Ina May pushes back against the idea that midwives can only be present for “normal,” non-complicated births and includes stories of breech babies, shoulder dystocia, women who were told they had a too small pelvis, etc.

But there are many good insights, ideas, and a good look at a more natural/alternative approach to the typical medical/hospital care women are more commonly accustomed to. I would recommend-- no REQUIRE-- this book for anybody who wants to have kids, or who has had kids, or --shoot-- anybody with reproductive parts. My wife went first for several reasons, not least of which was that I had have a real and irrational fear of childbirth. In Part 2, Ina May covers a variety of helpful topics including why we see birth pain as something to avoid, advice for birthing at a hospital, different models of maternity care, and necessary and unnecessary interventions that may be offered or encouraged.I thought a lot of them were just common sense, but obviously this is not the case as many of the things she suggests are actually not possible, not allowed, or otherwise discouraged in many hospitals. The first part is a compilation of birth stories from lots and lots of women; many will make you cry with joy. There was a of useful advice and if the whole book would have been like that, it would have easily been a five star book! Ina May made me terrified of mainstream medicine's approach to birth, and the book got hard to read at a certain point because I was like, "Yeah, sure, this birth would be wonderful if I were doing it on Ina May's hippie commune, but since I'm doing it in a shitty Miami hospital those doctors are going to cut me up into pieces and mess up my baby with all kinds of unnecessary and frightening interventions. While she does in many places provide good information, do not be fooled into thinking she is at all, in any way an objective or unbiased resource!

I raised my eyebrows when she stated that routine Rhogam injections at 28 weeks was internationally controversial. Plus, she used the terms "Much more likely" or "much less likely" a lot, instead of giving the actual statistics as Goer's book did.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. These stories are all from the 1970s so I felt like I was reading a history book since I am so far removed from that age group.

Drawing on over 40 years’ experience, internationally acclaimed midwife Ina May Gaskin shows you how to use the mind-body connection to help labour progress calmly and safely. 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). But here's the thing -- I wonder sometime how often our deference for what we're told is good for us gets in the way of what really makes us comfortable. If the natural childbirth books hadn't made me so insanely fearful of what labor in the hospital would be like, I would've gone in earlier and probably wound up taking drugs, which I really didn't want to do.There are many women who refuse to give birth without an epidural and therefore, have no desire to have a midwife or intervention-free birth. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

I am surprised that such naturally minded people can't see the sheer miracle of birth - God (not an evolutionary process! By the time I was done, I no longer saw childbirth as a terrifying and improbable medical event akin to removing a highly delicate ship from a design-flawed bottle; instead, I was convinced that childbirth is an awesome natural process, something I was built to do and totally capable of accomplishing. This book is one of the most frequently recommended resources I’ve seen mentioned to mothers who are considering a natural childbirth. Childbirth is empowering because it shows the connection between God’s decrees and His blessings, not simply because women are strong.

In fact in all the books I've read on natural childbirth it's uncommon for the author to not have reverence and respect for the role of modern medicine. Unfortunately, the vast majority of it was filled with messages of female empowerment and a clear bias against anything having to do with modern medicine. Women have a special bond with their babies given to them by God, and childbirth is one of the times in life when this is abundantly clear.