Rating: 
Summary: Mixed bag
Review: I wanted to give this book one star for my immediate reactions to it. I opened to the page where she discusses how harmful the narcotics given during childbirth for pain can be to the baby. I have a unique situation - I have a medical condition that has required pain management throughout my pregnancy (with narcotics prescribed by my specialist, with full support of my OB & Midwife). I will also have a planned c-section for medical reasons. So this book, rec'd as a gift, is not a good one for someone in my position with medical issues. I have done a lot of research and consulted with a number of health care professionals who have assured me that the medications I am taking will not harm by baby. Do I know for certain? No. Were these decisions undertaken lightly? No. But, given my situation and the best available medical information, these were the choices and recommendations I have followed. These are choices not at all supported by this book. This is not a book for women who require medical management and intervention in order to be able to have a baby in the first place. As a previous reviewer noted, there is also some misinformation in the book. The hospital where I will deliver has 27% of deliveries attended by midwives (and they deliver about 10,000 babies a year!). Rooming-in is encouraged, even for c-sections. On my tour, there were 4 babies in the nursery on a full floor (so maybe 25+ babies were with their mommies). I can look up c-section, episiotomy and epidural rates for every hospital in my state, and they are lower than what she quotes in her book (although they do vary by setting). Another important factor for me is that my health care team consists of both a midwife and an OB, and my wonderful midwife has done almost all my prenatal care even though I will have a c-section. (My OB will perform that). I do think there are ways to have a more empowering experience, even if you need (or want) a more medicalized one. One would not know that from this book. It is hard to find non-judgemental materials for someone needing a c-section, and this book is no exception. Fortunately, my health care providers, partner, family and friends are very supportive! I also think a woman who opts for pain relief (such as narcotics or epidural) could read this book and feel herself a failure as a woman for choosing that. On the positive, I do think this book is an excellent resource for information about water birth, water labor, and non-drug labor and delivery. If that is your interest, I think you will find a lot of very useful information in this book. I give it 5 stars for that information.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth the read, keep an open mind
Review: I would like to say that first of all, I agree with the previous reader from Austin (who rated this book a 1 out of 5 stars) only in that the author definitely has a strong bias against the medical establishment. The bias is so severe it does at times appear as a chip on her shoulder and she is so against modern medicine that she argues against any involvement with doctors at all. And I also agree that her choice of pictures/illustrations do seem overly dated given the publication date. (I actually had no idea that it was published as recently as 1994. I definitely perceived a 1970s feel.) Given that, I would still say that the basic points of her information are worth considering. A natural birth is natural. In the normal situation of birth, the body is able to handle the huge amounts of stress that it experiences. And a woman's mind CAN be capable of cooperating with the body. The author also gives anecdotal evidence that the mind is also capable of working against the body. Basically, a natural birth is a whole experience and all components of the woman must work together to get the most out of such a tremendous experience. Her body, mind, emotions, and social support system must work in agreement and any conflict may cause problems or delays. I read this book earlier this year after resolving to start a family. I read it a full 9 months before I actually became pregnant. At first, I was very convinced that natural birth is the only way. But after 9 months of contemplation, I now believe natural birth is the best way, but not the only way. Perfectly normal and happy families are created through less natural processes. And I still have another 8 months to dwell on my own choice for the birth of my first child. So my goal is to start from an ideal birth plan that is natural, but safe, and then I can determine where I am willing to accept changes. After all a healthy baby and a healthy mom is what is ultimately important, right? Sure it may be better for my baby to be born drug free. And it may be better for me to nurse my newborn immediately and upon demand the whole time I am in the hospital so that we may bond as soon as possible. But it is also better if I never eat cheetos or pizza, and I can live with myself if I indulge in that occasionally. So here's my bottom line. If you're considering a natural birth method and want some stories and a varied picture of what types of options are available, definitely read this book. But read it with some salt (as several other reviewers have said). Be critical and objective of all that you read. Likewise, be just as critical and objective of what your OB and doctors tell you. Be an informed medical consumer and I think you will be happy with a healthy baby, however she arrives. Good luck!
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful
Review: If you aren't sure about a hospital birth, this will help you decide. Additionally, it isn't a "home birth or else" as some "alternative birth choice" books can seem to be. Very nicely considered birth centers, the medium ground. Overall, very well-written and thought-provoking. My husband and I even had several good discussions when I brought up points in the book.
Rating:
Summary: Not really comprehensive
Review: If you don't like the "normal" childbirth paradigm, then this book offers a good review of some other options. It especially covers water births and has good information on the advantages of water births. However, the sections that talk about common obstetrical practices are very poorly written. They are exageratted, and undocumented, and don't take into account anything that doesn't support the focus of the book. Overall I enjoyed reading it, and recommend it for women who want more choices in childbirth. But I also recommend that you read other books as well. If you only have time for one book, don't read this one. Read "The Thinking Womans Guide to a Better Birth" by Henci Goer.
Rating:
Summary: beautiful book
Review: Reading negative comments of writer who had positive hosp. birth experience in Austin, TX, i wish to point out that Texas has one of the most active midwifery associations in our country - they have been instrumental in advancing natural birth practices in Texas. You were fortunate to have the options you shared - they are still not the norm for hospital births in much of our country. I live in Virginia Beach, VA, am a nurse, mom and grandmom. Hosp. births here still leave a lot to be desired. Episotomies are standard, induction and c-section rate are very high. When I went to nursing school in the 1980's, I was not taught anything about natural childbirth, I was taught that women needed interventions and taught about the interventions. It wasn't until I became natural childbirth educator that I found out how our bodies really work during birthing and how to work with the body's natural birth capabilities. Many women live in localities where they need to be aware that they have other options than what is traditionally offered in their communities- they may have to fight for their right to have the birth of their choice. This book does an excellent job at empowering women to look for healthy birth choices- I look forward to the day when your experience of forward thinking and practices in a hospital setting is the norm, rather than the exception.
Rating: 
Summary: Thousands of women have thanked me for Gentle Birth Choices
Review: Since the publication of the book and the release of the video, my non-profit organization, Global Maternal/Child Health Association has received thousands of calls, emails and letters from women who took the initiative to look into birthing alternatives in their areas. I am committed to assisting each and every woman who contacts us and enjoy speaking with women who use the book and the video to educate their doctors or midwives on what they want to achieve in childbirth. One father even credited me with saving his marriage. You see, his wife read him the book each evening and after watching the video, he agreed to a home birth. They had a lovely experience and he called to say, "Thank you."
Rating:
Summary: It changed my life
Review: This book has changed my life, 10,000-fold, for the better. It was loaned to me in the beginning of my first trimester, and I devoured it -- I gulped it down like a drowning person desperate for air. (I am due in about 5-6 weeks.) It helped me to return -- on a straight and narrow path -- to my original hopes of having a midwife attended homebirth.
Barbara Harper introduces us to the fact that modern medicine has "medicalized" childbirth, which is a normal bodily function, a natural process. She goes on to dispel myths, such as once a Cesarean, always a Cesarean; childbirth for women over 35 is difficult, and high risk (!); pain killers won't harm the baby; and a number of other myths, which most of us have been taught by our obstetricians to believe. She offers us further information that many of us have likely been unaware of, such as the non-necessity of cutting the cord immediately, and the fact that it is in fact likely to be harmful to the newborn to have the cord cut immediately.
When writing about the electronic fetal monitor, Barbara Harper says that "Dr. Robert Hon, inventor of the EFM [electronic fetal monitor], asked his colleagues to consider the causes of the rising cesarean rate in the United States. He stated that he never intended the EFM to be used in routine obstetric management. 'If you mess around with a process [birth] that works well 98 percent of the time, there is a potential for much harm.'"
This book has been, for me, a comforting, lifesaving, safety net in which to fall at a time when I was newly pregnant at 37, and frantic with miserable discomfort at the care I had been receiving at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
And of the seven Appendices offered in this book, Appendix F: Resources, provides a wealth of references to other groups.
I must also add that this book changed my husband's life just as much as it did mine, if only because it brought me to my search for a homebirth midwife. And in that search, we were introduced to another fabulous book called Silent Knife (find it under Nancy Wainer Cohen), which my husband has told me has changed his life, and which is a must-read for any woman trying to avoid a C-section, or a repeat C-section.
Barbara Harper has has also introduced me to a vast collection of other authors, whose books I have begun to acquire at a steady pace. To note just a few: Michel Odent, Sheila Kitzinger, Nancy Wainer (Cohen), Frederick Leboyer, Ida May Gaskin, Marsden Wagner, David Stewart, Henci Goer, Penny Simkin, and many others.
Barbara Harper founded Global Maternal/Child Health Association (GMCHA) and Waterbirth International in 1989. I called GMCHA and left a message on their machine looking for some information, and I was thrilled to be able to personally thank Barbara Harper, and to tell her that SHE changed my life, when she called me back herself. So I was doubly happy to see that she remains fully a part of the organization she established.
I have come to two conclusions through my recent reading, thanks to my introduction to Gentle Birth Choices, and all of my reading since then: 1) To rely so fully as Americans do, on advice from the medical profession, is a tremendous abdication of responsibility. Though the search for the right care is not easy, good things do not come easily, and we must take back responsibility for our own health care, rather than blindly relying on doctors; and 2) Those of us who continue to insist that doctors MUST know what they're doing, are not behaving with respect toward their God. I happen to be Atheist, and my view is that Nature has designed the human body. For many believers, the human body has been designed by God. Either way, the human body is a finely honed machine, designed by something or someone greater than any of us. For humanity to behave the way that we do toward the birth process shows a profound lack of respect for Nature/God. Do we really think that a system designed by God or Nature is so faulty that C-sections are required approximately 25% of the time? Those who will simultaneously prefer an obstetrician-attended birth in a hospital, and who will allow the numerous interventions likely to attend their birth in a hospital, and who also claim to love their God may want to re-evaluate both their understanding of medical practices in America, as well as their understanding of God.
This book, and ALL of the others to which it has led me, will provide readers with information from an endless supply of studies, all of which have been published in the most highly respected medical journals (JAMA, British Lancet, Am. Coll. of Obstet. & Gyn., etc.), every one of which show results that prove that ALL medical interventions only contribute to difficulties in labor. Why do our doctors continue to practice this way? Read up -- educate yourself -- you'll be glad that you did. And you'll want to thank Barbara Harper profusely, as I still want to!!!
Rating:
Summary: Outdated
Review: This book is definitely outdated, if you are to buy one book-don't buy this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Outdated and Opinionated
Review: This book is very outdated and the opinion in it is very slanted. I would rather read a book that states facts from both sides, not a one-sided bashing.
Rating:
Summary: Gentle Birth Options made me a believer.
Review: This book was riveting from beginning to end. As I am preparing for my first child, I've begun the process of learning about what's to come. This book not only informed me, it turned me into a believer. It affirmed intuitive feelings I already had about the way birth should be. Now instead of thinking that women who birth in water are wierdos - I now plan to have a water birth! What a turn-around... Thank you Barbara Harper!
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