The Birth Book: Everything You Need to Know to Have a Safe and Satisfying Birth (Sears Parenting Library) by William Sears, Martha Sears Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $5.94 You Save: $9.05 (60%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $2.50 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of The Birth Book: Everything You Need to Know to Have a Safe and Satisfying Birth (Sears Parenting Library)
Book Review: Very empowering and informative!
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is for all the women out there who have ever felt some mild anxiety all the way to a wrenching fear about the childbirth process. Dr. Sears and his wife Martha Sears, RN give readers a brief history of childbirth practices, they discuss the myths and fears surrounding birth, and then come full circle to help women understand that childbirth is a natural process. The Sears' articulate that many of today's complications of childbirth are related to the overuse of medical interventions and not enough education about the birth process itself. Although the Sears' advocate for drug free childbirth and as few interventions as medically needed, The Birth Book provides readers with the information that a woman (and her partner) need to make their own wise and individual informed decisions about medical treatments during childbirth. I found the book very empowering. I choose to have my baby at a hospital with my family practicioner and because of the information I gl! eaned from The Birth Book I was able to feel good about the many decisions I had to make surrounding my baby's birth. Many hospitals and doctors have a set of "standard procedures" for birth but I found my doctor and the hospital both were willing to work with my preferences because I was informed about the decisions I was making. Some of the decisions in my baby's birth included not to induce my labor (I went 11 days overdue), to decline the use of pitocin to "speed" my labor when it did come, to ask for pain relief when I needed it, to request not to have an episiotomy and to labor and deliver in the position of my choice. As a result, I had a wonderful (and yes, intense) first birth. Although I fully realize every woman and every labor is different, I believe that my birth experience was definately influenced positively by being educated about technologies, making informed decisions, and trusting my own body. This book helped me to do all those thi! ngs.Book Review: Read this book!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a GREAT starting place if you're pregnant and really want to learn the truth about birth. The section on the history of birth practices is SO interesting, really explains how birth has come to be looked at as a medical emergency...which it's really not ofcourse! READ this book!Book Review: Not relevant to most women
Summary: 3 Stars
This book has some very useful information in it and could help inform the reader how to avoid certain medical interventions during childbirth. However, the book has a very definite slant in favor of non-medicated birth and seems very anti-hospital birth. Since the vast majority of women still give birth in hospitals and many request pain medication, this book is not relevant to a large number of pregnant women. Also, I feel it set me up for disappointment, as it focused so much on how a woman can manage her own birth experience, and I was unable to due to complications. The book does not make much mention of necessary c-sections, common problems in labor, etc. I felt like the book wanted me to believe that as long as I was educated enough I could give birth naturally and with minimal or no intervention. And while the book did help me understand which interventions I could try to avoid (routine IVs, episiotomies, etc.), it didn't prepare me at all for what really happened. I would only recommend this book to those persons who strongly want and expect to be able to avoid medical intervention in labor.Book Review: IF YOU'RE EXPECTING - YOU M-U-S-T READ THIS BOOK !!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Extremely well-written, concise, and factual. This book presents
the options available to today's expectant parents in a refreshingly
informative yet unbiased fashion.
This is one to OWN (and treasure), not just borrow!
- Debi Lewis, Certified Childbirth Educator for Birth WorksBook Review: The most positive, comprehensive birth book I've ever read!
Summary: 5 Stars
Having taught childbirth classes for over 10 years, and having read numerous books on the subject, I have finally found "the" book to require for my series of classes. William and Martha Sears have artfully combined their medical knowledge with their own beautifully natural birth esperiences to give expectant parents the most positive, yet informative birth book available