Product Description

Childbirth guru Dr Gowri Motha, who practises with Dr Yehudi Gordon -- author of Birth and Beyond -- shows women how her revolutionary method helps women carry the baby to full term, have less intervention in the birth; feel less pain in labour, and feel happy and in control. / The Gentle Birth method is a concise pregnancy programme combining diverse therapies such as 'creative healing' massage, a simple diet, self-hypnosis, reflexology and affirmation techniques / The method was created by Dr Gowri Motha as an alternative to conventional obstetric practise, when she became alarmed at the increasing number of women needing intervention during their births. It teaches expectant mothers how to train their bodies and minds in order to reduce or prevent complications during pregnancy and labour. / This book outlines the Method, with a month-by-month programme explaining how to rebalance the body and tailor it to the optimum condition for the birthing process. It includes guides to treating problems such as: -- back pain -- nausea -- heartburn -- fluid retention -- stretch marks / The programme offers women a formal framework in which to prepare their bodies and so avoid facing a labour that is unnecessarily long, arduous and traumatic, with significantly lower uptakes of pain relief.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29035 in Books
• Published on: 2004-06-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
There is an intelligence behind her advice that fills me with confidence.' Gabby Logan, The Times

About the Author
Dr Gowri Motha has worked as an obstetrician in London since 1981. After opening her practice, The Jeyarani Way, in 1987, she spent 15 years assimilating diverse therapies that became the basis of the Gentle Birth Method. She now works alongside the birthing unit at the prestigious St John and Elizabeth's Hospital and the NHS are increasingly looking to incorporate her methods into their own obstetric programmes. She has helped various celebrities through their pregnancies, including Kate Moss, Sadie Frost and Elle McPherson. Karen Swan MacLeod is a journalist who, as well as working as Senior Commissioning Editor at You Magazine, has contributed to titles including Sunday Times, the FT, Tatler and Vogue. She is a former patient of Dr Motha and has experienced the programme first-hand.

Customer Reviews

I feel like my body 's been given back to me
This is my pregnancy bible. I only came across it halfway through pregnancy, and it's still helped me immeasurably. By 20 weeks I'd put on 20lbs and felt stiff, achy, huge and miserable, dreading how much worse I was going to get. I took the advice in Gowri's book and now at 32 weeks, I'm exactly the same weight I was at 20 weeks, but toned, supple and healthy, and people are always raving about how well and in what good shape I look. All thanks to Gowri!

I cut out wheat/gluten and sugar, milk, etc. I haven't found I need a personal chef to cater for a gluten-free diet, as one reviewer complained: I just stopped buying bread, crumpets, wheat pasta, etc. I eat muesli with rice milk, corn crispbreads, avocados, quinoa, vegetables, prunes, figs, chicken, fish. Nothing out of the ordinary.

I haven't needed a fancy specialist food shop and I haven't forked out for fancy practitioners. Sainsbury's and Holland & Barrett have stocked the food I've needed. I get up early and do an hour of yoga every day (in the living room, to Shiva Rea's Pre-natal DVD), I walk briskly whenever I have to walk anywhere and I meditate last thing before bed to prepare my mind to relax for childbirth. I haven't had any creative healing, reflexology or homeopathy, but I don't feel I need to - the diet and yoga are enough to make me feel fabulous. I've gone from creaking and huffing and puffing to running up escalators and taking stairs two at a time again. My baby's fit and healthy, a good weight, moving a lot and my pregnancy is complication-free, and I can't ask for any more than that. I can't recommend this book enough.

It helped me feel prepared (and not get fat)
There's some sensible advice in this book, geared toward preparing mind and body for a natural and gentle birth.

The gist is - don't pig out on processed food and sugar or you'll pile on the weight and your baby will be too big resulting in a difficult birth. At worst you may get gestational diabetes. Be informed about the birth process and rehearse it mentally before the birth, then you will be calm and prepared and able to control your fear and anxiety. Learn self-hypnosis to help you relax and prepare your body for birth. Take various supplements and exercise to tone up your uterus. There's non-essential stuff around alternative therapies too.

I put a lot of this into practice, didn't gain too much weight and had a baby who was the right size for my physique at home with no pain relief in a fairly quick birth - I dilated fast and consistently. It still bloody hurt but the midwife was impressed with my calm and focus and I ascribe this to being extremely well prepared from listening to Gowri's self hypnosis CD most nights and not getting fat. At no point did I feel scared or over-whelmed.

I also drank the herbal tea and had some reflexology (though only in the third trimester) and who knows whether this had any effect - it made me feel like I was doing something positive so probably helped.

One thing I am dubious about is her recommendation that you cut wheat and dairy out of your diet, particularly after talking to a paediatrician friend who told me that some allergies in children can be traced to mothers cutting out wheat/dairy while pregnant and breastfeeding. In moderation seems more sensible.

I would recommend this book - it certainly helped me - I had the least stressful birth of all the mums from my antenatal group. As with all these 'experts' just take from it the elements you find useful and don't feel that you have to follow it slavishly -but you don't have to fork out a fortune to eat sensibly and do a bit of exercise and the birth rehearsal CD is worth the money.

Could be very useful
After reading other reviews, I bought this book with an open mind. There is a lot of useful information, but if you decide to follow it 100%, it is very time consuming and expensive. A must for alternative medicine followers, although there is no index so it is difficult to find a specific subject quickly. My book if full of turned corners and highlighted paragraphs.