Rating: 
Summary: This is the one we recommend to all our pregnant friends!
Review: My wife and I have read this book multiple times and recommend it to everyone we know who is pregnant.In fact the reason we came to amazon.com today was to order some more copies to hand out to our friends. Most people know more about choices to make when buying a car than they do when having a baby. Let's face it, which is more important! This book gives you information that will enable you to make the best birth choices for your family. It details the choices that you can and should make BEFORE your baby's birth. If you're already reading "What to Expect When You're Expecting" that's great, but go one step further and find out what to expect during birth.
Rating: 
Summary: Give Me a Break
Review: My wife thought the book was so funny she nearly went into labor prematurely laughing so hard. I am kidding about the labor part, but she literally could not read passages aloud to me because she couldn't stop laughing. This book is nonsensical, so long as it isn't taken seriously. The authors attempt to create an alternative reality, complete with lingo, which sounds good, feels good, and has no pertinence in the reality which we all actually share. Hopefully no one will get hurt in their construct. Please don't bother.
Rating:
Summary: loved this book
Review: Now that I'm ten days "overdue" with my second, I realise I should have read it again. It helps ensure that women aren't badgered by medical dogma and forced into unsafe birthing situations such as induction for post-date, epidurals, lithotomy position to give birth. Reminds us that birth is natural and is easiest when we don't mess with it
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Summary: full of references and studies to back up their statements
Review: The birth of my first son did not go as I had wished, it ended up being an overly medicalized affair. I thought I had read enough and educated myself enough but I was wrong. I wanted a second child but was more scared of childbirth after having gone through that bad experience. Knowing there had to be a better way, I began reading more books. I read a dozen books before and during my second pregnancy. Each book had a different twist and something to learn from. These authors make bold statements regarding childbirth issues, compared with some of the popular mainstream childbirth books. But just when I was thinking that maybe they were wrong, they cited a reference. Everything these authors state is backed up by references and is credible. The reference section that lists these studies is 34 pages long! There is a very detailed index, which is helpful. One unique feature this book has is a wonderful chapter on why OB/GYN physicians do what they do. It is explained in detail how the training of an OB is medical in nature, that they are trained to look for and solve medical problems and that they are surgeons by training. This was the only book that really explains in detail why a midwife and an OB have different attitudes toward pregnancy (a medical event vs. a normal life process for a woman). The authors don't doctor-bash, but are very clear about why things happen the way they do in a hospital setting and/or with an OB as the health care provider. For those interested in home birth, it is discussed and cited as the most safe for both mother and baby, and the references are there (for anyone who doubts that issue). This book was so full of good information that I ended up highlighting many passages, which I usually never do (as I want to keep my books clean). To get the birth that one desires, one must know much of this information before beginning care with a health care provider. I urge anyone considering pregnancy to research the childbirth issue in the beginning. The chapter on controlling the progress of labor and pain relief is very enlightening and should be mandatory reading for all pregnant women. In the end I realized that we have to advocate for our own healthcare, by choosing a provider whom we trust and who shares the same concepts on pregnancy, labor and delivery. This book covers topics such as what your options for birth are, different types of health care providers, different types of birth settings, OB training and belief system, how to find a provider, questions to ask your provider and hospital, cesareans: why they are popular and when are they medically necessary?, getting support, the nurses role, childbirth support, doulas, and the woman's emotions. The overall tone of the book is positive and "matter of fact". Oh, and in the end I had the birth I wanted, a normal birth in a hospital setting, with no interventions at all, attended by my midwife, my doula, my husband, and I delivered a healthy 11 lb. 11 oz. baby boy!
Rating:
Summary: Biased and Outdated Work by Unqualified Authors
Review: The title requires some translation: by "a safe birth," the authors mean "safe from the interference of doctors and nurses," and by "the childbirth experience you want," they mean childbirth with a minimum of interference from doctors or nurses, which they claim is the way most women want it. If you already know that's what you want, this book may seem a bracing pep talk on how to talk back to the medical establishment. However, if you're either unsure how you feel or, worse, if you actually think you'd like some medicinal pain relief during what's widely agreed to be the most painful experience in most women's lives, this book is not for you. I'm not sure how they selected the women they surveyed on birth preferences, but considering that they quoted only about 1 woman who actually wanted drugs rather than having them forced upon her by evil doctors, I have my doubts about their selection methods. In my own experience, I have yet to come upon a woman who got the sort of athletic satisfaction out of the unmitigated pain of labor that seems so common among their interviewees. Most of the women I know seem to think pain hurts, and it'd be nice to have less of it. The authors claim that interventions by doctors (all sorts of pain medications, inducing labor, episiotomy, and especially caesarean sections) only make childbirth more dangerous for both mother and baby. This seems highly dubious to me, because far more women and babies died during childbirth before these techniques were invented. They back up all their conclusions by citing scientific studies, but neither of them is a scientist, a doctor, a nurse, a public health specialist, an epidemiologist, or a midwife, so I doubt they really have the qualification to do the kind of scientific analysis of birth technologies that they claim to be doing, and I strongly suspect them of cherry-picking studies that support their ideological convictions and ignoring evidence to the contrary. In addition, a book written in 1992 about childbirth choices is likely to be completely outdated for women giving birth in the age of Damaged Care, I mean Managed Care. To give you a hint of the problem, while the authors mention HMOs, they feel the need to define the term. The health care world has changed, and many of the options they describe may not be options any more.
Rating:
Summary: Put this on top of your list
Review: There are so many (too many) how-to books for pregnant moms to read, and each seems to have a bias, a slant, a message to sell. This is the book you need. I was a midwife in Berkeley for 15 years, and I always included A Good Birth, A Safe Birth on my recommended reading lists for clients. It doesn't preach. It gives straight, evidence-based information. Most of all, it helps women to know what questions to ask - and how to ask them so they'll be assured of straight answers.
Valuable information for everyone associated with childbearing, from moms to doulas to nurses to midwives - and darn, I sure wish a few obstetricians would climb out from behind their desks and read it, too!
Buy it, and buy another one for a pregnant friend.
Rating: 
Summary: Makes you feel like you have a right to YOUR choices
Review: There are so many books about childbirth that explain what *will* happen to you, how great epidural anesthesia is, etc., that it is a necessity as a pregnant woman to have read a book that tells you what choices you have -- and that they are indeed yours to make. It's far better to have that point made very strongly, as this book does, than to have gone through your only (or one of few) birth experience(s) and look back with regret. As profound an experience as giving birth is, each woman should have the best chance for the experience that will mean the most to her. This (or one like it) is a must-read for every pregnant women -- preferably before she has made all of here who/what/when choices...
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: This book describes every medical intervention out there. Most Doctors try to be as medically interventive as possible because they are there to make the money. Epidurals, C-sections...etc.. are worth a heck of alot more than a nonmedicated non interventive birth! After educating myself and reading this book, I told my doctor how my birth was going to go, and it did!
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: This book describes every medical intervention out there. Most Doctors try to be as medically interventive as possible because they are there to make the money. Epidurals, C-sections...etc.. are worth a heck of alot more than a nonmedicated non interventive birth! After educating myself and reading this book, I told my doctor how my birth was going to go, and it did!
Rating:
Summary: Still great!
Review: This book helped me to make sense of nonsense. It also gave me a firm foundation to build on as a childbirth educator and doula. I highly recommend it to anyone who has an interest in birth.
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