Instead of reading the big stack of books I need to prepare for school in the fall, I've been doing a lot of reading about pregnancy and natural delivery. Here are a few of the books I've been enjoying this summer:
1) Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering by Sarah Buckley
This Australian doctor does a fantastic job of breaking down the body's physiological response to labor and describing how interventions, such as induction, epidurals and pitocin can interfere with the body's natural hormonal preparation for both mother and baby. I wanted to recommend this book to every single friend who is pregnant (and that is quite a few women), but she also has some fairly unorthodox practices, such as lotus birth (where you leave the placenta attached to the baby until it detaches naturally, usually around six days after birth) and she nursed her kids until they were four or older (the youngest had her last breastfeeding experience around age seven). While both practices are routed in scientific research, they're just a little too weird for even my alternative approach.
2) Pushed, The Painful Truth about Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care by Jennifer Block
This is a must-read for ever woman who is pregnant or considering having a child. The author exposes why common hospital practices, such as using Pitocin to augment labor or C-sectioning babies who are considered too large for the mothers' pelvis (very few babies are truly too large), are so prevalent in spite of their lack of positive results. This book truly reinforced my belief that the birth center was the place I needed to have my baby.
3) Birthing from Within by Pam England
This book was a definite departure from the previous two, which focused more on physiological aspects of birth. Birthing from Within focused on the spiritual and emotional preparation for birth, with the premise that it doesn't matter as much what station a baby is at or how many centimeters a woman is dilated, it matters more what types of assumptions she brings to the birth and how mentally prepared she is to work though the pain. I will definitely be rereading this book in December to prepare myself for labor.
And the book that awaits me on my nightstand is called What's Going in in There? How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life by Lisa Eliot. This book explores how the things we do before, during and after birth affect babies' development. For example, Jack's desire to be bounced in his first six weeks and his continued love of the jumperoo and exersaucer boded well for his cognitive development. And it is important to allow a baby to breastfeed successfully before he/she is bathed for the first time, because that bath washes off the scent of his/her mother. It should be a fascinating read.
2 comments:
When you're done with the last one, I'd love to read it. I would also suggest "Husband Coached Birthing" by Dr. Bradley. He describes one scene back in the 50's where a woman was tied down to a table by the nurse because she kept wanting to get up and walk during labor.
Speaking about the too big baby. I caught an episode of A Baby Story on TLC. They induced a woman 2 weeks early because they thought the baby was too big to fit through her pelvis. Baby came out a whopping... 7 lbs 8 oz, 19 in. The woman was not a little person so she would have been fine. I hate that show and what it shows women who don't become educated.
I totally agree, Callie. I can't stand the way they portray labor on the show. I've been taping the natural delivery episodes, but so often they spin it like "This mom has plans for a natural water birth, but when she experiences her first contraction, will she be able to handle the pain?" Ugh. Just once I'd like them to say something like, "This mom has prepared for natural childbirth and trusts that her body is capable of giving birth without unnecessary drugs." Seriously! Women did it that way for centuries!
You're more than welcome to borrow the book once I finish it. I'll have to check out the Bradley book. "Birthing from Within" seemed to disagree somewhat with the Bradley method because she thought it put too much pressure on the dad when he has no knowledge of what labor is really like. Rather, she suggests that he be there for support, but that another woman who is experienced with childbirth -- a doula, midwife, relative, etc. -- should be the labor "coach". I'm curious to see what Dr. Bradley has to say though. :)
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