Product Description

Ina May Gaskin, America's leading midwife, shares her exceptional birthing wisdom in this intuitive guide to childbirth. By sharing a wealth of knowledge generated by three decades of experience she explains why the natural birthing process, when left to its own devices, can proceed so beautifully on its own. In this invaluable book Ina May teaches you: what really happens during labour; how to create a safe, comfortable environment for birth in any setting; tips for maximising your chances of an unmedicated labour and birth; the risks of anaesthesia and caesareans; and, what your doctor doesn't necessarily tell you. "Ina May's Guide to Childbirth" is an inspiring read and gives women the opportunity to take back the fear of childbirth by regaining confidence in their bodies. It tells you everything you need to know to have the best birth experience for you - whether in a hospital, birthing centre or the comfort of home.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5907 in Books
• Published on: 2008-08-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

About the Author
Ina May Gaskin is founder and director of the Farm Midwifery Center, located near Summertown, Tennessee. She has lectured all over the world at midwifery conferences and at medical schools, both to students and to faculty. The Farm is noted for its low rates of intervention, morbidity and mortality. Recently selected as a Visiting Fellow at Morse College of Yale University, Ina May also teaches midwifery, writes books and articles for medical journals and edits her quarterly journal, The Birth Gazette.

Customer Reviews

Let Your Monkey Do It
Ina May is a real person, a real mother, a real midwife. She makes physiological information about birth clear while mixing in a bit of medical history, anthropology, humour and extra-ordinary stories of birth from ordinary women. "Let your monkey do it" is Ina May's advice--in other words leave your socialization and high level reasoning behind--for finding the right place, time and way in which to birth your baby. Ina May respects women, babies, partners and other care providers who may or may not share her beliefs about birth. Enjoy this informative read.

Brilliant!
Anyone who is even considering the remote possibility of having a baby should read this book! The book is divided into two parts; the first part is various birth stories, the second part is the information, techniques, statistics and solutions section. It is written in an easy, conversational style and you can read the chapters in any order.
Whatever your interest in birth, this is head and shoulders above any other book on the subject.

Essential Reading for any Pregnant Women
It was only when reading this book that I reflected back to my daughter's birth 12 years ago, prior to which Ina May Gaskin's book Spiritual Midwifery had been my constant companion. Ms Gaskin reflects that so often for women in the civilized world, stories of births from friends and relatives are usually filled with intervention and problems. In my friends only one had a trouble free and easy birth - she went into hospital at 4am, gave birth at 6am and left the hospital at 9am. Other women had 28 -40 hour labours, caesarian's, inductions, forceps. I realised how true it was that we are surrounded by more stories of negative birth experiences, than positive ones. Reading Ina May's books you are immersed in stories of women who had positive birth experiences where they were surrounded by people who loved them, people who had been through the birth experiences successfully themselves and who, even in cases of previous ceasarians, twins births, breech births -which would normally require hospital intervention, gave birth normally and naturally without drugs or surgical intervention. A quick flick through hospital statistics shows that large hospitals have a much lower rate of normal births - about 40-60%(ie without drugs or intervention) than do smaller maternity units and community hospitals (with 90-100% natural births). Many commentators suggest that hospitals intervene too quickly when labour doesn't proceed quickly enough, - even to my dismay noting that some hospitals will now insist on drug induction when a woman passes her due date - when it used to be that the woman was allowed to proceed to 2 weeks post due date before induction. I cannot stress how highly Ms Gaskin's books moved me and how much I feel they have helped me in my own labour experiences. If you read only one book during your pregnancy - read either one of these two books.