Rating: 
Summary: A Must-Have for a Doula's library
Review: This is a GREAT book for any expecting mom or doula. I have it in my lending library and suggest it to any prospective clients. I also have the video with the same name--IT's wonderful as well!!
Rating: 
Summary: Will help you make pro-active decisions about your birth
Review: This is absolutely a lovely book. When I first became pregnant, I assumed that when it came time to birth to my baby, I would check into a hospital, get my epidural, and have my baby. However, as the months past and I began to appreciate the tiny individual inside me, I started to get curious about the entire process of child-bearing and birth. This particular book is slightly biased against American Obstetrics, but with good reason. I would advise all pregnant women to read this book, whether this is your 1st pregnancy or your 5th: but do read it with a grain of salt. Our medical establishment, for the most part, is interested in what's best for us and our babies. But this book can help those of us who haven't experienced birth, or had an unsatisfying birth experience previously, to educate ourselves on the birth process in order to make informed, sound decisions about what birthing method is best for us and our babies. I strongly recommend purchasing this book with the accompanying video-the video is excellent: informative and high-quality. It shows several different women actually birthing their babies. The way those babies (free from the sedative effects of narcotic or epidural anesthesia) respond to their parents and the others around them immediately after birth will awe you!
Rating:
Summary: A must read for every expecting parent!!!
Review: This is an excellent book. The pictures are gorgeous, as usual Suzanne Arms has done terrific photography, and the descriptions of childbirth are pretty acurate. I must state though that every woman's experience of childbirth will be her own and be different so just because someone's childbirth was one way as described in this book it does not mean it will happen the same way for you. Technocratic birth is still the norm throughout the country and it is important to read books like this to prepare yourself should you be considering a hospital birth. The writer has obviously had a bad experience in the hospital, but many people have and I admire her wanting to share her experience as a warning to others. In my last hospital birth in 1999 I too was subjected to many of the interventions I did not want, for the third and final time I gave birth in the hospital. Never again. I wish I had read this back in 1995 before I had my first son and maybe things would have been different. Hospitals are for sick people, not pregnant women who are low risk. Also, someone else who reviewed here made some mention of a baby having an umbilical cord wrapped around its neck as a reason for c-sec, but that is not necessarily true. It is a small matter to unwrap a cord from around an infants neck as it is being born...I know as this happened with my son at his birth at home this past spring. If I had been in the hospital...would they have cut me open? Who knows?
Rating: 
Summary: Myths about Austin childbirth/get your facts straight
Review: To the so called fictitious Austin anonymous reviewer, how did you get the "way to the right" so called fact? Based on your one time experience? May be your fact, but not mine.. The doctors here are among the best in the nation.. Nothing is forced down your throat here.. You have a choice to give birth in your house if you want to.. No one is forcing you to go to a hospital. This isnt a communist country the last time I checked. I am okay with paying the higher rate, to help out the poorer among us who need the emergency caeserian because the baby's umbilical cord was wrapped around its neck. Caesarians - last time I checked was determined by the doctor, who is responsible for you.. since you are in so much stress at the moment of child birth..and besides, that's what you choose a doctor for, and that's why they undergo such training and education.. and it is not dispensed like candy.. They have to write an explanation to the insurance company why it was necessary, or they dont get paid.. Did you attend ALL child birth classes offered at Austin (hundreds of different instructors), or are you generalizing all Austin Lamaze trainings based on your misfortunes. Austin is a BIG city.. Lamaze instructors are certified (yours might not have been), and Lamaze is a standard teaching method.. It is not modified.. If it was modified in your case, then you cannot call it Lamaze anymore, but call it your own technique. Midwifes are still encouraged in Austin hospitals.. what do hospitals care.. as long as they get paid for their room.. Sorry for your experiences.. Sorry about your "malfunctioning birth machine".. Maybe you need to stop seeing a quack, and get a more reputable OB/GYN for your next one. And, this book is outdated.. needs to catch up with the times.. Maybe this still holds water in some small towns... but I cannot relate to it, living in a modern, hip city with the highest number of people with masters degree than anywhere in the country.
Rating: 
Summary: Inspirational, Informative, but fell short for me
Review: When I was pregnant with my first child I read, believd, and greatly enjoyed this book. I felt so prepared for my home birth attended by a midwife, and was so sure everything would work out....To make a long story short, everything doesn't always work out great with home birth like the beautiful stories tell. I had to transfer to the hospital, and had a miserable birth experience with my first child. After reading this book I was so built up for a wonderful experience. I still had a healthy baby, and no major complications. I think this is a good book to read, if taken with a grain of salt. A home birth would be a wonderfull thing, as would a birth center, or an OB who was behind natural birth(the choices which are given the most credit). Unfourtunatly, in practice there are people who have difficulties with birthing, and I feel this book failed to address that, and went overboard on the 'woman-power'/have faith in your body/you can do it aspect. If you choose a home birth, this can be a wonderfull thing to do. But it is best to have a back up plan, just in case.
Rating:
Summary: Birthing women have nothing to prove
Review: Who will deliver my baby? On recommendation of a midwife I interviewed early in my pregnancy, I read Barbara Harper's Gentle Birth Choices. I had disavowed myself of AMA practitioners and expected to opt for a midwife but wanted to be convinced that midwifery was best for me and my baby. Harper convinced me, however, to have nothing to do with home birth. That's shocking. I prefer alternative methods. A doctor of osteopathy (DO), chiropractor and nutrition therapist restored my health after MDs destroyed it. I wanted facts. But here's her dis-infomercial's despicable thesis: Enduring natural childbirth 'proves' a woman's self-worth. Hospital birth's sole purpose is to humiliate and victimize women duly put in their places by a wretched experience. Her rage comes from a horrible birth experience 20 years ago. The hospital denied her wishes. Staff refused to let her nurse. She banged on the hospital nursery window in rage as nurses formula-fed him. She confronted her doctor, who accused her of fanaticism. This prompted her anti-doctor crusade for other methods of birth. Fine, but readers should read with a block of salt. "Technocratic (hospital) birth" is a "rite of passage" and "hazing initiation" into modern society. Male doctors designed symbols to strip women's dignity: forcing her to wear hospital gowns, cutting pubic hair, using IVs and inaccurate fetal monitors, flat-on-the-back birth position, postpartum separation from baby, forced episiotomies, 50 percent cesarean rates, banning fathers and loved ones from the birth. That's enough to scare first-time mothers like me into hanging on birth empowerment guru Harper's every word on self-defense against the villains. She expects readers to swallow her gospel. But I did my own research. Here's what I learned: --Women obstetricians fill Austin's yellow pages --I can wear anything I want for the birth --'Rooming in' with the newborn is encouraged --Intermittent monitoring, until and unless I choose an epidural. (The midwife I interviewed uses monitors - why, if they're so bad?) --IVs only for epidurals --Some states require Lamaze certification to attend a birth, but nobody knew of banning a spouse from the delivery (fathers may attend routine c-sections, too) The OB-GYN I chose to deliver my baby: --Encourages upright, not on-the-back birth --Gave me questionnaires asking my preferences for the birth --No pubic hair cutting --No episiotomies --Pharmaceuticals when necessary or requested --5 percent c-section rate - she doesn't perform them herself and gains nothing by recommending one Have these changes occurred since her book's 1994 publication? To several in-the-know about hospital birth I showed page 37's disturbing photo of a birthing woman on her back, wide-apart legs strapped into stirrups. I learned from the room's design and equipment that the photo was probably from the late 1970s, way before the book's publication. So why would Harper use it to illustrate 'modern' birth, if not to scare away from hospitals potential home-birth clients? Why, in Chapter 2's 'history' of hospital childbirth, did Harper omit that doctors in the 1800s refused pain medications for birthing women because they believed suffering was God's ordained punishment for Eve's fall? Why is so little devoted to pain control, except to imply that pain is overstated and mothers who want meds are evil and selfish? She tips her hand in slamming the routine use of IVs on page 78 - they allow mothers to easily accept drugs: "Many women reach a point in their labor when they feel like they cannot take [the pain] any more and are ready to throw in the towel." Finally, an honest admission that childbirth is painful. On pages 72-74 are scare stories about pain meds: They're all dangerous to baby. Thus, readers must conclude, how vile those who would consider them. She talks of a doctor's or nurse's 'misguided sense of kindness' encouraging suffering women to take meds. Truth is, nobody's pushing drugs. They are simply available. It is a mother's CHOICE whether to take them. Why must Harper judge those who opt for pain relief? In Harper's world, the woman is unworthy UNLESS she endures suffering. Why not just prove my worth in an Ironman triathlon or building my own house? Why must I must prove anything at all? Harper throughout subtly reinforces the idea that these evil MDs are all men by referring to them as 'he,' though today more than half of med school grads are women. My OB-GYN is a woman. Page 79: "A chosen support person must attend childbirth classes and carry a certificate of completion in order to be present for the birth," true in some states, but we attended Lamaze in Texas, where Lamaze isn't mandatory to let him attend the birth. If Harper seeks to address educated readers, she should do her homework. They certainly will. Page 81: "The routine procedure is to separate babies from their mothers for some period of time immediately following the birth, reuniting the baby and mother only three or four specified times during the day." Why, then, does Lamaze encourage rooming in if most hospitals don't allow it? Again, why present as current this information that was outdated even at publication? Millions attending Lamaze learn their babies will stay in their rooms where routine medical/hygeine procedures are done, that only babies with medical difficulties or with tired mothers who want reprieve are taken to the nursery. Hospitals are consumer-driven. Denying expectations means going bankrupt. Imagine my shock when Lamaze's magazine named Gentle Birth Choices among top birth books! Clearly, Lamaze did not read it carefully, or it would never have done its members an injustice by recommending such disinformation. If Harper cares to right her wrongs, she must learn today's practices, then revise her book to eliminate disinformation. It would behoove her to deal with her anger at her traumatic experience and forgive the offending system. If she tells the truth about midwifery, many will still opt for it.
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