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Book - Ina May's Guide to Childbirth

SusieBWSusieBW member
in September 2011 Moms

I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but if you're considering natural childbirth, or if you are interested in it at all - I am loving this book.  Parts of it are pretty new age-y, but for the most part, what she has to say just makes sense to me.  I've been planning on my L&D being med-free all along, but reading this is really reinforcing that decision for me.  (Of course I'm open to meds should it become medically necessary for me or LO, but I can't really imagine that I'll want them otherwise.) (and, just to call off any drama up front - I'm a firm believer in the philosophy that as long as your LO arrives in the world safe and healthy and happy, with you in the same condition, I don't really care how anyone else births their babies.  It's a personal decision for everyone, and med-free is just my personal choice.)

The first half of the book is all birth stories from The Farm (Ina May Gaskin's birth center in the woods of TN) and from other home births, with just a couple of hospital stories (which all make hospitals out to be pretty rough places to have babies).  Those are generally very one-sided and very geared toward natural birth with midwives and against hospitals and OBs as a whole, but reading with an open mind, they're inspiring stories.  The second half of the book is about labor and delivery and how it works and can/should work naturally.  I'm about 1/2 through that part now, and really the best way that I can describe it is that it all just makes so much sense. I'm especially drawn to her descriptions of the mental/physical links that associate the pain and effort of giving birth and the way that her practice believes in what she calls the "sphincter law" of birthing.  I don't know, it just makes sense to me.

But I'm being redundant.  Has anyone else read this?  What were your thoughts?

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Re: Book - Ina May's Guide to Childbirth

  • faerieme129faerieme129

    I just finished this book too.

    Some parts are a bit crunchy for me (and I am a wee bit crunchy myself, haha), but overall it had a lot of useful information. I am planning a med-free birth, and reading this book helped to ease some of my anxieties.

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  • windsongswindsongs
    I thought that this book was fabulous. I really enjoyed the birth stories and her "sphincter theory"... it was a bit weird at first- but totally makes sense to me!
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  • EarthyLadyEarthyLady

    I read it.  I ended up being very disappointed that my birth was not like that.  I thought that having educated myself and knowing all the right things to do that I too would have a wonderful joyful birth.  I didn't.  I had a very long, 36 hour labor, 1 1/2hours of pushing, I tore, was so swollen and purple I was barely recognizable down there for weeks.  I never got a birth high afterwards at all and I kept thinking, ok...I did it....now what?  I'm supposed to feel so empowered and proud of my accomplishment, why don't I?

    My second birth was much better.  Shorter, easier, no tearing, in fact I didn't even feel like I'd just given birth and I did get that high.  

    So, you just never know, but I think sometimes the books like Ina Mays and the movement of Orgasmic birth and such can actually set us up to be really let down afterwards.  Not all the time, but sometimes.  I think it's good that there are books out there that can help highlight some of the things about natural birth that make it a better way to go, but i don't like how it comes across that 'you can have a wonderful pain free happy birth if you just do x y z'  cause that's just not the case.

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  • marriedfilingjointlymarriedfilingjointly member

    I'm reading it and I'm about where you are--halfway through part 2 about childbirth. 

    So far, I'm really enjoying it.  A home-birth is not for me, but there is so much more to be gained from the book.  I really like the philosophy that pregnancy, labor, and delivery are not medical conditions that need treatment, but rather a perfectly natural physiological act that our bodies were designed to carry out.  

    Then I read other birth stories (I read Young House Love's story the other day.  eeep) and get a little freaked out at the "what ifs."  But I plan on going in with an open mind and I think by being informed, I'm much more likely to be able to give birth the way I want to.  

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  • LaceD10LaceD10 member
    I loved the book and found it ver informative and inspiring! But agree, some of it becomes a bit "preachy" and new age-y.
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  • marriedtoericmarriedtoeric
    I liked it.  I'm currently in the middle of Spiritual Midwifery, and liked GTC better because it's less hippy-ish than SM comes off as so far.  I thought GTC had great, realistic stories, and was a good introduction to natural birth.  I'm planning to read it again at some point before LO gets here.  
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  • laurasuzanne2006laurasuzanne2006 member
    I read GTC and am in the middle of SM.  I was up in the air about having mom/sis at our home birth but think i've decided against it based on the sphincter theory.  I definately see a lot of the psycho/physiological connections.  I would like them to be updated though with newer birth stories, some are just too old school hippy for my taste.
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  • SusieBWSusieBW member
    imageEarthyLady:

    So, you just never know, but I think sometimes the books like Ina Mays and the movement of Orgasmic birth and such can actually set us up to be really let down afterwards.  Not all the time, but sometimes.  I think it's good that there are books out there that can help highlight some of the things about natural birth that make it a better way to go, but i don't like how it comes across that 'you can have a wonderful pain free happy birth if you just do x y z'  cause that's just not the case.

    I agree that things like this can totally set up some kind of too-high expectation with a lot of people, but I think that the benefits of getting a lot of this information about what is possible out there outweighs the expectation risk.  I like to think that I won't develop that kind of expectation, and I'm trying to approach my L&D with an open mind about what may or may not happen.  But I think books like this are important because so much of the information presented in books like this is just not made readily available to so many pregnant women.  I hate that the expectation that so many women have is what they have gained from what is presented on TV or in movies - that it's gonna be terrifyingly painful and you should be very afraid, you're going to be wailing in pain and begging for drugs from the first contraction, and your water is going to break in a big mess in the most inconvenient place possible, and that's how you're going to know it's time - and that a lot doctors don't really seem to do a lot to change that.  I haven't been to my hospital's "prepare for birth" class yet, so I can't speak to what sort of expectation they present, but I really hope that it is a lot more realistic than that.  I don't know, maybe I'm just getting sort of passionate about this - hormones and all that.  Wink

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  • efsNYC13efsNYC13
    Even though I am planning on an epidural and drugs (though will obviously see how it goes and am open to changing my mind when I see how it goes), I am interested enough to want to read this book because I think it will probably have some helpful info and interesting insights.  Watching The Business of Being Born made me really annoyed (lots of yelling at the TV) even before I was pregnant, though. Will check out if its available on the nook. 
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  • EarthyLadyEarthyLady
    imageSusieBW:
    imageEarthyLady:

    So, you just never know, but I think sometimes the books like Ina Mays and the movement of Orgasmic birth and such can actually set us up to be really let down afterwards.  Not all the time, but sometimes.  I think it's good that there are books out there that can help highlight some of the things about natural birth that make it a better way to go, but i don't like how it comes across that 'you can have a wonderful pain free happy birth if you just do x y z'  cause that's just not the case.

    I agree that things like this can totally set up some kind of too-high expectation with a lot of people, but I think that the benefits of getting a lot of this information about what is possible out there outweighs the expectation risk.  I like to think that I won't develop that kind of expectation, and I'm trying to approach my L&D with an open mind about what may or may not happen.  But I think books like this are important because so much of the information presented in books like this is just not made readily available to so many pregnant women.  I hate that the expectation that so many women have is what they have gained from what is presented on TV or in movies - that it's gonna be terrifyingly painful and you should be very afraid, you're going to be wailing in pain and begging for drugs from the first contraction, and your water is going to break in a big mess in the most inconvenient place possible, and that's how you're going to know it's time - and that a lot doctors don't really seem to do a lot to change that.  I haven't been to my hospital's "prepare for birth" class yet, so I can't speak to what sort of expectation they present, but I really hope that it is a lot more realistic than that.  I don't know, maybe I'm just getting sort of passionate about this - hormones and all that.  Wink

     

    I totally agree!  I suggest everyone to not watch those birth shows on tv.  They are so not how it HAS to be.  But I guess i was trying to suggest a realistic view of somewhere in the middle and they just because you read a book and believe it can be different doesn't always make it the way we think it's supposed to be either.  Ya know?  this is coming from someone that teaches natural childbirth and has been there for several friends as a labor support person as well.   And, I spend most of my time on the very crunchy natural boards so I sometimes forget this is mostly new information to a lot of people.  :) 

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