Recommended reading for natural/birth center births?

[blh724]

So I'm reading some good material right now, the "What to Expect..." books and a few others. But a lot of the advice on newborn care pertains only to situations in hospital births where you're in the hospital for two days afterward. Everything relating to breastfeeding, in particular, is written for an audience having hospital births.

It made me wonder if there are any good books or material out there that talks about delivery and newborn basics when birthing at a birth center? Even home birth, since we likely won't be at the birth center anywhere near what we would be if we were delivering at a hospital.

Let me know what materials were most helpful to you in preparing for your birth!

Thanks!

 

[Mervs Mum]

What to expect...' is definitely NOT good reading material for natural birth.

Anything by Ina May Gaskin, Penny Simkin, Sheila Kitzinger, Michel Odent, Sheila Stubbs, Grantly Dick Read......step away from 'What to Expect When you're expecting'

 

[Mervs Mum]

Also the womanly art of breastfeeding is a good international book.

 

[MindUtopia]

I second any of Ina May Gaskin's books. Also, I found Kristina Turner's book Natural Birth to be really helpful for attending to the spiritual and emotional aspects of birth. It's one of my favorite ones I've read so far.

 

[blh724]

Ok, with all due respect... The tone of some of those books may be a little off-putting for me. While I am a fan of natural childbirth, I also don't need any more convincing that it is a good thing for me, and I respect each woman's desire to labor as she wishes. The New Age spirituality that gets thrown in also doesn't mesh well with my Christian perspective. Just saying.

With that in mind, names of any books that can serve me well while leaving behind those nonessentials? More practical tools than anything else. Thanks

 

[aliss]

Ina May's Guide to Childbirth is pretty straightforward and is written by a midwife in TN so she is coming from the perspective of educating American women about natural/home birth (she has her own midwifery centre) who may have only known about the hospital practices. It is not condescending and does not really involve any 'hippy' type things (it does mention a little bit of orgasmic birth and no-pain labour but that is in women's birth stories). It comes from a more balanced medical perspective.

It will not offer anything that conflicts with your Christian beliefs, it will actually focus on why your biology is the best thing to trust and that you would not be made in this way if it was not the proper way.

You may also find Tina Cassidy's Birth: A History to be very interesting, which is more of a historical recounting of the midwifery practice and why it left home/natural birth to go to hospitals, and why it is slowly coming back.

 

[booflebump]

Janet Balaskas 'Guide to Active Childbirth' is quite straightforward, without much of a 'hippy' vibe. I agree with aliss, that while Spiritual Midwifery may not appeal to you, Ina Mays Guide to Childbirth is a universal text that can be appreciated by all

xxx

 

[Mervs Mum]

There's only really spiritual midwifery I'd steer clear of given what youve said. There's nothing new age about Grantly Dick Read...Childbirth Without Fear was first published in the 1930s....

 

[MindUtopia]

Ok, with all due respect... The tone of some of those books may be a little off-putting for me. While I am a fan of natural childbirth, I also don't need any more convincing that it is a good thing for me, and I respect each woman's desire to labor as she wishes. The New Age spirituality that gets thrown in also doesn't mesh well with my Christian perspective. Just saying.

With that in mind, names of any books that can serve me well while leaving behind those nonessentials? More practical tools than anything else. Thanks

I've honestly not found a lot of religious stuff in natural birth books that would conflict with Christianity. You might find Kristina Turner's book interesting though because she cites a lot of Christian sources/the Bible. Though if you are turned off by any talk of other religions, she does reference other religions re: their philosophical perspectives (but it's more from a historical perspective), but she's obviously Christian so it's more heavily based in that tradition than any other. And if you don't like the religious tone of something, you can always take what's helpful from you and leave the spiritual stuff, but really there's nothing too preachy out there.

 

[Katy Bug]

I have Ina May's Guide to Childbirth. It has loads of homebirth/center stories and addresses such topics as medications and breastfeeding. I didn't think it was really against medications, it just talked about sort of the pros and cons. Also check out the documentary "The Business of Being Born". It follows several women who go through with homebirths, and one who eventually had to go to the hospital instead of having her homebirth because her baby was breach. So it isn't like it's just knocking hospital births. It just lets a lot of American women know what's going on and that they don't have to follow this hospital - induction - epidural - baby whisked away routine.