Rating: 
Summary: Natural birth or not...
Review: Natural birth or not, I found this book to be VERY informative and helpful. I was PETRIFIED to give birth before I read this. I had never broken a bone, had stitches... NOTHING. Needless to say, I was scared to death of the "PAIN". This book helped me relax. It helped my husband and I decide the type of birth we wanted to shoot for. And, guess what?! We did it! I had a totally natural birth (in the hospital). ...But, don't get me wrong: I'm not saying that everyone should have a natural birth - nor does this book. That just happened to be our choice. This book will help you make your own decision without making you feel badly about it. If you want to know the truth from a couple who had 7 children - nearly 7 different ways, this is the book for you to read. It gives you BOTH sides of the story: the Doctor's view AND the Mother's view. It will tell you about all your options in the hospital and at home. It explains all the different medical procedures as well as medicines that may be involved and their affect on you and your baby. If you really want to be prepared for birth and comfortable with your choices, this is the book to read: BEFORE you go into labor! ...So, relax! Read any and ALL of Dr. Sears' books and have a great pregnancy, birth, and beyond!
Rating:
Summary: Thinking about "going drug-free"?
Review: If you are considering having a drug-free delivery (and even if you're not), this book is for you. It will help you understand the reasons why having a baby is painful and things you can do to make it easier. I found myself remembering what this book said WHILE IN LABOR. One of the best tips in the book was to prepare a birth plan and the knowledge you will gain by reading this will enable you to write a birth plan that suits you and will use the medical jargon enough that the doctors and nurses will respect you. It is also very realistic, yet encouraging, about pain relief during labor. I managed without drugs and it was an awesome experience. I took no childbirth classes and had "one of the most beautiful deliveries" the L&D nurse had ever seen. The information in this book was a huge help. Out of all the books I read to prepare for labor, this one was far and away the best. This is a must read for pregnant women!
Rating: 
Summary: MAKING TOO MANY JUDGEMENTS OF OTHERS
Review: It is fine to discuss other methods but not to be totally down on all others!! Yes, other ways are effective also and the author does not know everything as indicated. Alernatives are important too and should be discussed in a reasonable manner and not just with a one sided approach. TX reader
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful and Empowering Book!
Review: This book treats mothers as intelligent, capable people worthy of making informed birth decisions with their doctors or midwives. Such a refreshing change from the condescending "don't question your doctor" tone of many books! It is very thorough detailing what happens during the birth process; and also explains common interventions, when they are needed and when they are not. I liked that the information was based on scientific evidence (not just doctors' traditions.) It emphasizes natural pain relief methods, but still covers medicated pain relief in a non-judgmental way. Their family's anectdotes made the book into thoroughly enjoyable reading. Following the advice of this book for my 2nd pregnancy (wish i had had it for my first!) I had an intervention-free hospital birth. I could hardly believe how much better I felt and how much more quickly i recovered than in the more common "high-intervention" method I experienced the first time (what so many books champion.) If it hadn't been for this book, I would never have known what was possible!
Rating: 
Summary: Very Disappointed
Review: I purchased this book on the advice of Babyzone.com and the reviews I read. I was very excited to get it, and began reading at once. While I found some aspects helpful, I was soon disappointed with several aspects of the book. I did find the chapter on the different pain relievers available helpful because I wasn't sure that I wanted this option, but if I did, i wanted to make an informed decision that was beneficial to both myself and my child. At first, I found the chapters on choosing a care provider and hospital helpful, but then, knowing that I wanted a hospital birth, I felt that I was constantly defending this to myself and the book. I understand that the the Sears' have had very good luck with home births and midwives, but that does not mean that it is necessarily the way for all people to go, as I felt they were portraying. At this point, I have not finished the book. I may go back to it for reference for labor, but I'm not even sure I'll do that because the book made me feel that I was wrong in my choices for birth, which I know I am not, because it is just that...my choice.
Rating:
Summary: I changed my birth plans 6 months into my pregnancy!
Review: If you are pregnant for the first time and don't know much about childbirth, READ THIS BOOK ... and don't be afraid to make changes to your birth plan (birth plan?!?) if some aspect of your care doesn't sit well with you. Do whatever you can to have a wonderful birth experience - it will live in your emotions and memory forever and may even affect how you bond with your child. I was six months pregnant with our first child when I did the craziest thing ever. I changed my caregivers and I changed my hospital. Here's how it went: During my pregnancy, our kitchen was being remodeled. Attempting to escape the paint and glue fumes, I spent long days at our local library, reading books about pregnancy and childbirth. I stumbled upon "The Birth Book" and of course, in my swollen condition, I devoured it. THIS BOOK ROCKED MY WORLD. It opened my eyes to how insane birth really is in this country - how over-medicalized it is. It really put the fear of God into me, so to speak, with regard to "routine" procedures such as episiotomy, forceps/vacuum use, epidurals, C-sections, etc. I was set on a path for the typical "hospital-epidural-medical" birth, without much thought that it could be any other (better, more satifying) way, until I read this astounding book. Thanks to this book, I scrupulously questioned my OB and ultimately switched from my OB to a Certified Nurse Midwife, I switched to a hospital with a very low C-section rate and a very pro-natural birth attitude and appropriate facilities, I hired a doula, and my husband & I took a Bradley class and cancelled our Lamaze class. BECAUSE OF THIS BOOK, I had a glorious, natural (drug- and intervention-free), waterbirth in the "Alternative Birthing Center" of a hospital. (Read our birth story in the upcoming book, Beautiful Births, due out in 2005! =) Of course, my husband initially thought I was stark raving mad for wanting to make so many drastic changes so far into my pregnancy, but after reading this eye-opening book, it seemed even MORE stark raving mad not to! Even if you have no intention of making any changes (some women like having fetal monitors and epidurals, and that is their prerogative!), read it. Whether you desire to birth naturally or more "medically," or if you're not sure, it is very empowering to be well informed about everything that happens within the birthing community.
Rating:
Summary: Childbirth for Luddites, but read it anyway
Review: Easy to read, well organized, well illustrated, and informative. This book will be most helpful if you are already strongly opposed to any medical intervention, and if you think of giving birth without medical intervention as a competitive sport. But if you are mostly focused on a good outcome for you and your baby with a minimum of unnecessary pain, and don't have an ideological commitment to "natural" childbirth, this book will be less helpful and a bit annoying. The authors try to be evenhanded, but they are unsuccessful and seem irrationally anti-technology at times--although at points their skepticism is clearly warranted. I think what it boils down to is that the authors are very risk averse when it comes to technology (e.g., they are unusually nervous about the use of ultrasound), but seem to accept the "natural" dangers of childbirth without batting an eye, pointing out that kids have been delivered for thousands of years without medical intervention. (Yes, and they used to die all the time, along with the mothers.) Telling, I think, is that they elected not to do prenatal screening with their SEVENTH child. They decided on no AFP (the screening test for many fetal abnormalities) not because it is dangerous per se but because the test isn't 100% accurate, and is especially prone to false positives). This seventh child has Down's Syndrome. Their reaction? It's not so bad; s/he's still a lovely child. To be sure, but to trivialize this outcome the way that they do speaks volumes about their hostility towards technology and their embrace of whatever is supposedly natural. If they think have a Down's Syndrome child is an OK result, what else do they think is OK? One reviewer above has it right: this book tries to make you feel like you have been "robbed" if you end up with medical intervention. I'm just not sure that all women feel that giving birth without medicine is the most important achievement in their life, if it is an achievement at all. If you think that it might be, this book is probably the one for you, even if you end up needing medical help. Still, this book is valuable because it does tell you about alternatives to overly-medicalized births--the value of which doctors and nurses are now coming to see, probably thanks to people like the Sears. (Most docs I know want to see the C-section rate go down, as the Sears do.) Especially helpful are the sections on episiotomy (I'm persuaded by what they say) and the overuse of epidurals. The section on prenatal nutrition is redundant--one of your other books does it better. But as a result of this book I am considering water birth, I am hiring a doula, and I am planning on delivering upright, squatting, with my husband massaging my shoulders. That's not something I would have known about if it hadn't been for this book.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful and Empowering Book!
Review: This book treats mothers as intelligent, capable people worthy of making informed birth decisions with their doctors or midwives. Such a refreshing change from the condescending "don't question your doctor" tone of many books! It is very thorough detailing what happens during the birth process; and also explains common interventions, when they are needed and when they are not. I liked that the information was based on scientific evidence (not just doctors' traditions.) It emphasizes natural pain relief methods, but still covers medicated pain relief in a non-judgmental way. Their family's anectdotes made the book into thoroughly enjoyable reading. Following the advice of this book for my 2nd pregnancy (wish i had had it for my first!) I had an intervention-free hospital birth. I could hardly believe how much better I felt and how much more quickly i recovered than in the more common "high-intervention" method I experienced the first time (what so many books champion.) If it hadn't been for this book, I would never have known what was possible!
Rating:
Summary: birthingnaturally.net recommends this book.
Review: This was the first book I bought about birth, and it is still the best. Rather than being another version of the same old tired and useless "just be happy do what you're told" you get from other books, the authors have created a source of information that is relevant and actually helpful to parents. The authors (a pediatriction and a nurse) begin by making it clear that they are supporters of natural birth, and explain why using their experiences, published research and history. However, they go on to present the most unbiased collection of information I have found in any book promoting natural or medicated birth. They not only explain why you might not want a test or procedure (missing in most childbirth books), but also why and when it is helpful and necessary (missing in many 'natural birth' books). If you are looking for a book that will tell you "what to expect" from your ob, this book is not it. The authors write about every decision that is made as the parents decision, supporting the parents right to choose how they give birth. Having both sides of the issue provides families with the information they need to make decisions for themselves. The authors provide the information in a way that makes it easy to bring the book with you to your doctor/midwife appointments as a tool to discuss your birth options. Most of the "labor" information is how to labor without medication. This makes sense when you realize that it only takes a couple pages to expain what medications are available and how they work, but volumes have been written on other things that can be done to help a woman in labor. Additionally, because there is less health risk involved with natural birth any true review of the pros and cons of medicated vs. natural will always appear to favor natural. In addition to providing information about ways to handle labor, the authors have written a book that encourages mothers and builds confidence in birthing abilty (which according to published research is the main contributing factor to being successful in natural birth plans).
Rating:
Summary: NOT SATISFYING READING
Review: I feel that many of the comments are to tell you the author's ideas, I would like to see more ways to feel good about a birth. Please read other books too! This does not give alternatives and that is very important. Not enough productive material included and satisfying to this reader.
| 
