Reviews

I love reading books regarding childbirth. I feel like I need to read it and research it a lot to understand more of what my doula clients are going through, since I haven't been able to experience labor yet. (Which fact is a little embarassing to me). Here's a few of my recent reads:


Diary of a Midwife by Juliana van Olphen-Fehr


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This was a fantastic book. I couldn't put it down. The author shares her experiences as a nurse midwife who did home deliveries in the 80s and 90s. There are many birth stories--which I love--and a lot of the book is about the challenges nurse midwives faced in becoming care providers to pregnant women. At times I have thought that I want to become a nurse midwife (since I am already a nurse) but I'm not sure I have as much courage as this woman did, and even though CNM's are much more accepted now, I think it still takes a lot of courage to become one, especially one that fights the status quo.

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Your Best Birth: Know All Your Options, Discover the Natural Choices, and Take Back the Birth Experience by Ricki Lake


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Just trying to make my way through all the pregnancy books out there....

This one was a good one. Written in an informal, friendly manner, Ricki explains a lot of what is going on out in the maternal health care world. She explains about midwives, doctors, and interventions. There are sidebars that contain some really great gems, as well as birth stories throughout the book. It would be a great resource for someone newly pregnant or thinking about it soon who doesn't know much of the issues surrounding birth today. This would be a great alternative to "What to Expect when you're Expecting". I'm starting to hate that book! We were talking at my ICAN meeting how we are going to go buy them all up at used bookstores and have a big bonfire! I think Ricki Lake has done a good thing in making her movie and this book. More people need to know the crisis we are in today, and I do believe it's a crisis when the national c-section rate is over 30%!

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