Rating: 
Summary: Very militant and extreme book
Review: First and foremost I read this book because it was a requirement of a class I'm taking for lactation counselor. Secondly I read it because I had a cesarean section with a very large baby.The authors views I find too extreme. The medical community is not the devil. Obstetricians are not meddelsome persons in the affairs of women. What, should we now be denying our babies prenatal care? Not all women who experienced a cesarean section are unhappy, depressed, distraught, and robbed of a birth experience. My child was not ripped from my body as I was tied down and kept from me until I left the hospital. I was exceeding happy with our birth experience. I breastfed on the table while I was being stitched up. My recovery was quick and uncomplicated. The baby and I roomed in together for 4 days until discharge. One thing I will agree with the authors is that the phrase "once a cesarean, always a cesarean" should be stricken from all doctor's vocabularies. I would go VBAC with a second pregnancy but not because of this book. An informed consumer is a good consumer. I feel that this book is unfairly portraying the entire medical community as something evil to avoid at all costs and that if you're not utterly devastated by your c-sect delivery that you're abnormal. I would not look forward to full reconstruction after a long labor & 4th degree ripping too lightly ladies. My stepmom conplains 25 years later that she still is in pain from her "natural birth" experience. I found this book offensive and would recommend instead
"A Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth". Kim (mom to 11.5 lb baby girl c-sect on her due date)
Rating:
Summary: Not one I'd recommend as a factual unbiased guide
Review: I am facing this choice and was looking for some good factual information that would help me make that decision and be comfortable with it. This book comes across like some earth-mother, new age diatribe. I kept looking for the useful information and never found it.
Rating: 
Summary: A Necessity for Birthing Women and the People Who Love Them
Review: I can see why this book has become the VBAC bible. The authors are brimming with passion and information. Yes, they are angry... and they have every right to be! They meticulously go over studies and statistics; they tell their own stories and the stories of other women who have undergone cesarean section; they address both the physical and mental/emotional/intellectual impacts of cesarean section and vaginal deliveries.. they leave nothing out. They obviously advocate VBAC, and they should, as it is almost always the safer alternative. They may be telling you something you don't want to hear, but it is something you MUST hear. They are outspoken, unafraid, and passionate about the safety and health of birthing women everywhere. This book is fabulous.
Rating:
Summary: A Necessity for Birthing Women and the People Who Love Them
Review: I can see why this book has become the VBAC bible. The authors are brimming with passion and information. Yes, they are angry... and they have every right to be! They meticulously go over studies and statistics; they tell their own stories and the stories of other women who have undergone cesarean section; they address both the physical and mental/emotional/intellectual impacts of cesarean section and vaginal deliveries.. they leave nothing out. They obviously advocate VBAC, and they should, as it is almost always the safer alternative. They may be telling you something you don't want to hear, but it is something you MUST hear. They are outspoken, unafraid, and passionate about the safety and health of birthing women everywhere. This book is fabulous.
Rating:
Summary: Very militant and extreme book
Review: I got a hold of this book on ebay after a recommendation from other C-section mothers. They were disappointed by their C-section and wanted all the knowledge they could find to help them avoid a repeat section. This book is a teriffic source for parents wanting to birth naturally. It gives perfect reasons for it's anti-medical establishment stance, and lots of encouragement.
Rating:
Summary: Should be a Must Read for pregnancy
Review: I got a hold of this book on ebay after a recommendation from other C-section mothers. They were disappointed by their C-section and wanted all the knowledge they could find to help them avoid a repeat section. This book is a teriffic source for parents wanting to birth naturally. It gives perfect reasons for it's anti-medical establishment stance, and lots of encouragement.
Rating:
Summary: Vital For Women and Men
Review: I had been avoiding this book for years, having seen it at the library numerous times and feeling superstitious that reading it would cause me to have a cesarean section! Also, I felt like I "knew it all" when it came to the subject of how hospital interventions lead to unnecessary cesareans. I have taught childbirth education in the past and have had two unmedicated, vaginal births in a hospital environment. Now, I am so grateful I did read it. I tried to read it fairly quickly because I was so eager for the information; yet at the same time, each page offers such a wealth of insight--it requires time and patience. The book offers so many gifts. I had many myths blown open. First of all, the words "uterine rupture" did indeed once summon visions of a belly literally exploding during labor, causing instant death to the woman and fetus. Now I know that that never happens. I also hadn't thought much about the pain women--at least some women--experience upon having an unnecessary cesarean section. My mother had had one and never referred to anything but gratitude that her obstetrician had saved her life and mine. Also, the one cesarean I was involved with--my one client as a doula who had one--was more disturbing to me and the father of the baby than the mother herself. We all knew it had been unnecessary, but for whatever reason, at least at the time, the mother felt very secure with the experience and did for the first few weeks postpartum. As I read the words of pain, and then, victory, of so many women affected by this epidemic (which, unfortunately, has hardly changed since this book was written and has actually gotten worse) I experienced a new sense of compassion and understanding about why the VBAC movement is so necessary and powerful and why these doctors need to be stopped! I reluctantly acknowledge that the ultimate power lies in the consumer (it's much more exciting to imagine each of those OB-GYNs getting arbitrary episiotomies). I fear now that women scarcely think twice about the possibility of a c-section. Women have become so accustomed to the possibility that their bodies are unable to birth. It's very depressing. Frankly, it's mostly depressing for the dear little children who are born medicated and without the proper physiological and psychological benefits of a healthy vaginal birth. What inspired me was the frank, bold way these authors were willing to tackle interventions. Some of them are obsolete now (actually, just one--the shaving) and forceps have largely given way to the vacuum extractor which was just coming into use back when this book was written. Yet all of the information holds true. One thing I fear is that doctors and nurses have become quite skilled at paying all the right lip service to our desires to birth naturally, yet have no true conviction or knowledge regarding a natural experience. Time and time again, I have experienced, both with myself and with my clients, that doctors and nurses know how to reassure us they will not intervene unnecessarily. Yet, they stand by with a knife (or scissors, or internal monitor probes, or any number of gadgets). More than ninety percent of laboring women in America have their vaginas sliced open with scissors! Why is this accepted as okay?!? (For whatever reason, it's not okay for women to get circumcised in certain countries, but here, they can get their vaginas cut up and sewn back together and that's all right. Geez.)
The only area I feel slight disagreement with is the use of the term "purebirth" over "natural birth". I wholeheartedly agree that the definition of "natural birth" has become subject to a lot of unnatural definitions. But I feel it's important to reclaim the term as something that happens in nature, as animals birth, free of fear and free of meddling "assistance." Currently, my hubby and I are expecting our third baby. We are planning a home birth and this book was very affirming of our choice. I'm so excited to have this little person. I hope women will begin to collectively awaken to the power of birth and the joy that results from being in the process, conscious and aware. It's so incredible.
Rating:
Summary: Vital For Women and Men
Review: I had been avoiding this book for years, having seen it at the library numerous times and feeling superstitious that reading it would cause me to have a cesarean section! Also, I felt like I "knew it all" when it came to the subject of how hospital interventions lead to unnecessary cesareans. I have taught childbirth education in the past and have had two unmedicated, vaginal births in a hospital environment. Now, I am so grateful I did read it. I tried to read it fairly quickly because I was so eager for the information; yet at the same time, each page offers such a wealth of insight--it requires time and patience. The book offers so many gifts. I had many myths blown open. First of all, the words "uterine rupture" did indeed once summon visions of a belly literally exploding during labor, causing instant death to the woman and fetus. Now I know that that never happens. I also hadn't thought much about the pain women--at least some women--experience upon having an unnecessary cesarean section. My mother had had one and never referred to anything but gratitude that her obstetrician had saved her life and mine. Also, the one cesarean I was involved with--my one client as a doula who had one--was more disturbing to me and the father of the baby than the mother herself. We all knew it had been unnecessary, but for whatever reason, at least at the time, the mother felt very secure with the experience and did for the first few weeks postpartum. As I read the words of pain, and then, victory, of so many women affected by this epidemic (which, unfortunately, has hardly changed since this book was written and has actually gotten worse) I experienced a new sense of compassion and understanding about why the VBAC movement is so necessary and powerful and why these doctors need to be stopped! I reluctantly acknowledge that the ultimate power lies in the consumer (it's much more exciting to imagine each of those OB-GYNs getting arbitrary episiotomies). I fear now that women scarcely think twice about the possibility of a c-section. Women have become so accustomed to the possibility that their bodies are unable to birth. It's very depressing. Frankly, it's mostly depressing for the dear little children who are born medicated and without the proper physiological and psychological benefits of a healthy vaginal birth. What inspired me was the frank, bold way these authors were willing to tackle interventions. Some of them are obsolete now (actually, just one--the shaving) and forceps have largely given way to the vacuum extractor which was just coming into use back when this book was written. Yet all of the information holds true. One thing I fear is that doctors and nurses have become quite skilled at paying all the right lip service to our desires to birth naturally, yet have no true conviction or knowledge regarding a natural experience. Time and time again, I have experienced, both with myself and with my clients, that doctors and nurses know how to reassure us they will not intervene unnecessarily. Yet, they stand by with a knife (or scissors, or internal monitor probes, or any number of gadgets). More than ninety percent of laboring women in America have their vaginas sliced open with scissors! Why is this accepted as okay?!? (For whatever reason, it's not okay for women to get circumcised in certain countries, but here, they can get their vaginas cut up and sewn back together and that's all right. Geez.)
The only area I feel slight disagreement with is the use of the term "purebirth" over "natural birth". I wholeheartedly agree that the definition of "natural birth" has become subject to a lot of unnatural definitions. But I feel it's important to reclaim the term as something that happens in nature, as animals birth, free of fear and free of meddling "assistance." Currently, my hubby and I are expecting our third baby. We are planning a home birth and this book was very affirming of our choice. I'm so excited to have this little person. I hope women will begin to collectively awaken to the power of birth and the joy that results from being in the process, conscious and aware. It's so incredible.
Rating:
Summary: A must for informed consent in pregnancy,labor and delivery.
Review: I recommend this for any woman searching for an intervention free pregnancy and birth, a non-interventionist doctor or the best chance of success with a VBAC or first birth. Very enlightening.--Nichole H.
Rating: 
Summary: I almost passed on a VBAC because of this book...
Review: I was THAT disgusted with the authors' preachy, way-out-there attitudes. Their highly selective misuse of statistics turned me off comletely, and their assumption that A) the ONLY choices are a totally unmedicated, "natural" vaginal birth (and preferably, a homebirth) - or a Caesarean, B) ALL women have unresolved feelings of guilt, grief or failure about their pevious C-section(s), and C) You, the reader, most likely didn't REALLY need that C-section at all, because baby monitors lie, and cephalopelvic disproprtion doesn't really exist, and if you were a REAL woman, you'd have stuck it out for yet another 24 hours of agonzing labor instead of accepting your OB's diagnosis of failure to progress ... well, all I could think after reading the book is that if you had to buy into all that wierd, new-agey crap to have a VBAC, a repeat C-section was probably not that bad. Thank goodness an Internet friend steered me to "Vaginal Birth After Cesarean : The Smart Woman's Guide to VBAC" by Elizabeth Kaufman. Kaufman presented BOTH sides, and was far more helpful in helping me make a truly informed decision. I had a wonderful, medicated, hospital VBAC - and mother and baby are phyically and psychologically intact, despite Cohen and Estner's dire predictions of "failure". My advice? Skip this fanatic, all-or-nothing book and get REAL information - from the book mentioned above, and from your OB/midwife/local hospital.
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