Rating: 
Summary: Make your own decisions about YOUR childbirth natural or not
Review: After reading these reviews here I bought and read this book during the last 3 months of my first pregnancy. It lived up to my expectations and then some. The bonus was that my husband also got a lot out of it and he said he wished he had read it cover to cover much earlier. Note: he decided to start reading it while I was in the early stages of labor at home, he said the "cramming" helped him tremendously to be a better birth partner and I have to agree with him.
If you find many of the birth books out there a bit patronizing or superficial ("what to expect...") and if you want to consider alternative or natural options for birthing without having them shoved down your throat then this book is definitely for you. For me it offered the perfect combination of information (detailed) and anecdotes so that it was fairly easy to read. Having said that, if you are looking for cute baby pictures and a "sound bite" style of writing then this may not be the book for you. It is for those that are willing to invest some time reading and thinking about how they want to manage their own pregnancy and birth experience. Some may find a few of the photos of women giving birth rather direct, but hey that is what childbirth looks like and it certainly helped me to deal with my fears and expectations about the event. In the end I had a natural childbirth(on a birthing stool) that I felt in control of and would not have changed anything about. I am sure that my positive mindset had much to do with the preparation I did reading this book. If I have a second child I will pull this book out first and put away the others. There is nothing man-hating (my husband would have picked up on that in a heartbeat) or anti-Dr about this book. She just presents the facts and information as they are without bias. The fact is that the rest of the developed world (outside the US) has significantly lower C-section rates, medicated birth rates etc... and just as low infant mortality rates so maybe we should listen up and learn something from our European friends?!
Rating:
Summary: Just Lovely
Review: I bought almost every pregnancy book around and this is THE one I felt was the most balanced. It doesn't preach to you that there is ONLY one way; it presents the facts and offers good advice. It doesn't leave you feeling cold and remote from the whole pregnancy experience; it actively involves you and empowers you. I can't understand why anyone at all would buy the "What to Expect" series - they just made me feel incompetent, inept, and uncomfortable. This book was obviously written by someone who want to share what an amazing experience pregnancy can be.
Rating: 
Summary: I've read better
Review: I bought this book for two reasons - one because it's on a list of required reading for a doula certification I'm currently working on and two because of all the great reviews on here. I can't say I was very impressed with the book overall though. There are parts that are pretty good - I liked the information on water births and I do like that overall the book it very pro-birth and pro-natural pain relief, etc. etc. However it also comes across as very biased to me and anti-men. And the information on alcohol was just disturbing and wrong.
I was also very disturbed when I read the section on diapering where she compared cloth to disposables - she states that women who use cloth change their babies less often and that therefore using disposables is better for the baby. This is such an absurd statement and shows that the author not only has no experience in using cloth diapers but obviously didn't even bother to talk to anyone that does. It's impossible to leave a child in a cloth diaper as long as one can in a disposable!! Independent research studies have shown that cloth diapers get changed on average 2 to 3 times MORE often then disposables. That section was so off-base that it made me wonder about the rest of the content.
Rating:
Summary: Best Pregnancy book ever!
Review: I bought this book while alone and pregnant living in Japan. It was with out a doubt the most informative book I read. I first bought what to expect, stressed myself out trying to eat by their meal plan, and was really offended by their bordering on racist remarks about beliefs of other cultures ( such as sleeping with babies or using babycarriers.) Kitzinger's book helped me to feel confident that I was healthy and able to take on the challanges of pregnancy and childbirth. I did not think that she was too new age in fact she opened my eyes to medicated childbirth as well as water births. I remember reading the part about alcohol, and I feel that it comes from a British perspective. I think that in the U.S. people tend to take things to extremes, and I do not think that having one glass of wine or beer is harmful. If anything I think that it is better to mellow out with a glass of wine then to be stressed out through out one's pregnancy. All in all this is the book I recomend to everyone, the pictures of the different childbirths are themselves worthy of buying the book. The last thing that I would like to point out to the person who wrote such a nasty review is that Shelia Kitzinger is a mother of 5, and an anthropologist who studied childbirth practice all around the world. I think that she is quite qualified to write a book on childbirth.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book for Expectant Moms-Very Informative and Complete
Review: I loved reading this book as a mother and an in-training doula. I wish I would have had this book when I was pregnant with my first baby. It covers questions that I wanted answers to, but I didn't know what to ask. I felt like the author prefers a home birth over a hospital birth, although she did a great job of giving a hospital vs. home birth atmosphere without making me feel like one way was the right way. Sheila Kitzinger gave healthy options in both atmospheres so I could choose what would work for me. She was very informative and gave enough information to make me feel like I didn't need more.
Rating:
Summary: hopeful midwife in training
Review: I ordered this book on accident but after I got it and started reading everything is so easy to referance. Good description of positions for pregnancy labor and delivery- not to mention helpful post pregnancy advice too. I wish I had known about this book when I was prenant with my last baby. I will be adding this book to my lending library (after I get another one that is). Very impressive material. It is easily understood by someone who has little to no medical experiance and is informative enough to keep the attention of those with medical experiance.
Rating: 
Summary: Unbalanced, biased, and dangerous
Review: I purchased this book partially because of the reviews it received on Amazon, but also because it was included in a book list from the hospital where I will be taking my birthing classes. And there is interesting information in there about the birthing process, what to expect, and what a woman's options are. However, that's information you can get elsewhere. I would highly discourage any woman from reading this book, but particularly other women who are experiencing the pressure and issues related to high risk pregnancies. I would agree with the above reviews that this book is not anti-Doctor. However, I couldn't help but feel as if the author was being judgmental towards those women who decide to give birth (naturally or otherwise) in a hospital. As a juvenile diabetic, I view my pregnancy as something of a miracle which would not have been able to happen unless I was under the wonderful, and supportive, care of my doctor and hospital staff - the same institutions Kitzinger is obviously weary of. And as a woman, I fully believe that we're suppose to be able to choose whatever methods are best for us, even if that means medical assistance or having our babies in a hospital instead of at home. It's hard enough having a high risk pregnancy without having to feel as if we're still doing something wrong. That would have been enough for me to just set this book aside and turn to another. But than Kitzinger, who even quotes studies suggesting that you're doing something wrong if you want to have even an ultrasound, states the following: "However, most women can drink in moderation during pregnancy and have a perfect baby. Limit your intake to 10 units of alcohol a week and do spread them out over the week." This is someone who has no problem throwing at the reader every obscure study she can find about how dangerous medical treatment can be during pregnancy, but she ignores all the studies which point out, over and over again, how dangerous it is to drink? I was horrified and outraged at the double standard. If you're going to read this book, just make sure you understand where her obvious bias is coming from. And please, please, don't actually think it's okay to have ten glasses of wine a week while pregnant. It will do serious damage to your baby.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully informative and pro-woman, pro-child
Review: I've read a lot of books about childbirth while preparing to give birth, and I got this one because my midwife specifically recommended I read "anything" by Sheila Kitzinger. Of all the books I've read, this one ranks as one of my two favorites. I like the author's attitude about birth: it is a natural, normal physiological process in the overwhelming majority of cases, and should be treated as such. The pros and cons of drugs and other interventions are also presented, and while Ms. Kitzinger is undoubtedly pro-natural, I really would not say she is anti-doctor (as some have claimed). She is anti-routine-intervention, and anti-unecessary-intervention, but otherwise I feel that she's simply presenting facts for readers to consider. As the only way to make an intelligent, informed decision about your body and your experience of birth is to be informed, I feel this book goes a very long way toward providing necessary and helpful information to women and their partners.
Rating: 
Summary: Very informative but not gospel
Review: Ms. Kitzinger's book was recommended during my childbirth class and is very helpful in its description of medical terms, procedures, and fetal development. Looking at the other reviews, I, too, thought that there could be no way any pregnancy book would condone drinking alcohol during pregnancy. However, I went home and continued reading the book and came across the section on drugs and was horrified to see that she does. After talking about the potentially harmful effects of alcohol during pregnancy, Ms. Kitzinger goes on to say that most women can drink moderately and have "perfect babies". She says to limit yourself to 10 units of alcohol per week and spread it out during the week; one unit being a glass of wine or half a pint of beer. That sounds like an awful lot of alcohol even if it is spread out during the week, who should take the risk? I don't have the book with me so I don't know what page exactly but it was in the section about drugs during pregnancy. Besides this, I agree with most of what Ms. Kitzinger says and truly enjoy the pictures that illustrate different positions to take during labor, and relaxation exercises. Like any other book, take the information that makes sense to you and discard what doesn't. Still a valuable book.
Rating:
Summary: A must have for expectant mothers ....... could save a life!
Review: That is 5+++++++++ ......
I purchased this book as an informative book to help me with my first pregnancy .... it is a very detailed, thorough book and I felt it a great help during my pregnancy as my partner and I followed the week by week pictures and information so that we knew (how or rather) what our baby was up to! Pregnancy should be a straightforward process but unfortunately it is not always that way and you definitely need to be able to refer to information that can help you in an emergency. When I had spot bleeding in my 7 month of pregnancy I went straight to the section in the book that talks about spotting and what could be happening and it encouraged me to go to my local hospital which was very, very, very fortunate because I was actually in labour and my baby was coming!!!!!!!!!! Without this book for guidance I may have had my 3 month premature baby at home and she would never have survived! I thank this book for it's existence and wonderful advice! For this very reason, I recommend this book to any first time mums .... or any expecting mums out there .... just so you know, I chose not to read the section on "things that can go wrong" in your pregnancy but thank goodness it was there because I really needed it in the end! Goodluck in your pregnancy and good reading, Kristina
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