Rating: 
Summary: Amazingly helpful!
Review: This *textbook* is awesome. There is so much information in here, do not borrow this book from your library! Purchasing this wonderfully helpful book is the only way to go. You won't be sorry! There are so many pictures, drawings and exemplary descriptions to assist you in your lifetime learning of this 'calling' - midwifery care and assistance. If you're a doula - you want this book. If you're a childbirth educator - you want this book. If you're an aspiring midwife of any kind - you want this book. If you're a mother, a grandmother, an expectant parent, or a natural childbirth advocate - you too, want this book! Guiding you through prenatal care, problems during pregnancy, the birth process, complications during labor, postpartum care for mothers and babies - this guide will last many, many lifetimes over. Included also, is information about becoming a midwife, and even setting up your own practice - or finding the right careeer route for yourself. This is a timeless piece of artwork! Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Excelent book. Solid overveiw of Midwifery
Review: This book covers the "hows" and "whats" of Midwifery. I feel that it offers information that will be usefull to the unstarted apprentice as well as the experienced Midwife. The language is clear and direct; and the proceedures outlined are detailed. This book covers every thing from the Birthing Kit, to prenatal care, to suturing, (for those rare tears) to postpartum care. It also looks at the politics of miwifery, and dicusses professional interpersonal relationships (<=read as how to get along with the local OB). One of the most striking features of this book are the drawings. The artist is fantastic. These combined with the photos supply vivid depictions of the information in the text.
Rating:
Summary: Super!
Review: This book has got to be one of the best books written for childbirth professionals. The information is informative and interesting, and the book actually contains professional forms for readers to consider in their own practice. This is a book I recommend for the shelf of anyone who is interested in studying midwifery, or anyone interested in hiring a midwife for their own birth.
Rating:
Summary: Super!
Review: This book has got to be one of the best books written for childbirth professionals. The information is informative and interesting, and the book actually contains professional forms for readers to consider in their own practice. This is a book I recommend for the shelf of anyone who is interested in studying midwifery, or anyone interested in hiring a midwife for their own birth.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent and Informative
Review: This is an excellent book for pregnant women and the aspiring midwife alike. Nutrition, medical care, diagnostics, the list goes on. This book is well balanced will a pro-midwife view, yet is not anti-doctor. Many helpful suggestions for the aspiring midwife. Ancient midwifery arts such as pelvimitry discussed in detail. I really enjoyed this book!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent and Informative
Review: This is an excellent book for pregnant women and the aspiring midwife alike. Nutrition, medical care, diagnostics, the list goes on. This book is well balanced will a pro-midwife view, yet is not anti-doctor. Many helpful suggestions for the aspiring midwife. Ancient midwifery arts such as pelvimitry discussed in detail. I really enjoyed this book!
Rating:
Summary: A Beautiful book promoting the essence of Midwifery
Review: This tender book has given me, as a student Nurse-Midwife, a precious insight to the essence of Midwifery that has gotten lost for some. In the midst of Midwifery school where details on the hows of birth are heavily concentrated on I pick up this book when I need to 'feel' that deep-seeded passion that Midwives have for their careers and their precious patients. The text is simply written, but also complex in its coverage of many aspects of birth. Ms. Davis does a fantastic job giving an explanation to the psychological and mystical events surrounding birth. Thank goodness that this sister Midwife shares her insight and experience with those of us who are doing everything we can to learn this challenging information.
Rating:
Summary: A lovely book for midwives and women!
Review: Within the first few lines of this book, it is clear that this has a very different feel from your `average' midwifery textbook: Elizabeth begins by talking about how women have helped each other give birth since the dawn of time and her words throughout the book focus on the social ~ rather than the medical ~ context of birth and midwifery. In fact, throughout the book, the woman remains the focus of the whole experience, something which might sound obvious but isn't always achieved in reality. The text is interspersed with quotes from women, practical suggestions and stories from her own experience, beautiful photographs and drawings which clearly show the positions of relevant organs while acknowledging that women and babies come in three dimensions (as opposed to the cross-sectional pictures which tend to characterise the more medically-focused textbooks).
Heart and Hands intersperses the clinical with the practical, social, psychological and spiritual, and key terms are in bold, which makes it easy to find what you are looking for and to scan a whole page for relevant information. There are fourteen appendices including suggestions for records / notes for different stages of childbearing, a birthkit list and a "postnatal instructions" handout.
It is noticeable that some aspects of this book have changed over time, so it is well worth taking a look at the new edition even if you have one of the older versions. For example, the book now incorporates more reference to research on key clinical topics (while managing to retain both the practical flavour and the emphasis on women's ways of knowing that have always made it popular with midwives) and Elizabeth herself reflects on how practice has moved on from the days when midwives tended to `overinvolve' themselves in labour. All in all, this is a lovely book which I am sure would soon become well loved (and probably quite tatty from repeated use!) in the hands of any midwife, doula, childbirth educator or pregnant woman!
Sara Wickham, author of "Midwifery: Best Practice"
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