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The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth
As an intelligent woman, you are probably used to learning as much as you can before making major decisions. But when it comes to one of the most important decisions of your life--how you will give birth—it is hard to gather accurate, unbiased information. Surprisingly, much of the research does not support common medical opinion and practice.
Birth activist Henci Goer gives clear, concise information based on the latest medical studies. The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth helps you compare and contrast your various options and shows you how to avoid unnecessary procedures, drugs, restrictions, and tests. The book
Birth activist Henci Goer gives clear, concise information based on the latest medical studies. The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth helps you compare and contrast your various options and shows you how to avoid unnecessary procedures, drugs, restrictions, and tests. The book
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 375 reviews
February 20, 2013
History: I had a birth where with some minor interventions. Preparing for my second birth, I'm striving to be intervention-free (again), so I'm reading in order to remind myself, rather than taking a birthing class again.
This book isn't for 'thinking' women. It tells you exactly what you should think, and if you don't believe hospitals/doctors are Teh Evil, then you are clearly wrong. I was looking for something more balanced, that takes into account the fact that hospitals/doctors can have a place, even in natural births, and especially in the case of any severe complications. Book is also VERY out-dated, stressing things like pubic shaving and enemas. Maybe there are hospitals that still do that, but I don't know any.
Author is also very bad at intentionally misrepresenting statistics so they appear to be in her favor. I expect this in political punditry, not in a book proclaiming itself for 'thinkers'.
Don't bother with this book - read anything by Ina May Gaskin instead. Balanced and more uplifting, she makes suggestions on things you can do to PROMOTE a natural birth, doesn't just spout negative rhetoric.
This book isn't for 'thinking' women. It tells you exactly what you should think, and if you don't believe hospitals/doctors are Teh Evil, then you are clearly wrong. I was looking for something more balanced, that takes into account the fact that hospitals/doctors can have a place, even in natural births, and especially in the case of any severe complications. Book is also VERY out-dated, stressing things like pubic shaving and enemas. Maybe there are hospitals that still do that, but I don't know any.
Author is also very bad at intentionally misrepresenting statistics so they appear to be in her favor. I expect this in political punditry, not in a book proclaiming itself for 'thinkers'.
Don't bother with this book - read anything by Ina May Gaskin instead. Balanced and more uplifting, she makes suggestions on things you can do to PROMOTE a natural birth, doesn't just spout negative rhetoric.
February 20, 2008
This book was so helpful! While Goer clearly states her bias for "natural" childbirth in the introduction (in a very nice, straightforward way), as someone who hasn't ruled out an epidural, I didn't find this book in the least bit alarmist or slanted. In fact, if I was convinced by the end of the book that the fewer medical interventions the better, it was only because of Goer's meticulous research, which appears both in a bulleted summary at the end of each chapter and in a long annotated bibliography at the end of the book.
The other thing I really liked about this book is it isn't all or nothing. Goer doesn't just list an epidural's benefits (near total pain relief, relaxation that might help progress labor) and the drawbacks (it's more likely to slow labor down, cause many more interventions, each with their risks, etc.), she also gives a list of ways to reduce risks associated with an epidural should you chose to get one.
For some, reading all of these details about labor and the research behind it may feel overwhelming. But to my information-hungry mind, it was exactly what I needed to calm my nerves. Having read this book, I feel better prepared to make informed decisions without the pressure of an emotional philosophy behind them.
The other thing I really liked about this book is it isn't all or nothing. Goer doesn't just list an epidural's benefits (near total pain relief, relaxation that might help progress labor) and the drawbacks (it's more likely to slow labor down, cause many more interventions, each with their risks, etc.), she also gives a list of ways to reduce risks associated with an epidural should you chose to get one.
For some, reading all of these details about labor and the research behind it may feel overwhelming. But to my information-hungry mind, it was exactly what I needed to calm my nerves. Having read this book, I feel better prepared to make informed decisions without the pressure of an emotional philosophy behind them.
July 14, 2009
The main point the author seems to make is that women who don't know their options end up not having any. The author admits to being biased in her interpretation of research, as she is an advocate of natural birth. However, many in the mainstream United States' medical community tend to also be biased (albeit in the opposite direction) when they inform of the risks/benefits of various birthing options. So become an educated parent, not relying on any one source's statements--this book is just a starting point. Research cited in the main body of the text is further elaborated on in an appendix, so anybody who feels so inclined can go to the primary sources to interpret the findings themselves. An illuminating, intelligent read that should anger a few people, but spur a great many others to make better choices for themselves and their children. I held back giving a full 5 star rating because the author mentions once that without epidurals or narcotics, "labor will hurt. Probably a lot;" but I personally know women who have experienced pain free, easy and comfortable births through hypnosis. So research that, Henci Goer!
March 30, 2013
HORRIBLE! Please stay away from this book by all means, as it grossly exaggerates the risks of routine medical interventions during hospital birth while it downplays the dangers of real emergencies like hemorrhaging and shoulder dystocia in a home birth setting: "[...]things that go wrong in labor tend to go wrong slowly[...]" and "(The most common) unpredictable emergencies can be resolved or stabilized for hospital transport by a skilled pair of hands and readily portable medication and equipment." Suuuuuuure! Want to see that for yourself when your baby struggles to survive a cord prolapse?
This book will not help you to make an informed decision and be assured, the author does not want to "educate" you at all. Henci Goer pushes her own agenda and uses the very same scare techniques, that "all the evil OBs" practice.
She tells you exactly what you want: "[...] you want someone who provides midwifery-style care, not obstetric management." First of all, missy, I want a healthy baby (but as I was told by Mrs. Goer's guide to a BETTER birth, this argument doesn't count).
Alsmost as evil as every OB and every hospital in the U.S. - according to Mrs. Goer - : the epidural!!! Of course you can choose to have one if you want your baby to end up with all kinds of horrible complications but come on now, you want the BETTER birth, right? I mean, what kind of mother would choose pain relief?
At the very end of her book, Mrs. Goer makes sure to mock every woman who dares to be satisfied with her "obstetric management" care during pregnancy and childbirth: they simply don't know better and wouldn't say so if they would have ever experienced the wonderful, loving attention of a midwife.
To all my fellow preggos out there: you do not have to fight someone elses battle while you are in labor. You considered this book because you are one of the thinking women. Please, think again: no birth "educator" has the right to make you feel like a failure just because you want an epidural. They pride themselves with only having your best interest in mind. But clearly just as long as you agree with them. You and I, we both deserve better. And much more important: our babies deserve better.
This book will not help you to make an informed decision and be assured, the author does not want to "educate" you at all. Henci Goer pushes her own agenda and uses the very same scare techniques, that "all the evil OBs" practice.
She tells you exactly what you want: "[...] you want someone who provides midwifery-style care, not obstetric management." First of all, missy, I want a healthy baby (but as I was told by Mrs. Goer's guide to a BETTER birth, this argument doesn't count).
Alsmost as evil as every OB and every hospital in the U.S. - according to Mrs. Goer - : the epidural!!! Of course you can choose to have one if you want your baby to end up with all kinds of horrible complications but come on now, you want the BETTER birth, right? I mean, what kind of mother would choose pain relief?
At the very end of her book, Mrs. Goer makes sure to mock every woman who dares to be satisfied with her "obstetric management" care during pregnancy and childbirth: they simply don't know better and wouldn't say so if they would have ever experienced the wonderful, loving attention of a midwife.
To all my fellow preggos out there: you do not have to fight someone elses battle while you are in labor. You considered this book because you are one of the thinking women. Please, think again: no birth "educator" has the right to make you feel like a failure just because you want an epidural. They pride themselves with only having your best interest in mind. But clearly just as long as you agree with them. You and I, we both deserve better. And much more important: our babies deserve better.
January 17, 2009
The reason this book only gets 3 stars is not because I didn't think it was helpful, but because the subtitle states that it is an "unbiased" view. However, the author is completely biased, and I got the feeling that she believes if you deliver in the hospital you have a high chance of your baby dying, or at least of having a c-section. However, 3 per 10,000 versus 4 per 10,000 is not really a "higher" risk in my opinion. She had lots of research, and I actually agree with most of her arguments (why do women have to have IV's anyway? Why is birth considered a medical emergency? These questions plague me after my own medicated childbirth.) Summary: good book, good facts, but not unbiased. I wish I had read it before my daughter was born though!
November 24, 2007
The Thinking Woman's Guide is, in my opinion, one of the best ways to prepare oneself for the choices involved in childbirth. Many women may not realize the draw backs to common birth practices, but this book goes through both pros and cons as well as how to make sure that if you do choose certain interventions that they are done in a way that encourages the fewest possible negatives. An important read for anyone who wants a say in their birth experience or anyone who questions what happened.
February 21, 2009
Okay, I read this book after reading Pushed. I am pregnant for the second time and am trying to educate myself on childbirth options. This book was informative and thorough, with plenty of sources cited to back up the author's opinions. I did gain some valuable insight into how many unnecessary interventions are entrenched in our current hospital labor and delivery wards, and how difficult it can be to avoid such interventions. It's even encouraged me to decline when offered a routine induction, amniotomy, or episiotomy.
The reason I gave the book three stars and not four or five is because I found the author to be a little too harsh towards obstetricians and hospitals. She criticizes doctors for not doing VBACs (vaginal birth after Cesarean) out of a fear of lawsuits. I'm not trying to play a devil's advocate, but I do understand where they are coming from. It's not their fault malpractice insurance costs are skyrocketing. Who could blame them for making a choice based on the motto "The only C-Section I will be sued for is the one I don't do." Nobody wants to go through 12 years of higher education and rack up a quarter of a million dollars worth of student loans just to get sued for a few VBACs and have to leave the profession. The blame needs to passed around a bit. Sure doctors are somewhat at fault, but so are the consumers who demand labor to be quick, convenient, and risk free. We can also point a finger towards our legal system and sue happy society.
I'm glad I read Pushed first because it warmed me up to the ideas of childbirth activists before this book. The tone of this book might have turned me off of its ideas if I hadn't been introduced to the topic beforehand. I would recommend this only to someone already interested in birthing alternatives and not to someone who is undecided or knows nothing about the issue.
The reason I gave the book three stars and not four or five is because I found the author to be a little too harsh towards obstetricians and hospitals. She criticizes doctors for not doing VBACs (vaginal birth after Cesarean) out of a fear of lawsuits. I'm not trying to play a devil's advocate, but I do understand where they are coming from. It's not their fault malpractice insurance costs are skyrocketing. Who could blame them for making a choice based on the motto "The only C-Section I will be sued for is the one I don't do." Nobody wants to go through 12 years of higher education and rack up a quarter of a million dollars worth of student loans just to get sued for a few VBACs and have to leave the profession. The blame needs to passed around a bit. Sure doctors are somewhat at fault, but so are the consumers who demand labor to be quick, convenient, and risk free. We can also point a finger towards our legal system and sue happy society.
I'm glad I read Pushed first because it warmed me up to the ideas of childbirth activists before this book. The tone of this book might have turned me off of its ideas if I hadn't been introduced to the topic beforehand. I would recommend this only to someone already interested in birthing alternatives and not to someone who is undecided or knows nothing about the issue.
June 19, 2019
This book was recommended to me, but I wouldn't have bothered to order it from the library if I had realized that it was published in 1999 and hadn't been updated since. I had a few issues with this book, beyond the outdated research and statistics. First, I find the title pretentious, as it implies that any person who wants to have any sort of medication or intervention during birth is empty-minded.
Beyond that, I found it extremely biased and fear-mongering. (There's one portion mid-way through the book where she does disclose that she's a big fan of home birth over hospital, but by that point, even a non-thinking woman has figured that one out.) There was literally one section where it warned you that many certified nurse-midwives are merely "obstetricians in midwives' clothing." Really? Honestly, if you're interested in this book, I would suggest just watching The Business of Being Born to save yourself the time and trouble.
The book did have a few helpful techniques on how to avoid certain interventions in the hospital, but I think you'd definitely be better off reading Natural Hospital Birth by Cynthia Gabriel. It's a great, non-judgemental, non-fearful take on how to have a "natural" birth (with whatever meaning that is to you). Honestly, I'd recommend it to anyone, even if you're 100% planning on an epidural or other medication because it has really useful advice and descriptions of labor beyond the physiological definitions.
If you also want to know more about birth techniques, statistics on various interventions (using actual, up-to-date research), I highly suggest you check out the Evidence Based Birth website, classes, or podcast. It's operated by a nurse with her PhD, and the articles and videos are updated as new studies are published.
Beyond that, I found it extremely biased and fear-mongering. (There's one portion mid-way through the book where she does disclose that she's a big fan of home birth over hospital, but by that point, even a non-thinking woman has figured that one out.) There was literally one section where it warned you that many certified nurse-midwives are merely "obstetricians in midwives' clothing." Really? Honestly, if you're interested in this book, I would suggest just watching The Business of Being Born to save yourself the time and trouble.
The book did have a few helpful techniques on how to avoid certain interventions in the hospital, but I think you'd definitely be better off reading Natural Hospital Birth by Cynthia Gabriel. It's a great, non-judgemental, non-fearful take on how to have a "natural" birth (with whatever meaning that is to you). Honestly, I'd recommend it to anyone, even if you're 100% planning on an epidural or other medication because it has really useful advice and descriptions of labor beyond the physiological definitions.
If you also want to know more about birth techniques, statistics on various interventions (using actual, up-to-date research), I highly suggest you check out the Evidence Based Birth website, classes, or podcast. It's operated by a nurse with her PhD, and the articles and videos are updated as new studies are published.
September 11, 2009
A thorough if biased book that describes how obstetricians are prone to treat pregnancy and labor as an illness rather than a natural process through medical techniques such as artificial induction, episiotomies, and cesarean births. The fundamental premise is that doctors often over-diagnose or overtreat women (primarily to cover their own liability) without much evidence to show this treatment has a positive effect, and Goer backs up her point of view with multiple references and summaries of studies from well-known medical journals. Every new parent should read through this book, even if they believe a doctor’s word is golden, just to understand all of the consequences of these often invasive techniques, both to the mother and baby, and to be informed of the choices they will make during the emotional roller coaster of labor. Goer is certainly biased toward a midwife hands-off approach to labor, and likely cherry picks the studies to prove her point, but nonetheless this book is a great source of knowledge that you can take to your doctor to insure you are getting the labor and delivery you want.
November 27, 2014
This was supposed to be a "thinking woman's" guide, so I expected all the information to be presented in a clear way and not be slanted. Instead, this book was so anti anything hospital and all interventions that it was annoying to read. It didn't list facts like I expected, but just kept repeating in each chapter how bad the thing they were talking about was. I wanted pros and cons, situations to expect if that particular medical intervention was required, etc. I didn't want to be preached at by a pregnancy book. But, I still got a lot of good information and knowledge out if it.
March 16, 2022
Really excellent. I felt informed, not coerced. She gives a lot of sources, though I didn't peruse them all. Haven't given birth yet 😂 But I feel much more prepared for the experience having read this book.
April 11, 2017
"The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth" By Henci Goer is a very funomonal and educatunul Guide for women who are expectig!! I would very much recumend this book to anyone who is a women that is planing on having a babay! I read this book because it is inspyering to my grandma who is planing on having a babay, She is 67 yers old and here babay is due on April 20th, I loved reeding this book to her! it was also an emotunul rollur coastur fur me because my mom died 3 months before i was born and i nvr met hur so this was really good to know what it was like as a pregnent lady. I really wish i could be pregnert when i a older. A pregnat woman is like a whole other spicis. Like a specel dog or sumthing. I lurned that women are more obedient while being pregant, so this in good for when i marry Caroline Winrub and we have a babi. I will make her mowe the lawn and pick up dog poop, because she will nat qestion me. Maybe a shock colar??? All en all i rate this book a 10 iut of 10!!!!
July 15, 2022
This book provides answers to every question you may have not even realized you had. First time, second time, fifth time moms need to read this. Pregnancy and childbirth are normal physiological processes. We need to do a better job of educating ourselves while pregnant especially, so we can ask the appropriate questions, and be well informed before making choices regarding labor and birth. This book will help you! Every woman should read it.
July 18, 2010
This is the best book I've read so far for educating women about the risks and benefits of where, how, and with whom you give birth.I love the format of each chapter, which gives a bulleted pros/cons list of every drug and intervention you can think of, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of giving birth in the hospital, a birthing center, or at home with a OB, doctor, or midwife. Each chapter also ends with a section called "Gleanings from the medical literature," complete with footnotes to the numerous pages of appendices in the back documenting medical studies done on the subject. I also liked how this book is not afraid to contradict itself and very admittedly acknowledges the unknowns for being a pro-natural childbirth book.
Besides the pros/cons of epidurals and pitocin, these are excerpts from some of my favorite lists:
Factors that Promote Safe Vaginal Birth
-Refuse oxytocin to strengthen labor before active labor (3 to 5 centimeters and painful, regular contractions).
-Avoid an epidural. The 10% of laboring women whose epidural causes an abnormally slow fetal heart beat are put at a greater risk of emergency c-section because the same symptom, abnormally slow fetal heart beat, is the most reliable sign for suspected scar separation.
-While it is best to avoid these, know that induction, oxytocin and epidurals are used in many successful VBAC labors. If your doctor thinks you need these procedures and you refuse them, you may end up with an unavoidable cesarean or be refused to try labor at all.
-No arbitrary time limits should be set on labor
-Consider having continuous electronic fetal monitoring. Since women in general have not shown to benefit from EFM, providers should be cautious about subjecting women with prior cesareans to the disadvantages of EFM (studies show it does not improve outcomes but increases the cesarean and vaginal instrumental delivery rates).
(BUT) Situations where the medical literature supports the use of continuous EFM
-Oxytocin use
-When intermittent listening indicates there may be a problem. EFM is useful if providers know the baby is having a problem, and can track, determine whether it's getting worse, and whether treatment is helping.
-VBAC
Factors that promote a positive VBAC experience (of course there's a lot more)
-PLAN ON HAVING AN EPIDURAL For some women, it makes VBAC possible. This book has tips on how to minimize the risks of epidurals, which includes delaying an epidural until 5 centimeters dilation or later, especially if this is your first baby, your prior birth was C-section, or labor progress is slow. I can share them if you're interested.
Ways to Avoid Problems with the Baby (that will lead to an emergency C-section)
-Avoid epidurals. They can cause problems for the baby and lead to a slippery slope of interventions that can cause problems, namely pitocin.
-Avoid narcotics
-Avoid having the membranes routinely ruptured
-Avoid lying on your back (it compresses the large blood vessels that serve the uterus and placenta)
-Avoid prolonged breath holding during pushing, which can compromise the baby's oxygen
Besides the pros/cons of epidurals and pitocin, these are excerpts from some of my favorite lists:
Factors that Promote Safe Vaginal Birth
-Refuse oxytocin to strengthen labor before active labor (3 to 5 centimeters and painful, regular contractions).
-Avoid an epidural. The 10% of laboring women whose epidural causes an abnormally slow fetal heart beat are put at a greater risk of emergency c-section because the same symptom, abnormally slow fetal heart beat, is the most reliable sign for suspected scar separation.
-While it is best to avoid these, know that induction, oxytocin and epidurals are used in many successful VBAC labors. If your doctor thinks you need these procedures and you refuse them, you may end up with an unavoidable cesarean or be refused to try labor at all.
-No arbitrary time limits should be set on labor
-Consider having continuous electronic fetal monitoring. Since women in general have not shown to benefit from EFM, providers should be cautious about subjecting women with prior cesareans to the disadvantages of EFM (studies show it does not improve outcomes but increases the cesarean and vaginal instrumental delivery rates).
(BUT) Situations where the medical literature supports the use of continuous EFM
-Oxytocin use
-When intermittent listening indicates there may be a problem. EFM is useful if providers know the baby is having a problem, and can track, determine whether it's getting worse, and whether treatment is helping.
-VBAC
Factors that promote a positive VBAC experience (of course there's a lot more)
-PLAN ON HAVING AN EPIDURAL For some women, it makes VBAC possible. This book has tips on how to minimize the risks of epidurals, which includes delaying an epidural until 5 centimeters dilation or later, especially if this is your first baby, your prior birth was C-section, or labor progress is slow. I can share them if you're interested.
Ways to Avoid Problems with the Baby (that will lead to an emergency C-section)
-Avoid epidurals. They can cause problems for the baby and lead to a slippery slope of interventions that can cause problems, namely pitocin.
-Avoid narcotics
-Avoid having the membranes routinely ruptured
-Avoid lying on your back (it compresses the large blood vessels that serve the uterus and placenta)
-Avoid prolonged breath holding during pushing, which can compromise the baby's oxygen
August 7, 2019
Controversial thought: Why is an epidural(Pit, or an ultrasound) like medical marijuana in 2019*?
That question is quite answerable after reading this book. Or even just glancing through allllllllll her notes and citations in the back. She's done her homework.**
I also liked her opinion of physicians. Believe it or not, most of the medical books I've read over the past year have been quite negatively prejudiced towards medical professionals (who are human and subject to the same failings that other people are). The problem, she seems to say several times, isn't completely their fault, it's the educational, legal, and hospital money-making system.
So why did I rate it so low?
While the information was good, the tone was harsh. This woman does not soften the facts... and these can get descriptively gruesome. While I believe in letting people know what has been studied (and what has not been studied), I felt a twinge of sympathy for a certain subset of women, who might be reading this book, who have no choice. Consider a woman who is pregnant with twins. Has no option but to go to a hospital. Due to positioning, has no option but to have a c-section. After reading this book, she will probably be an anxious mess, convinced that she is set up for horrendous complications and setting her twins up for a life of bad health. So I thought the tone could have been softened.
Second, she repeats her information quite regularly. I think that could have been remedied. But maybe the reader was just supposed to read the chapters by themselves and not the book as a whole? Who knows what the author intended.
*In 10 years I predict it will be different.
**or has presented it about mostly everything. There is an interesting aside in her section about choosing an OB-GYN, about asking how often they will take ultrasounds of the baby. Unfortunately, she never expounds on that point, why it would matter, etc. Also check this one out before you decide whether she's right or wrong.
That question is quite answerable after reading this book. Or even just glancing through allllllllll her notes and citations in the back. She's done her homework.**
I also liked her opinion of physicians. Believe it or not, most of the medical books I've read over the past year have been quite negatively prejudiced towards medical professionals (who are human and subject to the same failings that other people are). The problem, she seems to say several times, isn't completely their fault, it's the educational, legal, and hospital money-making system.
So why did I rate it so low?
While the information was good, the tone was harsh. This woman does not soften the facts... and these can get descriptively gruesome. While I believe in letting people know what has been studied (and what has not been studied), I felt a twinge of sympathy for a certain subset of women, who might be reading this book, who have no choice. Consider a woman who is pregnant with twins. Has no option but to go to a hospital. Due to positioning, has no option but to have a c-section. After reading this book, she will probably be an anxious mess, convinced that she is set up for horrendous complications and setting her twins up for a life of bad health. So I thought the tone could have been softened.
Second, she repeats her information quite regularly. I think that could have been remedied. But maybe the reader was just supposed to read the chapters by themselves and not the book as a whole? Who knows what the author intended.
*In 10 years I predict it will be different.
**or has presented it about mostly everything. There is an interesting aside in her section about choosing an OB-GYN, about asking how often they will take ultrasounds of the baby. Unfortunately, she never expounds on that point, why it would matter, etc. Also check this one out before you decide whether she's right or wrong.
February 11, 2009
This book is incredibly informative and helpful. The author is openly biased towards natural child birth, but she supports her case with unbiased and meticulous research (which she documents and references thoroughly).
I believe every woman who is pregnant or might someday become pregnant should read this book. Too often in our culture we accept the current obstetrical practices without informing ourselves of the benefits AND the risks, as documented by evidence-based research. This book can help solve that problem.
Most American women choose obstetrical, hospital-based births. That decision is based on cultural beliefs that are not based on evidence-backed facts. Obstetricians and hospitals are incredibly valuable for high-risk pregnancies and labors and for emergency complications that arise. Obstetricians are highly trained surgeons who deal with pathology and view labor and delivery from a medical, high-tech, interventionist perspective.
Yet it remains fact that most women are healthy, most pregnancies are low-risk, and most women would labor better and have fewer complications if they were allowed to labor naturally, with minimal or no intervention.
I'm all for informed consent, and this book helps women become informed. Most women are not informed about the risks of obstetrical intervention, they only know they're afraid of pain and want it to be taken away if possible. That choice is fine, as long as the woman is fully aware of the risks involved so that she can evaluate her own cost-benefit ratio.
It is written in a helpful format so that you can jump around to the topics that interest you, be it epidural, cesarean, breech birth, hospital vs. out-of-hospital birth, induction or augmentation of labor, obstetrical model of care vs. midwifery model of care, etc. If you are contemplating a natural child birth, this book will give you the information you need to commit to, defend, and succeed in your decision.
I believe every woman who is pregnant or might someday become pregnant should read this book. Too often in our culture we accept the current obstetrical practices without informing ourselves of the benefits AND the risks, as documented by evidence-based research. This book can help solve that problem.
Most American women choose obstetrical, hospital-based births. That decision is based on cultural beliefs that are not based on evidence-backed facts. Obstetricians and hospitals are incredibly valuable for high-risk pregnancies and labors and for emergency complications that arise. Obstetricians are highly trained surgeons who deal with pathology and view labor and delivery from a medical, high-tech, interventionist perspective.
Yet it remains fact that most women are healthy, most pregnancies are low-risk, and most women would labor better and have fewer complications if they were allowed to labor naturally, with minimal or no intervention.
I'm all for informed consent, and this book helps women become informed. Most women are not informed about the risks of obstetrical intervention, they only know they're afraid of pain and want it to be taken away if possible. That choice is fine, as long as the woman is fully aware of the risks involved so that she can evaluate her own cost-benefit ratio.
It is written in a helpful format so that you can jump around to the topics that interest you, be it epidural, cesarean, breech birth, hospital vs. out-of-hospital birth, induction or augmentation of labor, obstetrical model of care vs. midwifery model of care, etc. If you are contemplating a natural child birth, this book will give you the information you need to commit to, defend, and succeed in your decision.
April 1, 2010
I loved this book! For me, it was not so much a life-changing eye-opener as I assume it could be for people never exposed to homebirth and so on, but more an affirmation of many of the ideas that I have felt intuitively in my pregnancy. It was nice to have some scientific back-up though since I often feel like a counter-culture hippy with what I guess were extreme views since they didn't seem shared by many people I know. I will say I did learn a lot though. For example, I knew I didn't want an episiotomy, but as I read that chapter's graphic detailing of them and the indications for one and physically winced, I could finally articulate exactly why. Goer's take on informed consent really blew my mind, also, especially when she explained that just because you're informed doesn't mean you have to consent. It seems obvious, but it isn't when you're on the spot and you're being frowned at and pegged for "Future Bad Parents of the Universe" membership for not following doctor's orders.
If you are wholeheartedly mainstream in your pregnancy and birthing choices, I still think this book is extremely worthwhile because as the introduction notes "If you don't know what your options are, you don't have any." Pregnancy is an extremely vulnerable time for any woman and feeling informed about your choices is the only way you can confidently make them and feel right about it. Goer's book takes the complicated, scary world of pregnancy interventions and makes them accessible to the laywoman. No matter how you choose to navigate the often murky waters of pregnancy, it is nice to know you have choices and be able to understand them.
If you are wholeheartedly mainstream in your pregnancy and birthing choices, I still think this book is extremely worthwhile because as the introduction notes "If you don't know what your options are, you don't have any." Pregnancy is an extremely vulnerable time for any woman and feeling informed about your choices is the only way you can confidently make them and feel right about it. Goer's book takes the complicated, scary world of pregnancy interventions and makes them accessible to the laywoman. No matter how you choose to navigate the often murky waters of pregnancy, it is nice to know you have choices and be able to understand them.
October 17, 2010
This book was meticulously well-researched. Despite being ten years old, it is incredibly relevant and important for anyone thinking about having a baby to read. There are more supporting articles and back-up data in here than any other birth-themed book I've come across, allowing one to really delve into specific subjects if they wish. I especially appreciate the alternative means the author establishes are available before jumping to a traditional intervention. The path to having a baby is not as linear as TLC's A Baby Story would lead us to believe.
I had a few problems, though. At the beginning the author claims to be unbiased. I'm sorry but NO one writing a non-fiction book, subject aside, can do so without bias. It just isn't possible. Second, when reading, it's important to remember that while the statistical evidence may show some trends, a doctor or midwife that knows you and your health history personally is not likely out to get you. The main premise is that maternal care in this country has "evolved" to something entirely different than the rest of the world. I don't think doctors are evil, but they do have a model to guide them. And call me naive, but I believe there are still reasonable people on this planet - on occasion, the overarching message was that one option = always good and another = always bad.
I also didn't care for the title - it implies that anyone who doesn't read are all drones who follow whatever anyone more educated than them says. For a book that wants to empower women to know that they have options, I thought that brought down the validity a notch.
I had a few problems, though. At the beginning the author claims to be unbiased. I'm sorry but NO one writing a non-fiction book, subject aside, can do so without bias. It just isn't possible. Second, when reading, it's important to remember that while the statistical evidence may show some trends, a doctor or midwife that knows you and your health history personally is not likely out to get you. The main premise is that maternal care in this country has "evolved" to something entirely different than the rest of the world. I don't think doctors are evil, but they do have a model to guide them. And call me naive, but I believe there are still reasonable people on this planet - on occasion, the overarching message was that one option = always good and another = always bad.
I also didn't care for the title - it implies that anyone who doesn't read are all drones who follow whatever anyone more educated than them says. For a book that wants to empower women to know that they have options, I thought that brought down the validity a notch.
August 4, 2020
I’m surprised this book is highly rated as it clearly is biased, even though it tries to present itself as objective by listing pros and cons, backing up claims with literature, etc.
This book is good to get an overview of what birth intervention procedures are there, what the motivation for each procedure is, and criticizes how obstetricians tend to go for these interventions even when they can be avoided. The overall message is well-intended, but the delivery of the message is pretty harsh, borderlining fear-mongering, in my opinion. Also, it’s worth noting that this book is very American-centered and written in 1999. Some countries in Europe (as far as I know) are midwife-centered already when it comes to birth procedures, even in hospitals.
I did learn a few tips on how to prepare myself so as to minimize the need for intervention at birth, and at least got a picture of what intervention options are out there and why someone may or may not need them. I will say, if you ever read this book, do complement it with other resources on childbirth to balance your view on the topic.
This book is good to get an overview of what birth intervention procedures are there, what the motivation for each procedure is, and criticizes how obstetricians tend to go for these interventions even when they can be avoided. The overall message is well-intended, but the delivery of the message is pretty harsh, borderlining fear-mongering, in my opinion. Also, it’s worth noting that this book is very American-centered and written in 1999. Some countries in Europe (as far as I know) are midwife-centered already when it comes to birth procedures, even in hospitals.
I did learn a few tips on how to prepare myself so as to minimize the need for intervention at birth, and at least got a picture of what intervention options are out there and why someone may or may not need them. I will say, if you ever read this book, do complement it with other resources on childbirth to balance your view on the topic.
February 16, 2009
Ah, the politics of childbirth. There is a lot of good information here, and I largely agree with the author, but found her aggressive polemics to be a turn-off at times. If you are looking for an indictment of the "obstetrical mindframe," this is your book. This book does a more-than-adequate job of telling you what you don't want when it comes to childbirth. But if you are looking for helpful hints on how to manage labor naturally (that is, what you do want), look elsewhere (specifically, you might want to try something by Ina May Gaskin). This book is likely to increase your anxiety about labor and childbirth rather than make you feel empowered to try natural childbirth. So while this is a great source of facts, it's not the most emotionally supportive guide I've come across.
February 5, 2010
Simple to read book regarding the facts of modern day childbirth. It's not directed by the author's opinion, rather, it's based on extensive research into the processes, reasonings and outcomes of each type of birth (homebirth, midwife assisted, hospital).
It really is so ridiculous that with all the statistics and actual cases of obstetric failure, we are still lead to believe it is best to give birth in a hospital.
It really is so ridiculous that with all the statistics and actual cases of obstetric failure, we are still lead to believe it is best to give birth in a hospital.
May 8, 2010
Loved this book! Totally convinced me to forgo a medicalized birth and do it as natural as possible!
May 8, 2017
Can't argue with facts. Would love to read an updated edition with current statistics! Here's to informed mamas!
January 31, 2012
Two parts informative. One part scary!
October 1, 2013
First, this book is exceptionally researched, and in the back of the book (taking up over one hundred pages!), you can find literature summaries, a bibliography, charts, and an index. It was very impressive. I enjoyed that while she admitted a few times in the book that she obviously has her own opinion, the vast majority of the book is merely a retelling of the intensive research she has conducted.
And while some books will only list pros to medical interventions at childbirth and others will list only cons to medical interventions and are totally crunchy, this author included all possible pros and cons to medical interventions and natural practices. I really felt like neither side was over looked.
Some parts of it were a little repetitive, but the author said that was intentional, so an inquisitive reader would not have to read the entire book cover-to-cover when looking for certain information. You can turn to the chapter and know that all of the related information will be there. So obviously some parts of birth are related to multiple other parts of birth, and that is where there was a little repetition. It never became annoying though in my opinion. You have to read or hear something multiple times before you remember it, so it was reinforcing for me.
While she was very even handed, she did have the general opinion that while obstetric interventions are no doubt necessary, she feels that they are overused among low risk women and babies.
Keep in mind when you read the quotes that were important or interesting to me that they may not give you an even view of the book. I didn't choose my quotes to show both sides. I just chose the ones I want to remember.
This quote is found in the opening of the book. It is from Midwifery and Childbirth in America by Judith Pence Rooks: "We can no longer say that a great deal of American obstetric practice goes forth without adequate research. It is now more accurate to say that many interventions are used routinely or frequently in spite of research that has clearly shown that the procedure is being used inappropriately in this country."
This quote is also found on one of the opening pages. It is from A Good Birth, A Safe Birth: Choosing and Having the Childbirth Experience You Want written by Diana Korte and Roberta Scaer: "If you don't know your options, you don't have any."
"Cesarean section is the most common major surgery performed in this country. Every year in the United States one in five—nearly one million—pregnant women have a cesarean section, despite the health risks, pain, recovery time, and expense. The consensus of the medical literature is that half of these operations were not needed." [And I will add that this book was written in 1999. In 2012, America's cesarean rate is closer to one in three women.]
"Doctors now use electronic fetal monitoring, a machine that records the baby's heart rate in conjunction when the mother's contractions, on four out of five laboring women. The percentage has risen steadily in the face of a stream of studies showing that its use doesn't improve babies' health. In fact, its routine use threatens the mother's health by increasing the odds of forceps or vacuum extraction deliveries and cesarean section."
"Most women who have a cesarean section automatically have them for subsequent babies. Reams of data show that vaginal birth after cesarean is safer for mothers, has advantages for babies, and will work for nearly three-quarters of women."
"Obstetricians are also influenced by the broader culture in that it is believed that technology is superior to nature and machines are more reliable than people. This explains why they will not back off from technologies that have proven to be failures except to replace them with the next new and untested expensive technology that comes down the road. It also explains why not intervening has the burden of proving itself rather than the other way around."
"I have had to be selective in the data I presented, but I think I have included enough to make my case. For most chapters, I read two to three times the number of papers as appear in the bibliography and appendix reference lists. One tactic for dismissing a work like mine is to say that you can find a study to support any position, but that does not apply here. The data uniformly failed to support common obstetric practice for most of the topics I researched."
"When a research project at a Chicago lowered the cesarean rate from 18 percent to 12 percent between 1985 and 1987, the hospital involved lost $1 million in revenues. The need to fill hospital beds provides strong financial motives to perform cesarean." "Studies consistently show that for-profit hospitals have higher cesarean rate than non-profits, HMO-owned hospitals, or county hospitals. Private obstetricians also have higher cesarean rates compared with obstetricians caring for clinic patients, although low-income women have the higher medical risk."
"Over a decade ago [this book was written in 1999], the World Health Organization concluded that since countries with some of the lowest perinatal mortality rates in the world had cesarean section rates of less than 10 percent, there was no justification for any region to have a cesarean rate more than 10 to 15 percent." "Some years ago, faced with a cesarean rate approaching 25 percent, the U.S. government set the goal of achieving a 15 percent national cesarean rate by the year 2000. Ironically, in 1979, the National Institute of Health viewed a 15 percent rate with such alarm that it convened a panel of experts to develop recommendations on how to lower it." [In August 2012, the National Center for Health Statistics released the U.S. national cesarean rate for 2010: 32.8%.]
"Cesareans cause more maternal deaths than does vaginal birth. A 1989 analysis in Great Britain revealed that women were 550 percent more likely to die of an elective cesarean section than a vaginal birth (9 versus 2 per 100,000). A Dutch study found that between 1983 and 1992, C-sections caused 700 perfect more deaths than vaginal births did (28 versus 4 per 100,000). Obviously, some factors that lead to C-section also threaten the mother's life. However, the British study compared elective cesarean, where there was no medical indication for the surgery, to vaginal birth to minimize that possibility, and the Dutch study investigated the exact cause of death."
"Inducing labor is intrinsically ironic. It works best when least needed and often fails when needed the most. It also causes the very problems it was intended to prevent. Despite common perception, obstetricians can't just switch labor on at will. Starting and intensifying labor involves a complex cascade of feedback mechanisms that mutually reinforce and limit each other."
". . . doctors induce labor when they are concerned about the baby's condition, which brings us to the other irony: Induction causes the problems it was intended to prevent. Induced labors are much harder on the baby than natural labor. For one thing, it takes greater contraction pressures over a longer time to get a labor going and keep it going than are generally needed for spontaneous labor."
"There are problems with the due date itself. You may be surprised to learn that the conventional forty-week pregnancy length is completely arbitrary. It was established by a German obstetrician in the early 1800s. He simply declared that a pregnancy should last ten moon months, that is, ten months of four weeks each. However, when researchers in a 1990 study followed a group of healthy, white women, they discovered that pregnancy in first-time mothers averaged eight days longer than this, and the average was three days longer in women with prior births."
"In addition, ultrasonography, the current standard for assigning due dates, does not reliably establish due dates. Even in the first trimester, the date is plus or minus five days. This means the actual due date falls within a ten-day window. Sonograms done later in pregnancy are even less accurate."
"As a medical journal editorial commented, 'When the requisite randomized controlled trials were finally done, the consensus was striking: routine electronic fetal monitoring confers no demonstrable benefit to the fetus, yet poses a significantly increased risk of operative delivery (e.g., cesarean delivery or forceps) for the woman. Even for high-risk fetuses, evidence of the benefit of electronic monitoring . . . is lacking. After two decades of use, electronic fetal monitoring has not been shown to be superior to intermittent [listening].'"
"Labor will hurt. Probably a lot. But whether this is negative is another matter. Pain and suffering differ, as anyone who engages in activities demanding strength and endurance can tell you. A laboring woman can be in a great deal of pain, yet feel loved and supported and exhilarated by the power of the creative forces flowing through her body and her ability to meet labor's challenges."
"It is also unclear to what extent obstetric practitioners cause some of the problems believed to be inevitable or frequent results of childbirth by the way they manage the pushing phase of labor and the birth itself."
"Lying flat on the back, the standard pushing position until recently—and probably still standard in some hospitals—puts about ten pounds' worth of baby and uterus on top of the major maternal blood vessels serving the uterus and placenta."
"Studies show that the usual instructions to hold the breath and push 'as long and hard as you can' and not to take more than a quick breath between pushes cause symptoms of fetal distress. Left to their own devices, women don't push like that. They grunt and groan, and when they hold their breaths, they hold it for no longer than six seconds. They usually take several breaths between pushes. Studies show that spontaneous pushing does not adversely affect the baby. It may take a little longer to push out the baby, but despite this, babies are born better oxygenated."
"Data also suggests that giving birth in an upright position, which is how women in every traditional culture do it, preserves the perineum from tears."
"When researchers compared outcomes for all U.S. women cared for by nurse midwives in 1991 with outcomes of similar women managed by doctors, they found, among other benefits of midwifery care, that one-third fewer babies died during the first week of life. As the authors of an analysis comparing birth outcomes of midwives and obstetricians comment, 'In all economically developed countries except Holland, maternity care has come to be organised so as to give full effect to the theory that childbirth is always safer if it takes place under the management of obstetricians in a hospital. . . . It is a remarkable fact that obstetricians have never at any time had valid evidence to support the theory they have so successfully propagated.'"
"Because midwifery care is superior to medical management for low- and moderate-risk women, obstetricians should not control midwives or labor and delivery policies. In a maternity-care system that makes sense, such as Holland's, midwives and family physicians would care for pregnant women, and at their discretion they would consult with or refer to obstetricians those women who developed complications. This, of course, is the arrangement in all other instances of generalists and specialists."
"Research disproves the argument that the fact that obstetricians handle high-risk cases accounts for differences in procedure and medication rates. For one thing, midwives don't just take care of low-risk women. Hospital-based midwives, at least, care for women with risk profiles comparable to—and for some factors worse than—the national average. For another, when you compare low-risk women managed by obstetricians with low-risk women cared for by midwives or family practitioners, the midwives and family practitioners consistently come out behind on intervention rates."
"No study has ever shown that out-of-hospital births resulted in worse outcomes provided women were prescreened for risk factors and had a planned out-of-hospital birth with a trained attendant. And while individual studies may be too small to show significant differences in the occurrence of adverse outcomes because such outcomes are exceedingly rare in healthy women, collectively they affirm the safety of out-of-hospital birth. Moreover, the Netherlands, where home birth never disappeared and nearly one-third of women continue to have their babies at home today, has excellent outcome statistics for mothers and babies. The British, at least, have recognized this fact. In 1992, the House of Commons Health Select Committee published a report that concluded, 'The policy of encouraging all woman to give birth in hospitals cannot be justified on grounds of safety. . . . Women should be given . . . an opportunity for choice, . . . including the option, previously denied to them, of having their babies at home, or in small maternity units.'"
And while some books will only list pros to medical interventions at childbirth and others will list only cons to medical interventions and are totally crunchy, this author included all possible pros and cons to medical interventions and natural practices. I really felt like neither side was over looked.
Some parts of it were a little repetitive, but the author said that was intentional, so an inquisitive reader would not have to read the entire book cover-to-cover when looking for certain information. You can turn to the chapter and know that all of the related information will be there. So obviously some parts of birth are related to multiple other parts of birth, and that is where there was a little repetition. It never became annoying though in my opinion. You have to read or hear something multiple times before you remember it, so it was reinforcing for me.
While she was very even handed, she did have the general opinion that while obstetric interventions are no doubt necessary, she feels that they are overused among low risk women and babies.
Keep in mind when you read the quotes that were important or interesting to me that they may not give you an even view of the book. I didn't choose my quotes to show both sides. I just chose the ones I want to remember.
This quote is found in the opening of the book. It is from Midwifery and Childbirth in America by Judith Pence Rooks: "We can no longer say that a great deal of American obstetric practice goes forth without adequate research. It is now more accurate to say that many interventions are used routinely or frequently in spite of research that has clearly shown that the procedure is being used inappropriately in this country."
This quote is also found on one of the opening pages. It is from A Good Birth, A Safe Birth: Choosing and Having the Childbirth Experience You Want written by Diana Korte and Roberta Scaer: "If you don't know your options, you don't have any."
"Cesarean section is the most common major surgery performed in this country. Every year in the United States one in five—nearly one million—pregnant women have a cesarean section, despite the health risks, pain, recovery time, and expense. The consensus of the medical literature is that half of these operations were not needed." [And I will add that this book was written in 1999. In 2012, America's cesarean rate is closer to one in three women.]
"Doctors now use electronic fetal monitoring, a machine that records the baby's heart rate in conjunction when the mother's contractions, on four out of five laboring women. The percentage has risen steadily in the face of a stream of studies showing that its use doesn't improve babies' health. In fact, its routine use threatens the mother's health by increasing the odds of forceps or vacuum extraction deliveries and cesarean section."
"Most women who have a cesarean section automatically have them for subsequent babies. Reams of data show that vaginal birth after cesarean is safer for mothers, has advantages for babies, and will work for nearly three-quarters of women."
"Obstetricians are also influenced by the broader culture in that it is believed that technology is superior to nature and machines are more reliable than people. This explains why they will not back off from technologies that have proven to be failures except to replace them with the next new and untested expensive technology that comes down the road. It also explains why not intervening has the burden of proving itself rather than the other way around."
"I have had to be selective in the data I presented, but I think I have included enough to make my case. For most chapters, I read two to three times the number of papers as appear in the bibliography and appendix reference lists. One tactic for dismissing a work like mine is to say that you can find a study to support any position, but that does not apply here. The data uniformly failed to support common obstetric practice for most of the topics I researched."
"When a research project at a Chicago lowered the cesarean rate from 18 percent to 12 percent between 1985 and 1987, the hospital involved lost $1 million in revenues. The need to fill hospital beds provides strong financial motives to perform cesarean." "Studies consistently show that for-profit hospitals have higher cesarean rate than non-profits, HMO-owned hospitals, or county hospitals. Private obstetricians also have higher cesarean rates compared with obstetricians caring for clinic patients, although low-income women have the higher medical risk."
"Over a decade ago [this book was written in 1999], the World Health Organization concluded that since countries with some of the lowest perinatal mortality rates in the world had cesarean section rates of less than 10 percent, there was no justification for any region to have a cesarean rate more than 10 to 15 percent." "Some years ago, faced with a cesarean rate approaching 25 percent, the U.S. government set the goal of achieving a 15 percent national cesarean rate by the year 2000. Ironically, in 1979, the National Institute of Health viewed a 15 percent rate with such alarm that it convened a panel of experts to develop recommendations on how to lower it." [In August 2012, the National Center for Health Statistics released the U.S. national cesarean rate for 2010: 32.8%.]
"Cesareans cause more maternal deaths than does vaginal birth. A 1989 analysis in Great Britain revealed that women were 550 percent more likely to die of an elective cesarean section than a vaginal birth (9 versus 2 per 100,000). A Dutch study found that between 1983 and 1992, C-sections caused 700 perfect more deaths than vaginal births did (28 versus 4 per 100,000). Obviously, some factors that lead to C-section also threaten the mother's life. However, the British study compared elective cesarean, where there was no medical indication for the surgery, to vaginal birth to minimize that possibility, and the Dutch study investigated the exact cause of death."
"Inducing labor is intrinsically ironic. It works best when least needed and often fails when needed the most. It also causes the very problems it was intended to prevent. Despite common perception, obstetricians can't just switch labor on at will. Starting and intensifying labor involves a complex cascade of feedback mechanisms that mutually reinforce and limit each other."
". . . doctors induce labor when they are concerned about the baby's condition, which brings us to the other irony: Induction causes the problems it was intended to prevent. Induced labors are much harder on the baby than natural labor. For one thing, it takes greater contraction pressures over a longer time to get a labor going and keep it going than are generally needed for spontaneous labor."
"There are problems with the due date itself. You may be surprised to learn that the conventional forty-week pregnancy length is completely arbitrary. It was established by a German obstetrician in the early 1800s. He simply declared that a pregnancy should last ten moon months, that is, ten months of four weeks each. However, when researchers in a 1990 study followed a group of healthy, white women, they discovered that pregnancy in first-time mothers averaged eight days longer than this, and the average was three days longer in women with prior births."
"In addition, ultrasonography, the current standard for assigning due dates, does not reliably establish due dates. Even in the first trimester, the date is plus or minus five days. This means the actual due date falls within a ten-day window. Sonograms done later in pregnancy are even less accurate."
"As a medical journal editorial commented, 'When the requisite randomized controlled trials were finally done, the consensus was striking: routine electronic fetal monitoring confers no demonstrable benefit to the fetus, yet poses a significantly increased risk of operative delivery (e.g., cesarean delivery or forceps) for the woman. Even for high-risk fetuses, evidence of the benefit of electronic monitoring . . . is lacking. After two decades of use, electronic fetal monitoring has not been shown to be superior to intermittent [listening].'"
"Labor will hurt. Probably a lot. But whether this is negative is another matter. Pain and suffering differ, as anyone who engages in activities demanding strength and endurance can tell you. A laboring woman can be in a great deal of pain, yet feel loved and supported and exhilarated by the power of the creative forces flowing through her body and her ability to meet labor's challenges."
"It is also unclear to what extent obstetric practitioners cause some of the problems believed to be inevitable or frequent results of childbirth by the way they manage the pushing phase of labor and the birth itself."
"Lying flat on the back, the standard pushing position until recently—and probably still standard in some hospitals—puts about ten pounds' worth of baby and uterus on top of the major maternal blood vessels serving the uterus and placenta."
"Studies show that the usual instructions to hold the breath and push 'as long and hard as you can' and not to take more than a quick breath between pushes cause symptoms of fetal distress. Left to their own devices, women don't push like that. They grunt and groan, and when they hold their breaths, they hold it for no longer than six seconds. They usually take several breaths between pushes. Studies show that spontaneous pushing does not adversely affect the baby. It may take a little longer to push out the baby, but despite this, babies are born better oxygenated."
"Data also suggests that giving birth in an upright position, which is how women in every traditional culture do it, preserves the perineum from tears."
"When researchers compared outcomes for all U.S. women cared for by nurse midwives in 1991 with outcomes of similar women managed by doctors, they found, among other benefits of midwifery care, that one-third fewer babies died during the first week of life. As the authors of an analysis comparing birth outcomes of midwives and obstetricians comment, 'In all economically developed countries except Holland, maternity care has come to be organised so as to give full effect to the theory that childbirth is always safer if it takes place under the management of obstetricians in a hospital. . . . It is a remarkable fact that obstetricians have never at any time had valid evidence to support the theory they have so successfully propagated.'"
"Because midwifery care is superior to medical management for low- and moderate-risk women, obstetricians should not control midwives or labor and delivery policies. In a maternity-care system that makes sense, such as Holland's, midwives and family physicians would care for pregnant women, and at their discretion they would consult with or refer to obstetricians those women who developed complications. This, of course, is the arrangement in all other instances of generalists and specialists."
"Research disproves the argument that the fact that obstetricians handle high-risk cases accounts for differences in procedure and medication rates. For one thing, midwives don't just take care of low-risk women. Hospital-based midwives, at least, care for women with risk profiles comparable to—and for some factors worse than—the national average. For another, when you compare low-risk women managed by obstetricians with low-risk women cared for by midwives or family practitioners, the midwives and family practitioners consistently come out behind on intervention rates."
"No study has ever shown that out-of-hospital births resulted in worse outcomes provided women were prescreened for risk factors and had a planned out-of-hospital birth with a trained attendant. And while individual studies may be too small to show significant differences in the occurrence of adverse outcomes because such outcomes are exceedingly rare in healthy women, collectively they affirm the safety of out-of-hospital birth. Moreover, the Netherlands, where home birth never disappeared and nearly one-third of women continue to have their babies at home today, has excellent outcome statistics for mothers and babies. The British, at least, have recognized this fact. In 1992, the House of Commons Health Select Committee published a report that concluded, 'The policy of encouraging all woman to give birth in hospitals cannot be justified on grounds of safety. . . . Women should be given . . . an opportunity for choice, . . . including the option, previously denied to them, of having their babies at home, or in small maternity units.'"
October 4, 2018
I read The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth by Henci Goer because his book seemed to be very well-regarded, and for good reason. Goer does a great job of laying out the findings of a whole lot of research in a way that's easily readable and accessible to someone without a medical background.
She does have a strong bias towards natural birth, as she explains in the introduction. I appreciate that she acknowledges her biases and she is honest about them with the reader.
Despite her bias, however, this book is really well-researched, and written very clearly. I think that people who come into reading this, feeling pretty down with medicalized hospital birth but curious about the other side, can overlook the occasional anti-OB comment and appreciate the really solid research in this book. There's a ton of tremendously useful and educational stats in here.
There is an appendix at the end of the book for each chapter that summarizes the literature sources, so that you can link a specific assertion with its source. For me, as a scientist, it bothered me to not to be able to link a statement with a citation! But, maybe it is more comfortable for the general reader to read chapters uncluttered by citations and journal article titles....
One interesting new medical thing I learned from this book - okay, two: (1) Women are given a big bolus of IV fluid, on the order of at least a liter (4 cups), when they get an epidural or before a C-section. This is to raise blood pressure, to counteract the blood pressure-lowering effect of an epidural. (2) That's a ton of water all at once, and it may be (at least partially) responsible for the problem of increased fluid in the lungs and respiratory issues in C-section babies.
To sum up , this book is really well-researched, and written very clearly. I think that people who come into reading this, feeling pretty down with medicalized hospital birth but curious about the other side, can overlook the occasional anti-OB comment and appreciate the really solid research in this book. There's a ton of tremendously useful and educational stats in here.
I want to add a few links regarding my own research about the importance of keeping ones thoughts pure and virtuous ducting pregnancy if one wants a virtuous baby :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYQ6-...
start 4:30 into video
(Dr. Bruce Lipton is a geneticist, epigeneticist, researcher, stem cell biologist and former professor. After many breakthrough discoveries about genetics (ex. "genes" do NOT control disease), stem cells and cell biology, instead of being dictated by a university he decided to lecture, then write a book "The Biology of Belief" -- and you will be SHOCKED by what he exposes!
Here is another video of Dr Lipton
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TivZ...
One of his discoveries...the mother's thoughts during pregnancy can alter that babies DNA thereby altering the health, brain development and well-being of her child!)
Below are links to medical articles on how mother's thoughts affect her blood hormones and these hormones enter her child's body via the blood (to a fetus) or milk (to a infant ) and these lustful hormones bind to the child's receptors as if the child had thought the lustful thoughts and how these first impressions on the child's mind and brain PERMANENTLY undermine his/her moral character and mental abilities .
http://milkgenomics.org/article/hormo...
So I think the person who posted the discussion was just wanting to spread awareness among health professionals and councilors about this so that the councillors could WARN mothers to leave reading this type of literature for the 2-3 year period between conception and weaning if they want children who wont be distracted in school by sexual impulses and thus who will score higher and be happier .
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/f...
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/eb14...
So please if you find any mother who reads erotica warn her of the negative impact she is having on her fetus or nursing child's future ability to study without internal distractions. Instead of giving birth to a virtuous creative genius she risks giving birth to a way ward child due to a sexaully dominated mind and consequent attention deficit disorder.
She does have a strong bias towards natural birth, as she explains in the introduction. I appreciate that she acknowledges her biases and she is honest about them with the reader.
Despite her bias, however, this book is really well-researched, and written very clearly. I think that people who come into reading this, feeling pretty down with medicalized hospital birth but curious about the other side, can overlook the occasional anti-OB comment and appreciate the really solid research in this book. There's a ton of tremendously useful and educational stats in here.
There is an appendix at the end of the book for each chapter that summarizes the literature sources, so that you can link a specific assertion with its source. For me, as a scientist, it bothered me to not to be able to link a statement with a citation! But, maybe it is more comfortable for the general reader to read chapters uncluttered by citations and journal article titles....
One interesting new medical thing I learned from this book - okay, two: (1) Women are given a big bolus of IV fluid, on the order of at least a liter (4 cups), when they get an epidural or before a C-section. This is to raise blood pressure, to counteract the blood pressure-lowering effect of an epidural. (2) That's a ton of water all at once, and it may be (at least partially) responsible for the problem of increased fluid in the lungs and respiratory issues in C-section babies.
To sum up , this book is really well-researched, and written very clearly. I think that people who come into reading this, feeling pretty down with medicalized hospital birth but curious about the other side, can overlook the occasional anti-OB comment and appreciate the really solid research in this book. There's a ton of tremendously useful and educational stats in here.
I want to add a few links regarding my own research about the importance of keeping ones thoughts pure and virtuous ducting pregnancy if one wants a virtuous baby :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYQ6-...
start 4:30 into video
(Dr. Bruce Lipton is a geneticist, epigeneticist, researcher, stem cell biologist and former professor. After many breakthrough discoveries about genetics (ex. "genes" do NOT control disease), stem cells and cell biology, instead of being dictated by a university he decided to lecture, then write a book "The Biology of Belief" -- and you will be SHOCKED by what he exposes!
Here is another video of Dr Lipton
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TivZ...
One of his discoveries...the mother's thoughts during pregnancy can alter that babies DNA thereby altering the health, brain development and well-being of her child!)
Below are links to medical articles on how mother's thoughts affect her blood hormones and these hormones enter her child's body via the blood (to a fetus) or milk (to a infant ) and these lustful hormones bind to the child's receptors as if the child had thought the lustful thoughts and how these first impressions on the child's mind and brain PERMANENTLY undermine his/her moral character and mental abilities .
http://milkgenomics.org/article/hormo...
So I think the person who posted the discussion was just wanting to spread awareness among health professionals and councilors about this so that the councillors could WARN mothers to leave reading this type of literature for the 2-3 year period between conception and weaning if they want children who wont be distracted in school by sexual impulses and thus who will score higher and be happier .
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/f...
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/eb14...
So please if you find any mother who reads erotica warn her of the negative impact she is having on her fetus or nursing child's future ability to study without internal distractions. Instead of giving birth to a virtuous creative genius she risks giving birth to a way ward child due to a sexaully dominated mind and consequent attention deficit disorder.
October 4, 2018
Before I begin Id like to recomemnd this very imporatnt artcile for all pergnant mother's https://www.beingtheparent.com/can-my...
Now my review :
I read The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth by Henci Goer because his book seemed to be very well-regarded, and for good reason. Goer does a great job of laying out the findings of a whole lot of research in a way that's easily readable and accessible to someone without a medical background.
She does have a strong bias towards natural birth, as she explains in the introduction. I appreciate that she acknowledges her biases and she is honest about them with the reader.
Despite her bias, however, this book is really well-researched, and written very clearly. I think that people who come into reading this, feeling pretty down with medicalized hospital birth but curious about the other side, can overlook the occasional anti-OB comment and appreciate the really solid research in this book. There's a ton of tremendously useful and educational stats in here.
There is an appendix at the end of the book for each chapter that summarizes the literature sources, so that you can link a specific assertion with its source. For me, as a scientist, it bothered me to not to be able to link a statement with a citation! But, maybe it is more comfortable for the general reader to read chapters uncluttered by citations and journal article titles....
One interesting new medical thing I learned from this book - okay, two: (1) Women are given a big bolus of IV fluid, on the order of at least a liter (4 cups), when they get an epidural or before a C-section. This is to raise blood pressure, to counteract the blood pressure-lowering effect of an epidural. (2) That's a ton of water all at once, and it may be (at least partially) responsible for the problem of increased fluid in the lungs and respiratory issues in C-section babies.
To sum up , this book is really well-researched, and written very clearly. I think that people who come into reading this, feeling pretty down with medicalized hospital birth but curious about the other side, can overlook the occasional anti-OB comment and appreciate the really solid research in this book. There's a ton of tremendously useful and educational stats in here.
I want to add a few links regarding my own research about the importance of keeping ones thoughts pure and virtuous ducting pregnancy if one wants a virtuous baby :
(To save your time start 4:41 into video )https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYQ6-...
(Dr. Bruce Lipton is a geneticist, epigeneticist, researcher, stem cell biologist and former professor. After many breakthrough discoveries about genetics (ex. "genes" do NOT control disease), stem cells and cell biology, instead of being dictated by a university he decided to lecture, then write a book "The Biology of Belief" -- and you will be SHOCKED by what he exposes!
Here is another video of Dr Lipton
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TivZ...
One of his discoveries...the mother's thoughts during pregnancy can alter that babies DNA thereby altering the health, brain development and well-being of her child!)
Below are links to medical articles on how mother's thoughts affect her blood hormones and these hormones enter her child's body via the blood (to a fetus) or milk (to a infant ) and these lustful hormones bind to the child's receptors as if the child had thought the lustful thoughts and how these first impressions on the child's mind and brain PERMANENTLY undermine his/her moral character and mental abilities .
http://milkgenomics.org/article/hormo...
So I think the person who posted the discussion was just wanting to spread awareness among health professionals and councilors about this so that the councillors could WARN mothers to leave reading this type of literature for the 2-3 year period between conception and weaning if they want children who wont be distracted in school by sexual impulses and thus who will score higher and be happier .
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/f...
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/eb14...
So please if you find any mother who reads erotica warn her of the negative impact she is having on her fetus or nursing child's future ability to study without internal distractions. Instead of giving birth to a virtuous creative genius she risks giving birth to a way ward child due to a sexaully dominated mind and consequent attention deficit disorder.
Now my review :
I read The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth by Henci Goer because his book seemed to be very well-regarded, and for good reason. Goer does a great job of laying out the findings of a whole lot of research in a way that's easily readable and accessible to someone without a medical background.
She does have a strong bias towards natural birth, as she explains in the introduction. I appreciate that she acknowledges her biases and she is honest about them with the reader.
Despite her bias, however, this book is really well-researched, and written very clearly. I think that people who come into reading this, feeling pretty down with medicalized hospital birth but curious about the other side, can overlook the occasional anti-OB comment and appreciate the really solid research in this book. There's a ton of tremendously useful and educational stats in here.
There is an appendix at the end of the book for each chapter that summarizes the literature sources, so that you can link a specific assertion with its source. For me, as a scientist, it bothered me to not to be able to link a statement with a citation! But, maybe it is more comfortable for the general reader to read chapters uncluttered by citations and journal article titles....
One interesting new medical thing I learned from this book - okay, two: (1) Women are given a big bolus of IV fluid, on the order of at least a liter (4 cups), when they get an epidural or before a C-section. This is to raise blood pressure, to counteract the blood pressure-lowering effect of an epidural. (2) That's a ton of water all at once, and it may be (at least partially) responsible for the problem of increased fluid in the lungs and respiratory issues in C-section babies.
To sum up , this book is really well-researched, and written very clearly. I think that people who come into reading this, feeling pretty down with medicalized hospital birth but curious about the other side, can overlook the occasional anti-OB comment and appreciate the really solid research in this book. There's a ton of tremendously useful and educational stats in here.
I want to add a few links regarding my own research about the importance of keeping ones thoughts pure and virtuous ducting pregnancy if one wants a virtuous baby :
(To save your time start 4:41 into video )https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYQ6-...
(Dr. Bruce Lipton is a geneticist, epigeneticist, researcher, stem cell biologist and former professor. After many breakthrough discoveries about genetics (ex. "genes" do NOT control disease), stem cells and cell biology, instead of being dictated by a university he decided to lecture, then write a book "The Biology of Belief" -- and you will be SHOCKED by what he exposes!
Here is another video of Dr Lipton
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TivZ...
One of his discoveries...the mother's thoughts during pregnancy can alter that babies DNA thereby altering the health, brain development and well-being of her child!)
Below are links to medical articles on how mother's thoughts affect her blood hormones and these hormones enter her child's body via the blood (to a fetus) or milk (to a infant ) and these lustful hormones bind to the child's receptors as if the child had thought the lustful thoughts and how these first impressions on the child's mind and brain PERMANENTLY undermine his/her moral character and mental abilities .
http://milkgenomics.org/article/hormo...
So I think the person who posted the discussion was just wanting to spread awareness among health professionals and councilors about this so that the councillors could WARN mothers to leave reading this type of literature for the 2-3 year period between conception and weaning if they want children who wont be distracted in school by sexual impulses and thus who will score higher and be happier .
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/f...
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/eb14...
So please if you find any mother who reads erotica warn her of the negative impact she is having on her fetus or nursing child's future ability to study without internal distractions. Instead of giving birth to a virtuous creative genius she risks giving birth to a way ward child due to a sexaully dominated mind and consequent attention deficit disorder.
October 22, 2020
El libro “Guía de la mujer consciente para un parto mejor” me llegó en forma de regalo a través de una gran amiga, que ya era mamá, cuando le dije lo mucho que temía al parto.
Bueno… ¿temor? más bien pánico total. Al principio de mi embarazo solo pensaba si había una opción para que me sedaran por completo, me sacasen al bebé y luego ya me despertara evitando por completo la situación.
Cuando empecé a leer el libro estaba de unas 18 semanas y ante lo técnico y lejano que me parecía todo lo dejé apartado al lado del sofá. Me seguí informando y leyendo cosas por Internet, clases de preparación al parto, etc…
En la semana 28 de repente vi de nuevo el libro y lo empecé a leer… fue una experiencia completamente distinta.
Tal vez yo era una mujer distinta también.
Henci Goer, la autora, deja muy claro desde el principio que ella es pro-parto natural y que en el libro habla apoyando esa opción de parto. Si no eres afín a esas ideas no te lo recomiendo. Yo no podía estar más en contra en un principio, y este libro me hizo cambiar de opinión.
Algo que me gusta muchísimo es que desde el principio ofrece datos de estudios que confirman lo que ella está diciendo. Así puedes entrar en Google y buscar estudios para contrastar su información si quieres. Me dio mucha seguridad y toda la evidencia que muestra en sus páginas tuvieron un gran peso a la hora de plantearme mi parto.
¿Te da miedo el parto? ¿Quieres informarte más? ¿No te importa el lenguaje técnico?
Entonces te recomiendo muchísimo su lectura. A mi me sirvió para calmar mis miedos, sentirme empoderada, conectar con mi bebé y con la experiencia y sobre todo me ayudó muchísimo en el momento de escribir mi Plan de Parto.
Si tienes curiosidad pero no sabes si comprarlo en Scribd puedes leer la introducción.
Bueno… ¿temor? más bien pánico total. Al principio de mi embarazo solo pensaba si había una opción para que me sedaran por completo, me sacasen al bebé y luego ya me despertara evitando por completo la situación.
Cuando empecé a leer el libro estaba de unas 18 semanas y ante lo técnico y lejano que me parecía todo lo dejé apartado al lado del sofá. Me seguí informando y leyendo cosas por Internet, clases de preparación al parto, etc…
En la semana 28 de repente vi de nuevo el libro y lo empecé a leer… fue una experiencia completamente distinta.
Tal vez yo era una mujer distinta también.
Henci Goer, la autora, deja muy claro desde el principio que ella es pro-parto natural y que en el libro habla apoyando esa opción de parto. Si no eres afín a esas ideas no te lo recomiendo. Yo no podía estar más en contra en un principio, y este libro me hizo cambiar de opinión.
Algo que me gusta muchísimo es que desde el principio ofrece datos de estudios que confirman lo que ella está diciendo. Así puedes entrar en Google y buscar estudios para contrastar su información si quieres. Me dio mucha seguridad y toda la evidencia que muestra en sus páginas tuvieron un gran peso a la hora de plantearme mi parto.
¿Te da miedo el parto? ¿Quieres informarte más? ¿No te importa el lenguaje técnico?
Entonces te recomiendo muchísimo su lectura. A mi me sirvió para calmar mis miedos, sentirme empoderada, conectar con mi bebé y con la experiencia y sobre todo me ayudó muchísimo en el momento de escribir mi Plan de Parto.
Si tienes curiosidad pero no sabes si comprarlo en Scribd puedes leer la introducción.
December 30, 2017
Absolutely loved this book!
I am a birth doula and this is one of my required reading books for certification. When it came in the mail I was a tad hesitant because it looked like a textbook with many many many references with over 20 pages of references at the end. But I loved studying in college and one night just dove in, and I am very glad I did!
Henci Goer has an obvious bias against OBGYN's, and she is not shy about her point of view. The nice thing is she talks about it in the beginning of the book, so you know what to expect in the following chapters. When she says things against OB's she references medical studies and gives very good reasons for what she is saying, and when the research supports something that OB's do she mentions those as well. So even with the bias she has I still felt as though I was getting good information.
While the book LOOKS like a textbook it certainly doesn't feel like one when you are reading it. I had a highlight in hand and marked something on almost every page. I read the first 90 pages in one sitting because the style is very easy to navigate.
The topics that she covers are fascinating
The chapters are laid out in a way that makes a lot of sense: topic is introduced, procedures are explained, and they end with "gleanings from the medical literature" with references to research articles as well.
At the end of the book she has different medical articles in the book that you can read yourself, which is especially awesome because too often if you want to read one of those articles you need to purchase them online.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is expecting, and their partners! And I know I will be referencing back to this book in the future.
I am a birth doula and this is one of my required reading books for certification. When it came in the mail I was a tad hesitant because it looked like a textbook with many many many references with over 20 pages of references at the end. But I loved studying in college and one night just dove in, and I am very glad I did!
Henci Goer has an obvious bias against OBGYN's, and she is not shy about her point of view. The nice thing is she talks about it in the beginning of the book, so you know what to expect in the following chapters. When she says things against OB's she references medical studies and gives very good reasons for what she is saying, and when the research supports something that OB's do she mentions those as well. So even with the bias she has I still felt as though I was getting good information.
While the book LOOKS like a textbook it certainly doesn't feel like one when you are reading it. I had a highlight in hand and marked something on almost every page. I read the first 90 pages in one sitting because the style is very easy to navigate.
The topics that she covers are fascinating
The chapters are laid out in a way that makes a lot of sense: topic is introduced, procedures are explained, and they end with "gleanings from the medical literature" with references to research articles as well.
At the end of the book she has different medical articles in the book that you can read yourself, which is especially awesome because too often if you want to read one of those articles you need to purchase them online.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is expecting, and their partners! And I know I will be referencing back to this book in the future.
June 11, 2017
I really liked Goer's format in that she does a mini summary/ overview, goes into what each procedure actually entails, then gives pros and cons as well as a brief review of medical research (from the 1990s). In addition, almost half the book is her further explaining research results and statements on any given topic as well as an extensive bibliography at the back. And while it's true that she is not without bias - what is so fascinating to me is how time and time again, she uses research to demonstrate how the birth process in a hospital environment is approached not from statistically significant evidentiary results but rather in a "well this is how we do things" and "this will make medical professionals' lives easier" standpoint. As a first time mom planning on a natural delivery, it was very helpful for me to have a reminder about what an "epidural" or "c-section" really mean/ look like, and what some possible side effects can be from other types of medical interventions. Would love to see a revised and updated edition of this book to see what recent research has discovered on these topics.
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