Natural Birth
sherd
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What book(s) do I need?
sherd
member
Going to the library Friday and was wondering on what books you would reccomend???
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Re: What book(s) do I need?
i love Ina May Gaskin's Guide to Childbirth.
Pushed
Your Best Birth
The Thinking Woman's Guide to Childbirth
I went to the bookstore and purused all the books I could find...read a bit here or there until I was sick and tired of reading the same thing over and over.
I can tell you having had two babes au natural that those books matter NOTHING when you're in throbbing pain. Your inner strength and conviction play the biggest role in getting through it. I was in holy hell with my first (and I have a very high pain tolerance) but by the time they were going to hook up the epidural thingie to babies head (I was horrified by all that but in too much pain), they found I was at 10cm. So perhaps it was simply going from 4-10 cm in one short hour is really painful
For my second, there was no way I was going to take drugs since I had been so empowered with my first! It was in some ways MUCH more painful, but I really was able to imagine going UP a roller coaster, the peak of the contraction was the top of the rollercoaster, and then I "enjoyed" the brief slide down the roller coaster, resting up for the next one. It is so helpful to realize it's one horrid roller coaster ride but it'll END... it's not permanent. :-) And I call BS on birth having to be a joyous, spiritual thing. It can royally suck but still be an amazing, empowering thing! I found nursing to be extremely meditative and spiritual but not pregnancy or delivery.
Everyone is different so TRUST YOURSELF! I had no interest in being touched or talked to in delivery so I'm glad I didn't have a doula and am glad DH was willing to do whatever I needed...ie, remain quiet and let me close my eyes and concentrate.
I have read a ton of birth books (including some not listed below) but here's my two cents on a few of my favorites and some of the other popular ones.
I loved Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Newborn. Also Ina May's Guide to Childbirth is excellent, though the first 100 pages of birth stories can get to be a little much! These are probably my two favorite books about birth, even though Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Newborn is more comprehensive than that.
Your Best Birth is a bit simplistic, but decent if you haven't read anything else yet. The Thinking Woman's Guide is dry and I'm not exactly sure exactly how much I trust the information in there, but it's still worth reading. A lot of people love Birthing from Within but I couldn't handle the focus on birth art - it was a bit cheesy for my taste. Our Bodies Ourselves Pregnancy has a nice focus on natural birth, and I was actually pleasantly surprised by You - Having a Baby even though it was pretty mainstream. Gentle Birth Choices is quite good, but by the time I read it, I had read so many other books that I felt I could have written it myself. I would have liked it much more if it had been one of the first books that I had read.
If you are interested in reading something a little bit different, I highly recommend Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife and Birth: The Surprising History of How We are Born. Pushed is a very popular read, but for me, it didn't remotely compare to Birth.
Birthing From Within!
A lot of people take issue with the birth art section, but there is still a ton of useful information in that book. I haven't even done any of the birth art (yet.)
Now, if you want an unpopular opinion: I didn't like Ina May's Guide to Childbirth very much at all. I don't understand why it is so heavily recommended on this site.
I found "Our Bodies, Our Selves, Pregnacy and Birth" and very helpful. The language is far more inclusive of different lifestyle choices than other books, and it includes many first-person stories, but keeps them all brief enough to be helpful rather than distracting.
I also enjoyed "Birth: the story of how we are born." Very well researched.
Yes I agree with Birthing from within and the art part.
I found the only thing that helped me through the whole 18 hours of active labour was singing/humming a very low note. The lower I could go the less it hurt. DH has it recorded and I could listen and tell when the contractions were the strongest cause my voice would get higher and the when they subsided a bit, I could get that low low note again.
I disagree that books are useless once you're in labor -- I called on a lot of things I learned from my readings.
#1 favorite: The Birth Partner by Penny Simkin
Ina May's Guide to Childbirth: yes, reading about hippies and their "yoni" was kinda bizarre but I loved reading uplifting, positive childbirth stories. You hear so many horror stories, it's nice to hear the other side. It made me want to give birth on The Farm.
Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Newborn
Birthing from Within -- I didn't much go for the "birth art", but I definitely used the meditation techniques, and one of them was my main coping mechanism during labor, especially transition.
The hair grows in thick where the horn used to be.
Bradley Method - McCutcheon
Hypnobirthing - Mongan