The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth by Henci Goer
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Book Reviews of The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth
Book Review: A MUST READ for any pregnant woman
Summary: 5 Stars
There is so much to learn about childbirth that you will never hear from your Dr. or the Hospital. I highly recommend this book for any woman who would like to be able to make her own choices on her birth experience. You DO NOT need to be treated like an ill paitent and do what your Dr. tells you. In this case, they do not know best. There are many potential complications with the medical procedures and drugs they can provide. You can actually have a better, shorter, safer labor and delivery than you would have ever imagined if you do it naturally. This book will also introduce you to the role of the Doula birth partner if you don't already know how a Doula can help you make child birth a POSITIVE experience, rather than just another disappointing horror story to share with other mothers. Along with this book, you should at least read "Birthing from Within" and you should take a childbirth class other than Lamazze. Imagery Birthing, Hypnobirthing or the Bradley Method are all mother/child friendly techniques that help you understand how your body works and what it needs to do during labor and delivery. It's a way of making the pain bearable as it works to deliver your baby. It can be a positive experience as you will learn. Good luck to all you expectant moms and dads!Book Review: If you think M.D.s know everything, this book will scare you
Summary: 5 Stars
On the other hand, if you believe that managing your health and your child's is a partnership between you and your health care provider, you won't find anything political or trust-shaking in this book. Instead, you'll be grateful that you've been given a great resource that allows you to knowledgeably and factually discuss your options with your health care providers. And if you have the right health care provider, (s)he will be willing to do so.Unlike appallingly trite pregnancy books such as "A Girlfriend's Guide To Pregnancy" and "What To Expect While You're Expecting," Henci Goer presents ALL of the facts -- even the less pleasant ones we don't always want to hear -- and has the data to back it up. Goer didn't write this book to make Mommies feel good about their choices, she wrote it to ensure that Moms have the *data* to make the best *informed* choice.
You may not like the "ugly" truth that Henci Goer brings to light -- that medicated, surgical births are often unnecessary and have never been proven safer than non-medical births. That doctors and hospitals have (gasp) financial motivations that could influence their recommended protocol. But she has indisputable data to back it up. Which is more than most pregnancy books offer nowadays.
Book Review: Essential reading for those who would not be sheep
Summary: 5 Stars
I was a midwife for 15 years and wish this book had been available at that time. The attitudes of today's obstetricians have regressed to those of the 50s when women expected to be treated like sheep, and the doctors accommodated them. We had a surge of feminist autonomy during the 70s and 80s (when I caught babies in Berkeley, CA, and wrote a memoir, BABY CATCHER, Scribner 2002), but then the Epidural Epidemic struck full force. And now far, far too many women are acting like sheep again - and their doctors are just following standard procedures.Henci Goer's wonderful book gives credit to the fact that pregnant women still have brains: they can think, read, talk, and make decisions about their own care. In order to do this, they need unbiased information about the prodigious amount of obstetrical interference that goes on under the radar screen of the average woman's awareness, especially when she's in labor. Not afraid to call a spade a spade, and a charlatan a charlatan, Henci Goer lets readers inside her own head as she reasons and rationalizes her way through tons of 'scientific evidence' to arrive at logical and user-friendly recommendations.
If you're thinking of becoming pregnant, know someone who is, or already are, DO NOT FAIL TO READ THIS BOOK.
Book Review: Great and Empowering Information for All Pregnant Women
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great and very informative book. I highly recommend it to all pregnant women. As stated by many other reviewers, this book is biased. I believe that the bias is based on fact though and not just opinion. Women today should be made aware of the facts regarding today's "traditional" birth that can include IV's, epidural, episiotomy and often a C-section. I think we tend to over-trust doctors without doing our own research. In the last 50 years modern medicine has basically reinvented birth in the United States and turned it into a medical monster requiring tons of intervention. A quick look at birthing traditions before and still today in other countries can really open our eyes to the misleadings of medicine.
The book covers all the major topics associated with giving birth and lists the pros and cons very clearly with cited references. The specific numbers that Goer lists are several years old but those numbers still continue on the same trend today. The theories and wisdom in her book haven't changed. I would recommend reading this book especially if you are planning an OB delivery in a hospital so that you are educated and can make your own decisions on the birth that you want to have. This book is empowering and educational!
Book Review: Promotes thinking and consumer awareness!
Summary: 5 Stars
The points I want to make in my review are thus: the book doesn't expect you to necessarily go out and approach your childbirth with a prescribed way...but rather the opposite. It inspires you to do your own thinking instead of taking your doctor's/aunt's/mother's word for it. When reading it, it's one of those "things that make you go hmmmm"...which is why it's called the thinking woman's guide...
Second, and this is probably the most important thing I got out of it, it made me realize that in choosing my OB, I am a consumer, and I have the right to seek out an OB who would support my VBAC choices and respect the fact that I had already made myself a well-informed person. The first OB I had chosen ended up to be the wrong choice...her protocol was definitely not proven to be the best avenue for a VBAC, something I learned through my research...and the doc I ended up with was far more knowledgeable on VBACs.The VBAC Companion: The Expectant Mother's Guide to Vaginal Birth After Cesarean. I didn't use much out of Goer's book, but I'm thankful it gave me the confidence to make well-informed choices.