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Summary: Top Notch, Informative and Persuasive!
Review: Ms. Kaplan Shanley's view of birth and her experiences are put down in such a way in this book that I am compelled to read it again and again and again. The notion that birth is so much more than a means to an end, and that it is a wonderous and beautiful process in and of itself is fabulous, and enlightening. Being the mother of three and the expectant mother that I am, I am now forced to re-examine my views on birth and to change them for the better. This is a great book.... it reads smooth and fast, and stays with you. I love it, and highly recommend it!
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Summary: Birth as it should be!
Review: Ms. Shanley tells the real truth about homebirthing and giving birth without outside aid. Women should return to doing what women do best and can handle instinctively rather than the sterile, overprotective and downright dangerous world of medicalized childbirth.
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Summary: This book changed my life
Review: Reading this book helped me to realize my inner potential and power, and has changed how I do everything, not just give birth. Realizing that how I think about my body and my birth experiences affects my whole life has given me freedom from worry and peace I have never felt. Laura Shanley tells us how to let go of fear, and believe in ourselves to have a life-changing childbirth. A MUST HAVE for any woman and her partner, regardless of where you choose to birth.
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Summary: This Book is for You
Review: Reading this book, I discovered in words what I already knew in my heart: Birth, left alone, is an ordinary miracle. Laura Shanley looks deeply into modern assumptions surrounding birth, and exposes the threat they pose to both mother and child. Chapters 2 and 3 include a very comprehensive breakdown of the dangers, both physical and psychological, of medical intervention during birth. Shanley also provides important commentary on why women (and men) perceive birth itself, rather than interferance with birth, as dangerous.Shanley's book is well written and wonderfully empowering. I do agree with her conclusion that birth is a natural process best left unhindered, however, I also think it is vital to consider the impact of cultural assumptions when considering unassisted childbirth. "Interferance" can also come in the shape of internalised cultural values. It must be the responsibility of every woman to look within herself and decide what is right for her. While the focus of this book is the act of birth, it's underlying message is that people have the power to shape their personal experiences. If you have had a bad birth experience at a hospital or at home with a midwife; if you are pregnant and looking for options about your upcoming birth; if you have ever had an inkling, an intuition, a knowing, that birth could be better than our culture assumes, then this book is for you.
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Summary: Have the heart to trust natural birth
Review: There is a continuum of writers on the topic of freebirth, or unassisted birth, as Laura Shanley calls it -- Moran, Shanley, Griesemer -- and all are excellent. Laura's book is unique in it's emphasis on self trust rather than faith or surrender to a higher power. I particularly loved the chapters on dreams for I have found them great allies in my own 6 natural births. Clear, courageous and by no means missionary in its enthusiasm to let families know that there is an option to a fear based medical delivery. I recommend this book to all my students and friends who may have the heart to trust natural birth in its most free expression.
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Summary: Unassisted Childbirth
Review: This book changed my life. It changed not only the way I view birth but how I view life in general.
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Summary: Questionable at best
Review: This book is fine for some women, who would be fine going through a pregnancy alone and birthing alone. But it propounds that ALL women SHOULD go through pregnancy alone and this is where the author goes too far. There are many illnesses that are easily treatable that if left untreated as this author recommends, will result in great illness or death for the mother and/or baby. I would investigate thoroughly before believing the feel~good message this book tells. It is a simple fact, doctors save lives, medicine saves lives. Follow this book at your own risk.
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Summary: Common Sense!
Review: This is a wonderful book, offering what may seem like radical viewpoints but which are simply old-fashioned common sense - the way the vast majority of women in other cultures and times give birth. I extend my deepest sympathy to the parent below who lost a beloved baby, but implicating this book and its teachings is only a way of finding something or someone to take the blame in what must be an unbearable situation. The fact remains that there are more complications and infant deaths caused by medical intervention than by natural home birth; as hard as it is to accept, sometimes people, including babies, just die despite all our efforts, whether in a hospital or not.
I highly recommend this book to any expectant mother and her partner. Hopefully it will lead you to an unassisted home birth, but even if you do decide on assistance, it will increase your confidence in childbirth and show you the true passion and power of motherhood.
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Summary: Beautiful, informative, mind-expanding.....Best money I have
Review: This is best money I have ever spent. This book saved my child and myself from yet another rape of a hospital birth. I will treasure this book and the experience that it made possible for me for the rest of my life. Thanks in part to the information in this book, I gave birth to my fifth child at home, unassisted, just myself, my husband, and our children. It changed the dynamic of our marriage. It changed the way I see my husband (he was scared, but wonderful, and full of faith in our ability to do this at home), and the way he sees me and our children. Having our son at home has changed our lives FOR THE BETTER. I can't give enough praise to the beauty, wonder, and honesty of this book.....
I thank Laura Shanley for her wisdom, and her website. She has opened the door for me to do exactly what I wanted to do, and through her faith in herself, allowed me to share the wonderful experience of trusting myself and my body to do exactly what nature intended it to do with no muss or fuss.
She isn't a doctor, a midwife, or a doula....She is a mother, and she helped me to learn that this is all that is needed to birth a beautiful healthy child, just a mother willing to do what is best for her child, her family, and herself.
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Summary: THIS BOOK CHANGED MY LIFE
Review: This well written and researched book showed me how to trust myself and my instincts. I was empowered, not only in two successful and beautiful home births, but in my everyday life. I recommend this book to every woman whether she chooses home birth or hospital birth.
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