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"Oxygen"
"From coping with your pain during labor to providing tools for expectant fathers, "The Best Birth" is your guide to a safe and healthy labor and delivery...Provides practical advice, such as letting you know who you'll need on your medical team and what to pack in your hospital bag."
"From coping with your pain during labor to providing tools for expectant fathers, "The Best Birth" is your guide to a safe and healthy labor and delivery...Provides practical advice, such as letting you know who you'll need on your medical team and what to pack in your hospital bag."
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27 reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Best book if you are choosing to go to a hospital to birth your baby
13 Mar 2011
I write this review at 35 weeks pregnant. Like many people searching for a birthing book, I am freaking out about the impending due date.
There seems to be two schools of thought when it comes to birthing babies:
1. Doulas, all natural, birthing tub in your living room, no medical intervention, fully integrate the husband/ partner in the birthing process.
2. In the hospital, hooked up to an IV, paralyzed by the epidural, and slashed open (either by c-section or epistomotomy).
In my opinion, neither option is particularly pleasant. And there is no middle ground. You have to choose.
Sarah's book is for those who choose #2. This book helps you to prepare to be a patient. It sets expectations. And it helps women have an accurate, realistic portrayal of what their experience in likely to be. And yes, she encourages you to surrender to your OB & the other doctors in the hospital.
If you choose #1, you should read The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth, which is anti-OB and anti-hospital.
There seems to be two schools of thought when it comes to birthing babies:
1. Doulas, all natural, birthing tub in your living room, no medical intervention, fully integrate the husband/ partner in the birthing process.
2. In the hospital, hooked up to an IV, paralyzed by the epidural, and slashed open (either by c-section or epistomotomy).
In my opinion, neither option is particularly pleasant. And there is no middle ground. You have to choose.
Sarah's book is for those who choose #2. This book helps you to prepare to be a patient. It sets expectations. And it helps women have an accurate, realistic portrayal of what their experience in likely to be. And yes, she encourages you to surrender to your OB & the other doctors in the hospital.
If you choose #1, you should read The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth, which is anti-OB and anti-hospital.
45 of 62 people found the following review helpful
Not the best title for this book!
11 July 2008
Format:Paperback
As a certified and experienced childbirth educator and doula, I have a lot of concerns about this book. Probably the biggest concern I have is the philosophy of trusting in our current maternity care system that is placing our U.S. infant mortality rate in 32nd place world-wide, rising maternal mortality rates and the risk of leaving the hospital with a cesarean scar - the highest in history (nearly one in every three births). Personally, I will trust the system when the U.S. is in the top 5. For all the money we spend, we should be #1.
When Ms. McMoyler encourages us to learn to navigate the traditional healthcare [maternity care] system and to make "informed" decisions, she is suggesting that we become compliant and...obedient. However, far too often I witness out dated and non evidence-based information given to women regarding their labor, birth and lactation by the "licensed medical professional". This book does not fill that information gap nor, in my opinion, does one six hour class.
Despite the overwhelming research that finds that doulas lower intervention rates (including Cesarean Section) and improve breastfeeding rates as well as birth satisfaction, Ms. McMoyler advises "why I suggest that you don't" hire a doula. She describes doulas as "trendy", apparently forgetting that women supporting women in birth is a centuries old tradition.
I agree with her statement that birth is unpredictable. Not just the first birth, but every birth. Seeing the woman you love in labor can be frightening to most fathers or other companions. It is unrealistic to expect the father to be able to "guide and reassure" when this is the first birth he has witnessed. That fear can be eased by the presence of a doula. The doula acts as a calming factor, offering physical and emotional support, reassurance and information to both the mother and her chosen support person(s).
And...the statement "There's no such thing as a less than satisfying experience. The only objective is a `healthy mom and healthy baby---however you get there'", couldn't be further from the truth. I can attest to that personally and professionally. Just ask one of the thousands of healthy mothers with healthy babies who experienced traumatic births and/or are suffering from postpartum depression due to disempowering birth.
The useful information regarding coping techniques can be found in many other more useful books, which would be better worth your time and money.
Some that I would recommend are:
Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care
Born in the USA: How a Broken Maternity System Must Be Fixed to Put Women and Children First
The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth
The Official Lamaze Guide: Giving Birth with Confidence
A Good Birth, A Safe Birth : Choosing and Having the Childbirth Experience You Want, Third Revised Edition
Pregnancy, Childbirth And The Newborn
Mothering Magazine's Having a Baby, Naturally: The Mothering Magazine Guide to Pregnancy and Childbirth
When Ms. McMoyler encourages us to learn to navigate the traditional healthcare [maternity care] system and to make "informed" decisions, she is suggesting that we become compliant and...obedient. However, far too often I witness out dated and non evidence-based information given to women regarding their labor, birth and lactation by the "licensed medical professional". This book does not fill that information gap nor, in my opinion, does one six hour class.
Despite the overwhelming research that finds that doulas lower intervention rates (including Cesarean Section) and improve breastfeeding rates as well as birth satisfaction, Ms. McMoyler advises "why I suggest that you don't" hire a doula. She describes doulas as "trendy", apparently forgetting that women supporting women in birth is a centuries old tradition.
I agree with her statement that birth is unpredictable. Not just the first birth, but every birth. Seeing the woman you love in labor can be frightening to most fathers or other companions. It is unrealistic to expect the father to be able to "guide and reassure" when this is the first birth he has witnessed. That fear can be eased by the presence of a doula. The doula acts as a calming factor, offering physical and emotional support, reassurance and information to both the mother and her chosen support person(s).
And...the statement "There's no such thing as a less than satisfying experience. The only objective is a `healthy mom and healthy baby---however you get there'", couldn't be further from the truth. I can attest to that personally and professionally. Just ask one of the thousands of healthy mothers with healthy babies who experienced traumatic births and/or are suffering from postpartum depression due to disempowering birth.
The useful information regarding coping techniques can be found in many other more useful books, which would be better worth your time and money.
Some that I would recommend are:
Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care
Born in the USA: How a Broken Maternity System Must Be Fixed to Put Women and Children First
The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth
The Official Lamaze Guide: Giving Birth with Confidence
A Good Birth, A Safe Birth : Choosing and Having the Childbirth Experience You Want, Third Revised Edition
Pregnancy, Childbirth And The Newborn
Mothering Magazine's Having a Baby, Naturally: The Mothering Magazine Guide to Pregnancy and Childbirth
18 of 24 people found the following review helpful
reality based for hospital birth
2 Jun 2008
Format:Paperback
As a midwife who practices in a hospital, but who also believes that women deserve a greater range of birthing choices than most typically have in America today, I find McMoyler's book to be a reality-based approach to hospital births. A woman SHOULD trust her doctor or midwife and labor nurses because she SHOULD have exercised her right to choose the person and place that best aligns with her philosophy of birthing. Not all doctors or midwives or hospitals are like, but if she has done her research fully (checked the stats and gotten satisfactory answers to tough questions), she will pick the appropriate person and place for her. Whether she desires an unmedicated birth or is certain she would like an epidural, McMoyler's explanations for position changes to move labor along and vocalization for coping with pain are proven through experience. Her emphasis on partner education and commitment to be the best labor support are also important (and set up the importance of partner support postpartum as well (I don't think she is negating doulas)). No woman should feel guilty about the way she births: every birth is unique and unpredictable and the best births are a dialogue between the woman and her attendants where every one has the goal of "healthy mom, healthy baby". Flexibility is a very important attribute of parenting, even in labor. Ultimately, this book is empowering: knowing some of the hard facts of childbirth and birthing in hospitals will allow women to make the best informed choices.
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