxed, natural respect for the physiological process present in the birth chamber, with midwives (as experts in maintaining normality in childbirth) attending, and with warm bath available is intrinsically on the path to a gentle and safe birth.

This book is out of the Netherlands; which has one of the highest rates of midwife-attended, and home, births in the western world. This fact is reflected in its contents. The great thing about this book is that rather than being the work of another talking head, it is almost entirely made up of interviews with women and their partners, giving a very intimate and realistic, as well as varied, picture of childbirth and the adjustment to parenthood. There are lots of great pictures, as well (although sometimes quite graphic;definitely not for the sqeamish). Well done and informative.