Ina May's Guide to Childbirth

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But that's crazy! It's too simple! My brain doesn't work that way! What about all the what-ifs and contingencies? I'm a girl who likes to be prepared for any eventuality. Top 6 Books of 2011 | International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region". Archived from the original on 2018-04-18 . Retrieved 2018-04-17. I have so many conflicting thoughts about this book. This is the fourth book that I've read about childbirth. On the one hand, I have found it to be the most helpful in preparing me for childbirth. On the other hand, there is an obvious bias. While I agreed with much of what the author wrote, there were several parts that really bugged me. I was also impressed by the clarity of the writing. Even though Gaskin is clearly on one side of the childbirth debate, she didn't come off sounding like a crazy. I was able to respect her even when (in a few cases) I didn't agree with her.

Not only was I ill prepared for the way my birth happened, but I was also ill prepared for the aftermath. I completely believed that giving birth vaginally was the absolute best and safest way to go. Well again, not so much in my case. I've spent the last six months in physical therapy trying to undo the damage done to my pelvic floor by all the prolonged pushing and use of forceps. I hope to avoid surgery, but I've since come to learn that depending on the study, eleven to nineteen percent of women will undergo pelvic floor surgery at some point in their life. Two of the major risk factors are prolonged second stage of labor and the use of forceps. Just another possible pitfall I had no awareness of before giving birth.What you need to know to have the best birth experience for you.Drawing upon her thirty-plus years of experience, Ina May Gaskin, the nation’s leading midwife, shares the benefits and joys of natural childbirth by showing women how to trust in the ancient wisdom of their bodies for a healthy and fulfilling birthing experience. Based on the female-centered Midwifery Model of Care, Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth gives expectant mothers comprehensive information on everything from the all-important mind-body connection to how to give birth without technological intervention.Filled with inspiring birth stories and practical advice, this invaluable resource includes:o Reducing the pain of labor without drugs–and the miraculous roles touch and massage playo What really happens during laboro Orgasmic birth–making birth pleasurableo Episiotomy–is it really necessary?o Common methods of inducing labor–and which to avoid at all costso Tips for maximizing your chances of an unmedicated labor and birtho How to avoid postpartum bleeding–and depressiono The risks of anesthesia and cesareans–what your doctordoesn’t necessarily tell youo The best ways to work with doctors and or birth care providerso How to create a safe, comfortable environment forbirth in any setting, including a hospitalo And much moreIna May’s Guide to Childbirth takes the fear out of childbirth by restoring women’s faith in their own natural power to give birth with more ease, less pain, and less medical intervention. Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin – eBook Details Ms. Gaskin has lectured widely to midwives and physicians throughout the world. Her promotion of a low-intervention but extremely effective method for dealing with one of the most-feared birth complications, shoulder dystocia, has resulted in that method being adopted by a growing number of practitioners. The Gaskin maneuver is the first obstetrical procedure to be named for a midwife. Her statistics for breech deliveries and her teaching video on the subject have helped to spark a reappraisal of the policy of automatically performing cesarean section for all breech babies. As the occurrence of vaginal breech births has declined over the last 25 years, the knowledge and skill required for such births have come close to extinction. This leads me to make a few notes on nature of the Curse as it applies specifically to women even if it might not quite be fitting for a book review. After having 2 emergency cesareans, an “elective cesarean” (not really because I was told I didn’t get a choice by multiple providers), a natural stillborn birth at 36 weeks gestation (and because she was deceased, that is the ONLY reason we were given the vbac option), and now currently preparing for a natural vbac with a doula at 36 weeks pregnant with our rainbow baby... When I've confessed to other moms that birth was SPECTACULAR, they're incredulous. How can something so painful, so medical, so dangerous be anything somebody could enjoy, especially without any drugs?

Despite all of those flaws, I did find some of the birth stories helpful. I liked reading about what the women did to cope with pain/lessen the pain and the various ways they pushed out their babies. I just wish that could have been a focus in all of the stories. Part two was better. There is a lot of good information; much of it insight into alternative, little heard of, more natural ways of approaching and coping with the experience of childbirth (starting labor, dealing with pain, preventing complications & avoiding medications/procedures). There are specific examples given of when, and the author's insights as to why, certain natural methods achieve success in labor. There is wisdom from much experience and many years in this field from the author.

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Stories teach us in ways we can remember. They teach us that each woman responds to birth in her unique way and how very wide-ranging that way can be. Sometimes they teach us about silly practices once widely held that were finally discarded. They teach us the occasional difference between accepted medical knowledge and the real bodily experiences that women have—including those that are never reported in medical textbooks nor admitted as possibilities in the medical world. They also demonstrate the mind/body connection in a way that medical studies cannot. Birth stories told by women who were active participants in giving birth often express a good deal of practical wisdom, inspiration, and information for other women. Positive stories shared by women who have had wonderful childbirth experiences are an irreplaceable way to transmit knowledge of a woman's true capacities in pregnancy and birth. There is no other organ quite like the uterus. If men had such an organ, they would brag about it. So should we.” I recommend this book to all expectant mothers-to-be. And to everyone else as well. We need to change the view that childbirth is something dangerous and unnatural, and that the only way for women to survive it is to be heavily medicated and close to an emergency room. Filled with inspiring birth stories and practical advice, this invaluable resource includes:• Reducing the pain of labor without drugs–and the miraculous roles touch and massage play I experienced some confusion about "The Farm". A better introduction that explained exactly what the farm was would have been helpful. As it was, it took a me a bit of reading to piece together exactly how the farm worked. And I still imagine people living on buses or in tents like a couple of the stories mentioned. Maybe that's really how "The Farm" functions.

t]Ina May's Guide to Childbirth [/t]is a long-needed addition to modern-day natural[kw] childbirthing resources[/kw]. In this easy-to-read text, Ina May Gaskin begins with numerous birth stories as told by women who've experienced the empowering gift of birthing children naturally. The stories illustrate the innate power of women's bodies to gestate and birth human life. In a culture infused with fear about childbirth, these stories offer the reader a different and healing perspective-- that childbirth is not an event to be feared, but rather to be revered and relished and learned from. Key to enabling the birthing women are the [kw]midwives[/kw] who support and encourage them as the births of the babies unfold. The sense one gains as one reads the birthing stories is that[kw] birth[/kw] is sacred and manageable and possible and glorious; indeed, empowering.The cramps were getting stronger, and I was feeling warm and excited. I still didn't want to call these cramps "contractions" in case it wasn't really happening. I timed them and they were about four minutes apart. Donna asked if I wanted to go see a midwife, but I decided to hold off until I was sure I wasn't getting excited over nothing. Ina May Gaskin explains-- birth is normal. My challenging but beautiful birth experience has apparently become an exception in this country-- but it doesn't have to be. With an understanding of what our bodies can and are made to do, birth can not only be safe but beautiful.

There is extraordinary psychological benefit in belonging to a group of women who have positive stories to tell about their birth experiences. This phenomenon is exactly what developed within our village. So many horror stories circulate about birth—especially in the United States—that it can be difficult for women to believe that labor and birth can be a beneficial experience. If you have been pregnant for a while, it's probable that you've already heard some scary birth stories from friends or relatives. This is especially true if you live in the United States, where telling pregnant women gory stories has been a national pastime for at least a century. Now that birth has become a favorite subject of television dramas and situation comedies, this trend has been even more pronounced. No one has explained the situation more succinctly than Stephen King in his novella "The Breathing Method."* Commenting on the fear many women have of birth, his fictional character observes, "Believe me: if you are told that some experience is going to hurt, it will hurt. Most pain is in the mind, and when a woman absorbs the idea that the act of giving birth is excruciatingly painful—when she gets this information from her mother, her sisters, her married friends, and her physician—that woman has been mentally prepared to feel great agony." King, you may not know, is the father of several children born at home. Also, some of the women in the birth stories came off as very... different. I found the story about the woman stripping down and physically holding the woman who was in labor particularly odd. Some of the wording in the birth stories threw me off. There were a few mothers who would talk about their babies or body parts dancing. The author got somewhat political in her writing which made me slightly uncomfortable. After she thoroughly detailed problems within the medical field, she gave suggestions that included more federal regulation and national healthcare. I would have appreciated a broader selection of solutions. The author described all that Dr.'s do to prevent lawsuits but failed to suggest malpractice reform in her list of solutions.I bought this book looking for a different perspective than the ones in the books I have that were written by MD's. I am also considering a natural birth and wanted to educate myself about some techniques I could use to accomplish that goal. Well, it didn't work out that way. Due to complications, Pelly delivered our older son by emergency c-section four weeks early, without experiencing a single contraction. When my turn came around, I still felt woefully unprepared and not a little bit terrified of childbirth. We took the classes, I talked to other moms, I read everything I could get my hands on (including this book), I read a billion birth stories on birthwithoutfear, but in this case, Knowledge was NOT Power. So much of what I read just made me more scared (even though I tried to avoid the triggering stuff, the loss stories, the bad outcomes).