The icons represent every possible birth choice in every setting, from home birth to caesarean. There are some blank cards included too, because every birth is unique. You’ll also find a guide inside with suggestions to get you started. The Positive Birth Book takes expectant parents through the maze of information and choices, in a down to earth, practical, empowering, reassuring way. I highly recommend that you put your feet up, relax and enjoy preparing yourself for the birth of your baby by reading this great book.” Pinter & Martin’s series, Why It Matters, seeks to steer a course through this sea of information, to give a broad perspective on the topics that affect family life in the 21st century. Readers will find that the books give a succinct, balanced and evidence-based introduction to each subject, giving them a firm framework from which to make confident, informed decisions of their own. With concise, readable text, and an up-to-date perspective that will bring new ideas into the mainstream, the books will appeal to a wide range of readers, including new parents, health professionals and all those with an interest in birth and parenting. With guidance on choosing period products, charting your cycles and preparing a first period kit, alongside profiles of ‘cycle superstars’ such as Amika George who are working to end period poverty, this book is the complete guide to getting your period.

The Positive Birth Book is like everything I ever Googled pre-birth rolled into a friendly, warm format and is full-to-burtsing with USEFUL information. For example, I am rhesus negative and to be honest I never really understood what that meant, I just did what I was told! This book explains it so well. It is also refreshing to read something positive about all types of birth – I didn’t feel like I was being preached to. I wish I had read this book during my pregnancies!” I love this book. Everyone’s going to love this book. Because it gives mothers what they now most need – accurate facts, proper reassurance, and about a thousand reasons to be excited about birth.” Birth plans are essential to a positive birth experience, not only because they clearly document your wishes, but also because in the process of making them, you can become better informed about your many choices.There is more information available on giving birth and raising children than ever before. With each new scientific advance or fad, more questions arise: Fertility issues? Screening tests? Antenatal classes, hypnobirthing or yoga? Home, hospital or birth centre? Breast or bottle, or both? Attachment parenting or parent-led routine? Co-sleeping or their own room? Spoon-feeding or baby-led weaning? To vaccinate, or not? Researching any or all of these topics can be time-consuming and frustrating, as good information and support sits alongside that provided by ‘experts’ or those with vested interests keen to prey on our anxieties and relieve us of our cash. Contradictory articles in the press, one-sided, heavily edited TV shows and social media commentary muddy the waters even further. So keeping in mind that it is basically a glorious, useful, practical, indispensable beginning birth book, and that I have many, MANY good things to say, I'll just drop my minor criticisms here:

Just so happened that I had to be induced as well because my baby decided it was to comfy inside me and wouldn't come out. To Milli Hill this is the worst thing that could ever happen. Oh no! Intervention! I should have waited and let baby come on its own! (Even though my baby was 9lbs when born, I don't even want to think about the possible weight if I'd have waited!) There are so many reasons for being induced when your overdue but Milli Hill says it's best to let nature takes it course. So find your flow, bust some myths and start to feel proud of your monthly cycle and your truly amazing body!Milli Hill is a writer, feminist and freelance journalist with a passion for reframing the narrative around women’s bodies. As well as The Positive Birth Book, she is also the author of Give Birth like a Feminist and My Period (for preteen girls). From 2012 to 2021 she founded and ran the Positive Birth Movement, a global network of antenatal discussion groups aimed at improving birth and giving women better access to support and information. The Positive Birth Book is like everything I ever googled pre-birth rolled into a friendly, warm format and is full-to-bursting with USEFUL information. For example, I am rhesus negative and to be honest I never really understood what that meant, I just did what I was told! This book explains it so well. It is also refreshing to read something positive about all types of birth – I didn’t feel like I was being preached to. I wish I had read this book during my pregnancies!” So good I read it TWICE! And now my fiance is reading it! Thank you. It’s a brilliant book that all mums to be should read!” Pinter & Martin’s reputation for bringing clear thinking to complex subjects, coupled with a team of talented authors and a wide range of thought-provoking titles, ensures that the Why It Matters series is an invaluable guide to the ins-and-outs of modern parenting. A zip file with all 98 icons individually as jpg files, which you can drop into Word documents, etc.

Includes a brand new chapter: What Women Want. What Women Need. What Women Are. Praise for Give Birth Like a Feminist A great read: honest, lively, fresh and helpful. This book puts women in the driving seat which is key to positive change.” This book is really reassuring and has given me a lot of confidence and reduced fears going into birth. The message that women are made to do this and that you have choices available to you for whatever makes you most comfortable is something we need to talk about more. We have really turned child birth into something to be feared which is not always true and is definitely not helpful. Then a couple of weeks after this class, I borrowed The Positive Birth Book from a friend. It was a fast read and one that completely supported everything I had learned in my birthing class. Right now, I feel incredibly confident and even excited about the prospect of giving birth! In case anyone is uncertain about what you’re “allowed” to do when giving birth, Hill spells it out: stop asking for permission, recognize that your experience matters–quite a bit–and demand respect. Researchers, activists, and journalists have been raising alarms about inappropriate and even abusive maternity treatment for decades, yet it persists. Hill joins the chorus with a loud call to action for feminists: this is your issue, too.”THIS is the book I wish I had been gifted as a child! A must-have for every girl entering womanhood, and as crucial as any biology textbook for every boy too, My Period is set to help annihilate the stigma, shame and medical negligences linked to our periods, and help everyone understand on a truthful, honest and kind level, the physical, factual happenings of what happens to our female bodies every month, for so many decades of our lives.” These beautifully illustrated cards bring your birth plan to life. Each card features an icon on one side and a clear explanation of the icon on the other. The cards can be used in a number of ways: by pregnant women who want to work through their birth choices in a more visual and dynamic way; by those who want to explore them with their partner, doula, midwife or other supporters; or by birth professionals as a starting point for activities and discussions with their clients. A brilliant riposte to all the ways women are encouraged to approach childbirth with fear and deference, Hill’s book leaves the reader not just well-informed, but with a renewed sense of pride in the power of the female body”

see the following links for more info (although there is plenty more and this is just the tip of the iceberg)There were several mentions of BMI and use of the terms "overweight" and "obese" which have been deemed inappropriate and not useful as scientific indicators, and though these terms and numbers still impact obstetric care, unfortunately, their usage and mention without disclaimers is problematic for those who have not yet been sufficiently exposed to the latest science on the topic. This book is for EVERY type of person and for EVERY type of birth -- from a home water birth through to an unplanned caesarean. This book has completely changed how I look at birth and removed a lot of fear and uncertainty around labour. While the author’s intent seems to be to empower women to make choices, she is quite distrusting of the medical profession and her approach is more likely to create fear among pregnant women of doctors rather than encourage them to trust in their knowledge and expertise when working with them. She talks often of how women traditionally gave birth at home without doctors intervening and the nostalgia with which she talks about the past suggests she thinks giving birth was ‘better’ then because it was more ‘natural’. She seems to conveniently forget that before modern medicine, women and children were more likely to die in childbirth than today in large part because medical care including facilities and research were not as good then as they are today.