Rating: 
Summary: A MUST READ for new mothers, old mothers, and their partners
Review: I am 8 months pregnant and have read a pile of books about pregnancy and motherhood and this is definitely one of the most important and useful ones. I found it an incredible relief-as soon as I started reading the 'truths' about pregnancy and found myself all over her pages, the ugly realities that other books don't want to write about. I finally felt "normal." The section on childbirth and the hospital/childbirth myths was incredibly informative. It was hard to read, but also has helped me immesurably to make decisions about my child's birth and medical interventions. If you think an epidural is, as "they" say over and over, just a way to deal with pain--"why have pain when you can have this drug and have it taken away?" READ THIS BOOK! Although parts of what she says are scary, it's also so empowering--I have a much better idea of my options, of how to manage the medical establishment, and of what to be wary of. The section on post-partum life, relationships, marriage, career, was also terrifying--but I feel much more prepared to deal with it now. As she says in the section on childbirth and pain, most women have no idea of how painful it will be--but knowing about the pain, at least intellectually, prepares us to take an attitude of "we are entering a battle," and that she says, is how women are more successful at dealing with the pain. I cannot recommend this book highly enough--My husband is now reading it because I feel it has so much information that he should be aware of, as well as being able to explain so many of the emotional aspects of pregnancy and childbirth that I cannot, in my hormonal/emotional state right now, seem to convey. I will give this book to all my pregnant friends, to friends who just had babies, and I will refer back to it as my journey into motherhood progresses. There is a ton of valuable information in here, research, and comfort. READ THIS BOOK!
Rating: 
Summary: Valid warnings, but biased and naiive
Review: I agree with Naomi Wolf that mothers-to-be should know about the sacrifices and risks involved as well as the joys. But her biased reporting and indignant tone make this a book an unreliable resource.Wolf writes as if she thinks she's the first woman to discover that pregnancy can be uncomfortable as well as exciting; that being a new mother can be frustrating as well as fulfilling; that labor is hard and painful -- and that some hospitals are more concerned with their bottom line than their patients' comfort. I'm surprised that such an educated woman, and a feminist, could have been so naiive. Granted, she describes some pretty bad experiences with doctors and nurses who were cold, condescending, and insensitive to her feelings, and she's right to criticize them. All mothers-to-be (and every patient navigating the medical system, for that matter) should watch out for people like them and be prepared to stand up for themselves. And this book does have educational value, as it presents the worst-case scenarios we don't always hear. But try to read it as a one person's unfortunate experience, and not necessarily as an accurate description of the maternity experience for women in general. For example, she lists the "typical misconceptions" hospitals supposedly encourage, such as that constant fetal monitoring is best for the baby even though it prevents the mother from moving around; that a flat-on-your-back birth position is the right one; and that "an episiotomy should be part of your standard of care." These are misconceptions, all right, but they're hardly typical. For example, San Francisco's California Pacific Medical Center (which Wolf would put in her much-maligned "high-tech hospital" category), reminds expectant mothers to have fetal monitors removed after (intermittent) monitoring so they can move freely; encourages walking, squatting, and trying different positions during labor; and recommends techniques to help women avoid unnecessary episiotomies (including perineal massage, a technique Wolf says she asked her OB about, only to be told, "That can't be right. I've never heard of that."). Wolf's OB sounded awful, all right, but she's not necessarily representative of her profession. At times, Wolf's reporting is so biased that it's just as misleading as the so-called myths she's trying to dispel. She describes a group practice in which different doctors rotate between patients for some of the routine exams, and suggests that this is so that doctors can maintain a "professional distance" from patients. My own (warm and informative) obstetrician explained that her practice uses rotation for the opposite goal: No one can predict exactly when each patient will go into labor, so if an OB has two or more patients giving birth at once or must attend to an emergency, then another doctor may have to step in. Rotating a few check-ups within a group practice gives the patient a chance to get acquainted with the other doctors who might deliver her baby in case her own OB can't be there. By suggesting that there could only be a dark side to practices as unmysterious as rotating check-ups, Wolf sounds like she hasn't done her research -- or chooses to withhold information that doesn't support her point of view. The author bases sweeping generalizations on personal or anecdotal experiences: early in the book, she describes three acquaintances who had babies around the same time. She observes that one woman seemed to adjust to motherhood better than the others, and implies that it's because hers was a vaginal delivery while the other two women had C-sections. Any responsible writer knows that a sample of three is in no way a statistically significant study! There could have been many other reasons why that particular mother was happier. There are many places in the book where Wolf cites more solid research, but building arguments on flimsy evidence like that story makes her seem less reliable as a reporter. At times, she even comes across as rather comically hypersensitive and bitter. (Witness her wounded rage against people who dared to make "embarrassing to offensive" remarks about her pregnancy, by acknowledging that she was getting bigger. Late in her pregnancy, when she was "startlingly big," in her own words, she told a male acquaintance that it was nice to see him and he replied, to her apparent outrage, "And you -- so much of you." Was she expecting to stay seductively svelte throughout her pregnancy? Now THERE's a misconception.) It's worth reading this book so you'll know just how bad the experience can be for a woman who's uninformed and in the care of the wrong doctors. Don't have a baby without finding a practitioner you trust; without learning about hospital procedures and understanding the pros and cons of medical interventions; or without realizing that caring for a new baby won't be all bliss. Find the information and resources you need to prepare yourself for a better experience than Naomi Wolf had.
Rating: 
Summary: Valid and important information
Review: This book was a roller coaster ride for me. I was intitially excited to read it. After all the fluff that is out there on pregnancy I wanted a book that would prepare me for the truth. When I read it I was disgusted that someone could be so pessimistic. Unfortunately my pregnancy ended up playing itself out a lot like the one described in the book. I was so frustrated and angry. I wished I would have paid better attention to the book and stood up for my rights. I can't go back but fortunately for those who are currently pregnant or plan to be pregnant in the near future this book can help. Consider yourself lucky if you don't have the same experience but prepare yourself for the worst the medical establishment has to offer. Knowledge is power.
Rating:
Summary: a Must for moms
Review: I think it is a faboulous advocacy for a more humane and mother oriented aproach to delivery in the US. Living in the Netherlands myself with a very progressive and safe approach, I can recommend reading this book and considereing the alternative options Naomi presents. (also read Ina May Gaskin!)
Rating: 
Summary: Left-wing propaganda desguised as medical ethics
Review: In this book, the author explores her views on the medical establishment as she goes through the experience of pregnancy and birth. As a father of three children and as someone who has suffered the medical establishment as well, I agree with the author's virewpoint that mainstream hospitals and the medical profession overall is a patronising, dumbing down entity. The author explores the many facts around the so-called "advice" from doctors and nurses and concludes that there is a self-serving interest in recommending Cesarean sections, peridurals, etc., while preventing future mothers from making full-informed decisions and taking choices for themselves. This finding is not exclusive of the medical profession - many "advisors", whether computer consultants or whatever, are fraught to exploiting their position of trusted advisor to their advantage. This, however, is not an excuse for the general behavior of medical professionals. The lack of ethics of those involved in the "pregnancy industry", is used by the author as an argument to push for her socialistic, marxist, left-wing agenda. This is pretty obvious in the closing chapter of the book, where she makes recommendations on how mothers-to-be and young mothers should be protected and supported by society, that is, from Government's intervention and substantial monetary hand-outs to providing "community centers with plenty of current magazines where mothers can relax". This is in contrast to her usual feminist standpoint. Her conclusions are merely related to social restructuring - a landmark of the typical, left-wing armchair, intellectual critic and observer. Overall, the author makes a couple of good points but those are repeated ad nauseum throughout the book, which turns to be quite boring after 50 pages or so. After having paid full price and read the book in its entirety, I would suggest that any interested reader in this topic get a second-hand or remainder copy and quickly skims through it - no value would be lost and plenty of time saved.
Rating:
Summary: A Wake-Up Call
Review: Admittedly, Ms. Wolf is a tad "passionate" about her subject, and anyone can manipulate statistics to make their point. However, what she has to say about agenda-ridden hospital childbirth classes and the counterintuitive ways many doctors go about labor and childbirth makes this a worthwhile read. We seem far too cavalier about epidurals and C-sections when there are much better alternatives for most women.
Rating:
Summary: What a kvetch!
Review: Wolk whines and complains throughout this book. The good points she makes, the worthwhile information imbedded in the text, they're all too easy to overlook as readers become majorly irritated with this Kvetch Class Act.
Skip it. Instead, read one of these:
A Good Birth, A Safe Birth
Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife
What to Expect When You're Expecting
Sheesh...
Rating:
Summary: Horrible experience
Review: Poor Ms. Wolf. She had a horrible birth experience, and I can't say that I blame her for complaining, after I read about it. What I find disturbing, is that she seems to think it is really a universal experience, one that will occur to every woman. As a Certified Nurse-Midwife, I know that birth should be an empowering, deeply personal experience. For some reason, women in our culture seem to feel compelled to share horror stories about birth (and pap smears) with other women, and this is Ms. Wolf's horror story. I think it is vitally important for women to hear positive stories about the glorious experience of birth, not the negative, uncommon stories like this one. I encourage any pregnant woman to read the newest book just released by Ina May Gaskin instead. And do your homework. There is no need to have a horrible birth experience. Educate yourself, and my (prejudiced, I admit) advice is to see out a Certified Nurse Midwife to help you have the birth experience that you want to have. Don't read any more horror stories, don't watch them on TV. Think positively about your body's ability to birth a baby, and believe in the process. Sincerely,
Barbara Parker, CNM
Rating:
Summary: Inane whining
Review: Don't even bother with this. What an incredibly negative, narcicisstic, selfish reflection on motherhood. Does "honest" make it worth reading? I don't think so.
Rating:
Summary: Her conclusions do not follow
Review: Ms. Wolf does a good job of describing the disconnect between the gushing sentimentality that surrounds most discussions of pregnancy, childbearing, and motherhood and the actual experience of these things. She also paints a convincing portrait of an almost sinister obstetrics "industry". Her main arguments are: Many women experience pregnancy as a time of loss as they make the transition from their former selves to motherhood;
Childbearing is painful under the best circumstances and has been so co-opted by interventionist medicine that it is often sterile and impersonal as well;
Mothering an infant is often tedious, isolating, and thankless;
Even the most evolved husbands rarely give equal time in parenting. Ms. Wolf weaves her personal experiences together with research studies and her own interviews of other recent mothers to support these arguments. Unfortunately, Ms. Wolf loses the courage of her convictions in drawing conclusions from her experiences with motherhood. One obvious conclusion from the foregoing is that the option not to have children should be considered very seriously by women. The biggest "misconception" about motherhood is that it is a necessary or even desireable part of being a woman. Given Ms. Wolf's experiences and conclusions, the failure to treat choosing NOT to become a mother as even a choice turns what I gather Ms. Wolf intended to be a courageous and iconoclastic book into one that argues from the conservative (and offensive)premise that doing without children (or adopting) is not a serious option. Her conclusions instead are that society, the workplace, and the birthing industry should be completely overhauled to give working mothers everything they want. The obvious problem with this conclusion is that it seems unlikely to work. I fully agree that men who choose to have children should share full responsibility for the consequences of that decision, but I'm skeptical that government can ever enforce that obligation (apart from child support -- but Ms. Wolf is talking about men who remain with their families). As for the difficult transition into motherhood and challenges involved in pregnancy and breastfeeding, surely Ms. Wolf is correct that women should not be hoodwinked by the cloying soft-focus images so often associated with these things. But, as Ms. Wolf acknowledges, discomfort, pain, and difficult changes come with the territory. Neither the government nor society can change that; the best hope is that someday the stigma attached to being childfree will not be so great that few women even consider the option. Ms. Wolf's book, unfortunately, does nothing to advance this cause. The other problem with the reforms she suggests of the workplace and public spaces are that they result in a transferance of the responsibility of motherhood from those who choose to be mothers to people who make the very responsible decision to control their reproduction. Of course society and the work place should not penalize people who have made the decision to have children, but in a world of limited resources (where Americans consume more resources than anyone else) it is bad social policy to punish people who do not have children by forcing them assume the burden for people who do. What Ms. Wolf calls "Motherhood Feminism" seems less like a species of feminism, which ideally seeks policies to better all women, and more like an entitlement program for professional women with children. Lastly, in light of her assault on obstetric practice, Ms. Wolf's personal decisions about childbearing make much of her glowing discussion of mid-wifery and alternative birthing seem patronizing. One can't help but come away from the book with the feeling that the author is saying natural approaches to child birth are just great, but not for highly educated members of the upper middle class. Formerly, Ms. Wolf advocated what she called "Power Feminism," arguing that women would advance themselves professionally by eschewing poor-me victimhood and brazenly vying for personal and material advancement, just like men. Like "Motherhood feminism," "Power Feminism" wasn't about what's good for society or the world or even what's good for most women -- it was about what would best advance the interests of women in the professional world with advanced degrees from snooty schools. Naomi's latest contribution advances a species of feminism directed to a still narrower group, women in the professional world with advanced degrees from snooty schools who have children. Maybe in her next treatise she'll drop the pretense that her views on feminism extend beyond her personal interests and write a manifesto demanding "Naomi Feminism."
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