As featured on BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 5 Live Selected as one of the Independent's 10 best pregnancy books for expectant parents Birth is a feminist issue. It's the feminist issue nobody's talking about. For too long women have been told, 'a healthy baby is all that matters'. This book dares to say women matter too. Finally blasting the feminist spotlight into the labour ward, Milli Hill encourages women everywhere to stand and deliver, insisting that birth is no longer left off the list in discussions about female power, control and agency. From the importance of birth plans to your human rights in childbirth, and including birth stories from women across the world, this call-to-arms will help you find your voice, take an active role in your choices, and change the way you think about childbirth. Praise for Give Birth Like a Feminist 'I feel so lucky to have read Milli's book while pregnant, she completely changed my way of looking at giving birth' Ella Mills, author of Deliciously Ella

Highly detailed and clearly written, this book is the first full-length study of the complex system of practices, beliefs and taboos which surrounded conception and childbirth in early modern Europe.
In a rich and scholarly study, Jacques Gelis reconstructs the activities and attitudes of the midwives and mothers, and the sufferings they had to endure. He continues with an examination of the role of the Church, the herbalist and the mineral world (touchstones and talisman) in the explanation of the mysteries of procreation.

As women increasingly seek more humanistic birthing methods than the hospital-based delivery, certified midwife Susanna Napierala suggests that water birth offers mother and infant the ideal circumstances for beginning their lives together. Warm water, explains the author, reduces the hours and stress of labor, offers bodily support and relaxes blood flow, helping to ease the baby's journey. The baby makes its transition to breathing air in a familiar, gentle medium. Avoiding the didactics of ideology, Napierala infuses her eloquent text with answers to commonly-asked questions: How does the baby breathe underwater? What about complications or infections? For whom is water birth a viable choice? How does a couple prepare for it? Water Birth guides the reader through the details of parental and midwife preparation, labor, and birth, noting danger signals that must be heeded. Here is a wealth of solid information, personal testimony, and instruction for those who make this choice. Giving birth is one of life's most enriching, yet emotionally and physiologically stressful experiences. Faced with the dehumanizing mandates of the medical establishment, women increasingly seek alternatives to hospital birth. In her carefully presented book, Susanna Napierala, midwife to more than 600 births over 18 years, suggests that giving birth in water offers mother and infant the ideal circumstances for beginning their lives together. Recognizing that this birthing approach is not yet widely practiced in the United States, Napierala readily acknowledges the commonly-asked questions: How does the baby breathe underwater? What about complications or infections? What specifically makes water birth a viable choice, and for whom? How do a couple and their chosen midwife prepare for water birth? Avoiding ideological didactics, the author cautions that, regardless of a couple's expectations of the birth experience, every pregnancy's priority should be a healthy mother and baby. As she details aspects of parental and midwife preparation, labor, and birth, Napierala counsels vigilance, noting possible difficulties and danger signals that must be heeded. For midwives, their assistants, pregnant women and their families considering birth options, Water Birth offers a wealth of solid information, personal testimony, and guidance for those who make this choice.

Never mind what you've been through. The baby's here, he's healthy. That's the most important thing, isn't it? Few women planning a pregnancy or anticipating childbirth would dispute that the safe birth of a healthy child is their primary concern. Even when this happy outcome is achieved, however, the process of childbirth itself can wreak havoc on a woman's emotional and physiological well-being--especially when unforeseen medical complications change the expected course of labor and delivery. Rebounding From Childbirth--the first book to focus exclusively on the mother's feelings about a difficult birth--shows how traumatic childbirth forces a woman to suddenly relinquish cherished hopes for her experience of actually becoming a mother. Amid the joys of a healthy baby, the mother's feelings of anger, grief, failure and disappointment often get scant attention from family, friends and medical personnel. Drawing from her own life as a professional counselor and mother of three, Lynn Madsen argues that a woman should not underestimate her own need to recover emotionally and physiologically from a violent birth experience. Without true healing, Madsen's analysis reveals, a new mother's suppressed sense of loss and pain can affect her relationships with her baby and husband, her body image, her feelings about going back to work, even her hopes for future pregnancies and births. Through her own story and those of other women, Madsen offers comfort, hope, and an intensely personal perspective to new mothers who feel alone with a range of negative feelings about childbirth. Taking a dual stance as counselor and mother, she structures self-analytical questions and outlines techniques such as journal and letter writing to help the reader begin the healing journey. For obstetricians, nurses, midwives, new mothers and mothers-to-be, Rebounding From Childbirth provides moving insight and counsel on a difficult subject.

For counselor Nancy Wainer Cohen, this book is the sibling to "Silent Knife: Cesarean Prevention and Vaginal Birth after Cesarean "(Bergin & Garvey, 1983) her critically-acclaimed expose on America's growing reliance on cesarean sections. "Open Season "provides fresh insights and new information on the subject, offering guidance to childbearing couples, educators, health professionals, and scholars who value the natural path of childbirth.

Readers will find this book timely, informative, shocking, irreverent, and extremely readable. Cohen's intimate writing style presents a compendium of knowledge on childbirth in the fashion of a personal letter. Her aim is to lower America's alarming reliance on cesarean section, which is currently at 25 percent of all births, and to return the responsibility for childbirth to women by encouraging them to choose the kind of birthing experience they wish to have. In addition to cesarean section, Cohen discusses many other generally unnecessary interventions performed on women during pregnancy and childbirth--such as fetal monitoring and routinized hospital procedures.

'After the historic student revolt in France a period of audacious creativity resulted. The watchword was: "It is forbidden to forbid". We took advantage of this transient cultural folly to do what would have been impossible ten years before or ten years after, introducing in the maternity unit of a state hospital an inflatable outdoor pool as a way to replace drugs during birth.' - from the Introduction In this groundbreaking book, Dr Odent takes as his starting point the world-famous work on childbirth at Pithiviers, where he first noticed the strong attraction to water that many women have during labour. As well as discovering the practical advantages of water during the birthing process, he began to consider the meaning and importance of water as a symbol. Water, Birth and Sexuality examines the living power of water and its erotic connotations. Odent evaluates what water meant in different cultures throughout history, through myths and legends, and what it means for us today: from an advertiser's tool to a metaphor for aspects of the psyche. He also studies humanity's special relationship to dolphins, and the related 'aquatic ape' theory.A practical section on the use of water during birth and in various therapies, particularly sex therapy, is included. This edition of this classic work features a new Introduction.

This new edition of Normal childbirth builds on the strengths of the popular first edition, with updated national and international data, and the most recent debate around the controversial area of childbirth. With the increasing risk of litigation, there can be a tendency to classify women as 'at risk' if they present with even a hint of a problem. This is a contentious area and midwives need to be aware of the wide parameters of 'normal' in order to practise autonomously, effectively and safely. This book provides an evidence-based source for all midwives and other health professionals with an interest normal birth. Explores the wider range of normal childbirth that is unique to individual mothers and babies Challenges the assumptions underpinning current beliefs and attitudes Updated statistics, both national and international Latest research and debate

Enjoy hypnobirthing techniques at every stage of your pregnancy, creating a safe space for you and your baby to return to time and again. Find out how to use deep relaxation, meditation, visualization, and breathwork exercises designed to integrate body and mind throughout your pregnancy and birth. Anthonissa Moger, aka The Hypnobirthing Midwife, takes a holistic approach, opening out the benefits to embrace aromatherapy, yoga, partner work, mindset exercises, and more. Using hypnobirthing techniques as a path to a calm, connected pregnancy, you'll be fully prepared to respond intuitively to birthing your baby, feeling centred and in control.

This pocket-sized book, presented in an easy-to-follow format, is designed as a tool for students and professionals to carry in any setting, providing a quick reference guide to antenatal care and related anatomy and physiology. Used as a platform for wider reading, this text is an ideal reference point for any student or professional involved with the care of childbearing women.

　

Table of Contents

ABDOMINAL EXAMINATION.Amniotic fluid index,Inspection,Palpation,Auscultation,Measurement,Expected findings. ANAEMIA. ANATOMY.Fetal circulation,Female external genitalia,Uterus. ANTENATAL APPOINTMENTS. ANTENATAL SCREENING,Blood tests at booking,Follow-up blood tests,Urine,Ultrasound scans,Additional screening,Routine surveillance. BENEFITS. BISHOP’S SCORE FOR INDUCTION OF LABOUR. BLOOD PRESSURE TAKING. BLOOD VALUES. BMI. BOOKING ADVICE. BRITISH SIGN LANGUAGE. CALCULATING ESTIMATED DELIVERY DATES. CHOLESTASIS. CTG INTERPRETATION. CUSTOMISED GROWTH CHARTS. DIABETES.Type 1 diabetic women,Gestational diabetic women. DRUG ADMINISTRATION.Drugs and midwives/student midwives,Midwives exemptions and PGDS,Safe administration,Drug abbreviations,Formulas. EMERGENCIES,Adult life support for a pregnant woman,Antepartum haemorrhage,Eclampsia. FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION. FUNCTIONS OF THE PLACENTA. METHODS OF INDUCTION. MINOR DISORDERS. PRE- ECLAMPSIA. RECORD KEEPING. SUBSTANCE MISUSE. SUPPORT GROUPS. USEFUL WEBSITES. VENEPUNCTURE.Procedure for taking blood,Vacutainer blood bottles and tests. VULNERABLE GROUPS OF WOMEN

In this book, the authors present new developments in childbirth research. Topics discussed in this compilation include the theoretical and research findings on the psychopathology during transition to parenthood as a critical life event; the voices of postnatal women and how their experiences enhance antenatal practice; a sociological understanding of women's childbirth discourses; ethical analysis on therapeutic abortion for foetal abnormality; the use of placental blood in term and pre-term new-borns; self-efficacy theory and intervention in childbirth; and anal sphincter damages in childbirth.

There was a time when birth was treated as a natural process rather than a medical condition. Before 1800, women gave birth seated in birth chairs or on stools and were helped along by midwives. Then societal changes in attitudes toward women and the practice of medicine made birthing a province of the male-dominated medical profession.

In "Birth Chairs, Midwives, and Medicine," Amanda Carson Banks examines the history of the birth chair and tells how this birthing device changed over time. Through photographs, artists' renditions of births, interviews, and texts from midwives and early obstetricians, she creates an evolutionary picture of birthing practices and highlights the radical redefinition of birth that has occurred in the last two centuries.

During the 1800s the change from a natural philosophy of birth to a medical one was partly a result of heightened understandings of anatomy and physiology. The medical profession was growing, and with it grew the awareness of the economic rewards of making delivery a specialized practice. In the background of the medical profession's rise was the prevailing perception of women as fragile invalids. Gradually, midwives and birth chairs were relegated to rural and isolated settings.

The popularity of birth chairs has seen a revival in the late twentieth century as the struggle between medical obstetrics and the alternative birth movement has grown. As Banks shows through her careful examination of the chairs themselves, these questions have been answered and reconsidered many times in human history. Using the artifacts from the home and medical office, Banks traces sweeping societal changes in the philosophy of how to bring life into the world.