Rating: 
Summary: A must read book for every pregnant couple
Review: After a "high-tech" and eventful birth experience with my son, I found myself anxious regarding the upcoming labor and delivery of my new baby. When I began to read this book, I felt as if the authors had written it for me. It was if someone was acknowledging what I had been through before and providing me with the information and resources to place me in control of my next birthing experience. The book is based on the real experiences of real women like myself. It was often an emotional and cathartic experience just reading the book. I recommend it to anyone wanting to learn what it's like, and can be like to give birth in the United States today.
Rating:
Summary: A must read book for every pregnant couple
Review: After a "high-tech" and eventful birth experience with my son, I found myself anxious regarding the upcoming labor and delivery of my new baby. When I began to read this book, I felt as if the authors had written it for me. It was if someone was acknowledging what I had been through before and providing me with the information and resources to place me in control of my next birthing experience. The book is based on the real experiences of real women like myself. It was often an emotional and cathartic experience just reading the book. I recommend it to anyone wanting to learn what it's like, and can be like to give birth in the United States today.
Rating:
Summary: I'll Buy That...
Review: Because of the negative review above, I am going to buy this book. Just what is this author's "narrow" view of birthing? I will let you know if I agree with that reader's opinion. I will be reading it for my doula training.
Rating:
Summary: Important information for pregnant women
Review: For those mothers who wish to go beyond the comfort of "What to expect when you are expecting" and take charge of their birthing experience, this book provides very important information. The book is not for everyone--just those who are confident in taking control of their health care and beyond. To me, information is power--it separates me from the many mothers who are content in going along with what everyone else is doing. Having the birthing experience you want takes work, time, and research. The proof is in the pudding--I had healthy baby after a noninvasive, natural childbirth with a certified nurse midwife & doula at a hospital. How many mothers say that childbirth was one of the most empowering experience of their life? I do! Thank goodness for the direction this book provides.
Rating:
Summary: A MUST read!
Review: I am a doula, and this is on our reading list... but it is for more than one reason! It is a WONDERFUL resource! It is easy to read, it uses evidence based knowledge, and should be the "must read" of all pregnant moms! It would save a lot of birth disappointments and disatisfaction! I can't say enough about this book! It is a "must read" for all my clients! Worth evey cent!
Rating:
Summary: Superb book, have recommended it for years.
Review: I found this book in 1993 when I was pregnant with my daughter. It truly helped shape my birth experience, along with several other wonderful books including Penny Simkin's Pregnancy, Childbirth and the Newborn and the Birth Partner; Sheila Kitzinger's books, and Michel Odent's Birth Reborn. This was on the short list of books I actually purchased (versus books I checked out of the library). Well organized and well presented, this truly supports informed consent. This book is well-supported not only by the listed documentation in the book, but the majority of research I've read in the past six years as a birth professional.
Rating:
Summary: Backs up natural birth with medical facts
Review: I was planning on having a high tech birth in a hospital when I stumbled across this book. It opened a whole new world for me in terms of birthing since none of my friends or family would even think of having a birth outside the hospital/OBGYN scene. The basic premise is that birth is a natural process and should be treated as such unless there is a medical emergency. It gives you information regarding why hospitals/nurses/Dr's do the things they do and why that may or may not be good for you. This book helps you to choose which birth experience is best for you and how to adapt it to different circumstances. I highly recommend it, if only to educate yourself on what will happen during the birth process at the hospital.
Rating:
Summary: All Pregnant Couples Should Read This Book
Review: I'm a Certified Lamaze Instructor and this is the book that I recommend to all of my students. This book is well written and well researched. It gives you everything you need to know to make wise and informed decisions about labor and delivery. I really wish I'd had this book when I was pregnant with my first child - it could have saved us a lot of heartache. We had a very difficult delivery with serious complications. I feel that if we had read this book beforehand it wouldn't have been as scary and we would have had the information we needed to make the right decisions for us. This is the book I buy for all of my pregnant girlfriends the minute they tell me they are expecting!
Rating:
Summary: All Pregnant Couples Should Read This Book
Review: I'm a Certified Lamaze Instructor and this is the book that I recommend to all of my students. This book is well written and well researched. It gives you everything you need to know to make wise and informed decisions about labor and delivery. I really wish I'd had this book when I was pregnant with my first child - it could have saved us a lot of heartache. We had a very difficult delivery with serious complications. I feel that if we had read this book beforehand it wouldn't have been as scary and we would have had the information we needed to make the right decisions for us. This is the book I buy for all of my pregnant girlfriends the minute they tell me they are expecting!
Rating: 
Summary: Great resource
Review: I'm pregnant with my first child, and this book did a very thorough job of explaining what to expect in the hospital, why they do the interventions they do, why these interventions might not necessarily lead to the most positive birth experience, etc. I feel more prepared now for what that might come my way during labor, thanks to this book. Anyone who claims that this book is 'unbiased', however, is sadly mistaken! The overwhelming tone of the book is 'hospitals and doctors are evil and must be destroyed'. I agree that the medical establishment intervenes too much in a natural process, but the bashing gets to be a bit much. Also, I found that much of the book's assertions are based on studies from the 1960's and 1970's...I'd like to see something a little more current. A lot can change in 30-40 years!! I still recommend the book, but I wouldn't make it the ONLY childbirth book that you pick up.
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