Ina May's Guide to Childbirth
by Ina May Gaskin
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Book Reviews of Ina May's Guide to Childbirth
Book Review: Wonderful book for anyone interested in Midwifery.
Summary: 5 Stars
I am an EMT-basic who plans on becoming a homebirth/birth center based Certified Nurse Midwife in the future. I am also considering becoming a doula, and this book was one of the ones on the reading list, so I decided to pick it up. It is a great book. I loved reading all the birth stories in the first half of the book. It was nice to see some personal touches instead of just cold statistics. I thought that the last half of the book was interesting from a medical standpoint.She explains the pros and cons of several tests/interventions, and shows why the rate of c-section and maternal death in the US are so unnecessarily high. It's obvious that Ina May knows what she is talking about.
Contrary to what some others have said, I do not believe that Ina May is completely anti medicine. In the book,she speaks highly of several doctors and acknowledges that intervention is necessary in some cases. What she is concerned about(and rightly so) is intervention when it is not needed. She does not critize women who have had c-sections(or other interventions) for legitimate medical reasons(as my mom did).
Through this book, Ina May shows the true power that women have. I do not have children right now, but I hope to someday. This book has shown me that I do not need to be afraid of childbirth.
In short, I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in natural childbirth.
Book Review: GREAT book to prepare for childbirth
Summary: 5 Stars
I only wish I had started reading this book earlier. I was trying to hurry up and get to the end, and my son came a few days early and I didn't get to finish, I was so bummed!
I loved this book, it was very informative, but I also loved reading the other women's birth stories. It was great, and I even remembered to remember something I read in the book during my very fast, very intense labor- the throat sphincter. I'm SO glad I read about this- I remembered to relax my throat and not tense up and try to blast the baby out as fast and hard as you can. I think we grow up seeing people in movies and on TV doing this, and having people screaming "PUSH!" at them, and this is NOT what the birth experience needs to be.
Ina May is a gift to women and the world of pregnancy and childbirth. I'm so glad she is sharing her knowledge and experience with the rest of us. I totally get why people would move to The Farm just to have her as their midwife! We were lucky enough to have AMAZING midwives in Los Angeles, and had a wonderful home birth, free of interventions and full of love and intimacy.
This book was a part of our wonderful pregnancy and amazingly beautiful and empowering birth experience, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is expecting, no matter what kind of "birth plan" you have. I'd just recommend you start reading it much earlier than I did so you have time to finish it!
Book Review: Not the best book for someone having a hospital birth
Summary: 3 Stars
Positives -For the very few who are going to have a home birth this book is ideal. The book is beautiful in the sense that it puts us back in touch with the fact that nature built us to have babies and emphasizes the sheer beauty of childbirth.
Negatives - On the other hand, a significant part of the book is dedicated to home births therefore, it left me quite disinterested after numerous home birth stories and techniques knowing that this will not be my experience. Many of the mothers who shared their birth stories were quite antagonistic at times when mentioning their experience with hospitals and doctors. This, I feel, is not a healthy mind set for the average first time mom giving birth in the average hospital these days.
In hindsight, after having given birth without using the epidural, I realize that this book does give you many techniques on achieving the proper mindset for a natural childbirth. However, I recommend skimming the first half of the book (the birth stories) and getting right to the the second half which is authored by Ina May. She is not as anti-hospital birth as some of those who share their birth stories seem to be. If I had to rate just her half of the book I would give it 4 stars or maybe even 5 just for the originality of some of the information she highlights (the chapter, weirdly enough, on sphincters is fascinating stuff!).
Book Review: Just what I wanted
Summary: 4 Stars
It's a good book. But I have to point out why I did *not* recommend it to my best friend, due in just a few weeks.
My husband and I bought this book for a little inspiration from the inventor of the "Gaskin Manuever" -- I guess she is credited with the move, just as Columbus is credited with discovering America (; We were quite inspired by the stories of women giving birth in different positions, embracing every bead of sweat, every contraction. So much so that we pushed forward in our own natural birth experience - even with a high risk of shoulder dystocia. Our midwife was supportive, and this book was one of the reasons I had the confidence to attempt a natural birth (in spite of 3 practices telling me I needed a c-section based on the size of my first baby).
But...I will tell you who this book is not for. This book is not for a woman who is mentally prepared to fall back on the epidural. This book is not for a woman who does not see the beauty in birthing a child with no medical intervention. This book is not for a woman who refuses to believe that there are drawbacks to a birth that happens any other way. Thus, my best friend will not be getting this book...
Good luck to all future mommas, I hope this book inspires you to see that the great act of birthing a child naturally is a beautiful, primitive, empowering thing.
Book Review: A must read for any pregnant woman.
Summary: 5 Stars
As a first time mom preparing for natural childbirth (that's drug free, not just vaginal) I found this book to be very inspiring and it helped me to have confidence in my body. These days women are taught that they aren't capable of having a baby without all of the latest medical interventions and drugs available. I have always felt that childbirth is a natural process but doctors treat pregnant women like they are sick and childbirth is treated as a dangerous event in which the mother and child need to be rescued from one another. The first half of this book has great natural childbirth stories written by mothers and it has given me invaluable information to use for my own impending birth. I am reading it a second time now and hi-lighting passages that I want to remember. The second half of the book is about the medical procedures that are commonly used in the United States and how much more dangerous they are than what we are led to believe. How can The United States of America have one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the industrialized world? While all of these birth stories happen outside of a hospital there is still a great deal of information and confidence to be had if you are going to be giving birth in a hospital with a doctor. Take control of your birth experience because it is a miracle whether it is treated as such in the hospital or not.