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Summary: Great book on the inner aspects of birthing
Review: Most books on birth focus on what is going to happen TO your body during labor and delivery. This is one of the new that switches the focus to what will happen IN your head and heart. I found it very insightful and extremely helpful. I loved the sections with suggestions on journal topics and creating art to express issues surrounding birth.
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Summary: Mind over matter!
Review: I bought this book when I was about half-way through my pregnancy (my third. The other two labor and deliverys for my older children were hospital births. I did not want to deliver in a hospital again, and planned to give birth at a birthing center with a nurse-midwife attending the birth. Also, I hired a doula. After reading this book, I was able to dispell my fears about my past experiences and what might happen and get on with concentrating on having a positive experience. I am happy to report that I had the best labor and delivery possible! Giving birth is as much a mental exercise as physical. This book should be on every woman's reading list.
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Summary: Wonderful book for preparing women for birth
Review: I am a doula and I reccomend that my clients read this book. What I love about this book is that it promotes natural childbirth but yet encourages women to be flexible and open to other options in their labor. It helps to create a positive mindset and remove fears that women might have as tney approach labor. Kathy Irvine
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Summary: Finally, a book that made me feel better about giving birth.
Review: After reading What to Expect When You're Expecting, Conception, Pregnancy & Birth, and A Thinking Woman's Guide cover to cover, I was petrified of the whole birthing process because of the sterile and clinical depiction given in each. From an educational standpoint, these books each have merits of their own, however emotionally they left me feeling very detached. I am at 34 weeks and have not given birth yet, but I have much less anxiety and feel much more spiritually and mentally prepared after reading Birthing From Within.
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Summary: The BEST book I've read so far...
Review: I found this book about halfway through my pregnancy - my first and only. The stories from other women who've had different birth experiences were very interesting and helpful. The book gives parents-to-be several tools to help them make important decisions about who to have as their birth attendant, the environment best suited to them to give birth, how to find doctors that will respect your wishes, how to say "no" to drugs when they might be encouraged by hospital staff, etc. From the start I was determined to try for a no-drug birth, in an upright position, and desperately wanted to avoid an episiotomy - this book reassured me that it is very possible to have all three. I also marked several areas for my husband to read and he was very encouraged and excited after reading them. One thing about some other books on natural childbirth I found disturbing was the amount of anti-hospital/doctor rhetoric - this book keeps that to a minimum by making the parent-to-be very well informed and encouraging them to make decisions based on what's comfortable for them. This will be the book I encourage every one of my friends who are interested in natural childbirth to read thoroughly.
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Summary: Get it if only for the bellymask directions!
Review: I found this book when pregnant with my third child. My previous two natural births had been great, so I needed some reason to justify to myself buying another pregnancy book. I found it in the directions for making a cast of your pregnant belly. I'd wanted to do that and had seen kits advertised, but they're kind of high; using the book's instructions, you can gather inexpensive supplies and do it easily. So that was our Week 37 project, and the whole family enjoyed it. I love looking at the mask and remembering what it was like being so hugely pregnant (baby is 7 months old now). As for the rest of the book, it is wonderful too. I really can't add anything to the thoughtful, well-articulated reviews that have already been posted here, so I won't take up more space trying!
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Summary: This is THE ONLY book to prepare for Childbirth with!
Review: I bought this book in September 1998 when I hired a Doula to be with me during my second baby's birth. My Doula recommended the book. It helped me tremedously! I had a wonderful hospital birth experience in November, despite it not being how I had hoped it would go. I am now expecting my third baby, and have read and re-read this book. It is the only way to prepare for childbirth. I am planning a home birth this time, and the methods of dealing with things will allow a home birth to go smoothly, and if need to be in a hospital arises, that won't alter the birth experience, as we birth from WITHIN, not from WITHOUT! My Doula now TEACHES the BFW method, and my husband and I are attending the classes. Pam England has a superior way of looking at the birthing process. Other childbirth classes pale in comparison, and really there is no true comparison! BFW is the best book written on preparing to give birth, whether at home, in a birthing center, in a hospital room, or under the knife via C-section!
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Summary: The best resource!
Review: As a nurse and first-time mom, I found myself in constant search of information during my pregnancy. However, all of the things I read which were "clinical" descriptions or "prescriptive" manuals for how to go through labor left me feeling anxious and empty. Then I found this book and, admittedly, I thought it looked kind of hokey when I first picked it up. But I soon discovered that it was the most empowering thing I had read so far. I think that people who already have a basic understanding of the mechanics of labor need look no further than this book for support and direction. It truly allows you to be yourself, direct your own birth experience, and believe in your own natural abilities, without criticizing those who find they need pain control or medical intervention. I highly recommend this book to every parent who wants to experience birth, not just survive it.
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Summary: SOMETHING TO MOVE TOWARD!
Review: With all of the fear surrounding our current birthing climate, I found BIRTHING FROM WITHING freeing. After my first disappointing birth experience of a c/s, I planned a vbac. BFW gave me a multitude of visions to move toward in planning the birth that I truly wanted. It helped me cultivate that part of myself that was giving birth. I took Pam's suggestions and created birth art. I took many of her sugggestions. I went on to have a successful vbac at home! This book and the authors played a role in that. My newest baby girl coos and smiles at the birth art that I created while pregnant with her. This is the best book that I know of for preparing for birth on all levels.
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Summary: Read this if nothing else while pregnant
Review: I am a midwife (registered in Australia) and mother, I have been reading about, working in and researching in the area of birth since 1983. This is by far the most helpful book for women and their partners I have ever come across. I own three and ensure every client I have borrows one, many buy them. It recognises birth from the woman's perspective and not the health professional's. My only criticisms are the (understandably) American slant and some of the comments about pain relief. Sure, no woman should be tortured by the pain but I believe that any woman, where no problems are evident and with authentic midwifery will not require pharmacological pain relief.
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