Rating: 
Summary: Birth with dignity and respect for babies
Review: After four hospital births, I was finally fed up with impersonal childbirth. This book was one of the first books I read while preparing for the homebirth of our fifth child. It was one of the few birth books that evoked respect for babies and peace at birth as opposed to a clinical presentation of birth. Our culture needs more books of this sort to show women that we need to birth our babies in a much more dignified manner, taking into consideration a genuine love for babies. Expectant couples everywhere should take a look at "Birth without Violence." Beautiful writing style and great photos!
Rating: 
Summary: I highly recommend this book to all expectant parents!
Review: Even though I went through a "normal" delivery, my husband and I utilized several of the principles that Dr. LeBoyer recommends in this book. The quietness and the bath automatically soothed our baby boy. The nurses were amazed at the calmness that enveloped our son as soon as he was placed into the bath. Please read this book and adapt its principles to your delivery.
Rating:
Summary: Love your baby - and weep
Review: Get this book, even if you're going for "normal" hospital birth anyway. Reading it and posting copies of some pictures and "poems" in my baby's room stirred so much compassion for him in me, so that I hardly ever had a hard time with all his crying. This will help you love your baby more, and the way it's written will really move your heart!! (Even my practical, no-nonsense husband read all the way through it!!)
Rating:
Summary: Love your baby - and weep
Review: Get this book, even if you're going for "normal" hospital birth anyway. Reading it and posting copies of some pictures and "poems" in my baby's room stirred so much compassion for him in me, so that I hardly ever had a hard time with all his crying. This will help you love your baby more, and the way it's written will really move your heart!! (Even my practical, no-nonsense husband read all the way through it!!)
Rating:
Summary: A great book, artistic approach
Review: I adore this book because it examines what birth FEELS like for the baby. Scientific explanations are kept to a minimum, so Leboyer really brings home why it is that babies cry in agony. It's because they are in agony, and Leboyer was one of the first to say it doesn't have to be like that. Indirectly, he may have saved thousands of babies from a life time of unhappiness. In this book one gets to realise what it is like for the baby, he really puts you into their shoes (so to speak). And he does it in a artistic way which I haven't seen matched elsewhere. This is a must read. Buy extra copies and give them to your friends who are expecting a baby.
Rating:
Summary: Revolutionary
Review: I think this a very thought provoking book. If more births were carried out this way, the rate of C-Sections and Epidural births would decrease. Every woman should take an active part in her birth process, and this book provides a gateway into self knowledge.
Rating:
Summary: a kinder & gentler way ...
Review: interspersed between a few quotes, dialogue & lots of beautiful black-&-white photographs, this book is written like a long, free-verse, stream-of-consciousness poem about how beautiful childbirth can be when done without all the bright lights, loud noises, yanking, stretching & slapping of "traditional" (read: "unnecessary intervention") hospital deliveries.this highly readable book will make you wonder why it ever had to be done that way in the 1st place? (in my opinion, it probably has a lot to do with the male-dominated world of western medicine & their irrational space-age [read: godless] belief that hard, cold & sterile intervention is far superior to going with the flow of nature's [read: God's] ready-made birth process!) & due to the inherent beauty of its subject matter, this book would make a great gift for just about anyone interested in children & the process of childbirth -- not just for the mother-to-be! (although i would definitely give it to a mother-to-be if i thought she was just going to blindly trust herself, her body & her baby to the harsh processes of a "traditional" hospital delivery. in fact, in this dire case, i would have a WHOLE ARMFUL of reading material to give to her! but i would probably start with THIS book, because it is the most unthreateningly eloquent in startling one to the realization that there might be a kinder & gentler way ... ) &, because of its great beauty, i would unabashedly keep this one on the coffee table (if i had one!) for all to see ... :)
Rating:
Summary: a kinder & gentler way ...
Review: interspersed between a few quotes, dialogue & lots of beautiful black-&-white photographs, this book is written like a long, free-verse, stream-of-consciousness poem about how beautiful childbirth can be when done without all the bright lights, loud noises, yanking, stretching & slapping of "traditional" (read: "unnecessary intervention") hospital deliveries. this highly readable book will make you wonder why it ever had to be done that way in the 1st place? (in my opinion, it probably has a lot to do with the male-dominated world of western medicine & their irrational space-age [read: godless] belief that hard, cold & sterile intervention is far superior to going with the flow of nature's [read: God's] ready-made birth process!) & due to the inherent beauty of its subject matter, this book would make a great gift for just about anyone interested in children & the process of childbirth -- not just for the mother-to-be! (although i would definitely give it to a mother-to-be if i thought she was just going to blindly trust herself, her body & her baby to the harsh processes of a "traditional" hospital delivery. in fact, in this dire case, i would have a WHOLE ARMFUL of reading material to give to her! but i would probably start with THIS book, because it is the most unthreateningly eloquent in startling one to the realization that there might be a kinder & gentler way ... ) &, because of its great beauty, i would unabashedly keep this one on the coffee table (if i had one!) for all to see ... :)
Rating:
Summary: A poetic plea for medical reform
Review: Like Wilhelm Reich, Leboyer uses over the top rhetoric to make a point - most people are screwed up because they were actually BORN THAT WAY - the experience of birth, as practiced in most hospitals, is traumatic, hellish, and unneccessarily degrading to mother and infant alike. Leboyer recommends more humane and gentle ways to introduce the newborn to the world and usher the mother through the experience, without straps, drugs or shaving. Includes many beautiful and disturbing photographs.
Rating:
Summary: A timeless book of great beauty.
Review: The author shows what the birth of a child would look like if it were done from the point of view of the baby. He does this with a gentle narative and the most amazing photographs of a new born in the act of coming into this world. He also gives birth to something else: to the idea that the baby is fully alive and alert at birth and aware of his/hers surroundings. Be prepared to be horrified at the realization of how babies are "normally" treated, how YOU were probably treated, and what scars that has left. Don't be surprised if you feel a sense of mission of put this book in the hands of every doctor who ever did or ever will receive a license to practice medicine. A good campanion for this book would be anything on the topic Fetal Stimulation, that is: communicating with babies still in the womb eg. the Make Way for Baby video put out by AMPHION Communications or the Brave New Babies program that appeared on The Learning Channel late one night in 1997.
| 
