Natural Hospital Birth: The Best of Both Worlds

Of all the books I'm reading in preparation for my planned natural hospital birth (due in 6 weeks), I found this one the most helpful by far and this is the ONE book I will be making sure that my partner reads. Overall I think the book is well balanced. I like really feel like it will help my partner prepare to be my advocate in the hospital and I appreciate the very practical tone of the book, giving helpful tips and strategies for partners to support women in labour.I don't find the tone of the book combative or "anti-hospital" as some other books are. For sure, this is not a book about the potential complications of labour and there is definitely merit in informing yourself about the conditions under which medical procedures are necessary. (Although a trusting relationship with your doctor is better than any book in this regard, since at the end of the day nobody else can call the medical shots). Any woman preparing for birth knows the cardinal rule that birth is unpredictable and plans may have to be tossed. But enough of my friends have felt disempowered by hospital and had medical procedures done on them during birth without any discussion to obtain their consent (including breaking amniotic fluid and even episiotomies!) that I think this book is worth a read so you can really discuss with your birth team how you want them to interact with hospital staff for you and what's important to you in both the best-case and worst-case scenarios.

I read **several** books about labor and delivery and we were committed to a natural childbirth, and this was by far the most helpful. After struggling with the hospital, nurses, and ob/gyn during the birth of our first child, we knew what we were up against. I could explain all of the ways that this book helped (staying at home longer, phrases like "we want to wait an hour," getting a midwife, etc. etc.), but to put it simply: our second delivery was exactly the experience we were hoping for and our daughter was born completely naturally...all 9lbs 14oz of her!Update 6/11/17: We just ordered another copy...to share with our friends! We have so many friends who are mystified by natural childbirth (even though we have been doing it for thousands of years) that we wanted to provide them a resource that was simple and relatively short, that covered everything they really needed to know, that was practical and contained actionable steps, and that set attainable goals. Everyone keeps asking us how we did it, and I keep referring to this book. We finally just gave up and bought a copy to share! If there is one book to read before giving birth, this is it.

This book helped us prepare for our natural birth at the hospital, which happens to be the "high risk" hospital for our area, so the staff are very familiar with interventions, but not as comfortable with natural births, because they don't see many of them. We had to use this hospital because of insurance reasons, so I knew I had my work cut out for me because there was NO way I was letting someone stick a needle in my back (I'm not a fan of needles). Helpful tidbit not in the book: Bring your birth plan in with you, don't leave it in your bag in the car when you are contracting/staggering into the hospital at midnight.The advice to ask for time was very helpful for my husband. I work health care so I'm used to schedules and routines, but normal childbirth doesn't follow some pre-determined schedule. For those wondering about asking for time in an emergency, when staff is stressed/worried it becomes pretty clear. They will tell you if it is truly an emergency situation, especially if you have made your natural/minimal intervention preferences known. As a patient you have the right to refuse any procedures, but people are intimidated by staff so this reminder gives you a chance to think. The book was helpful with coming up with strategies to plan for different scenarios, including a c-section if it became necessary.We were very lucky and our daughter's birth was just what I planned. The resident who delivered my daughter had never seen someone push instinctively without coaching (nobody counting to 10). As amazing as it was to become a mother, we also taught the resident things about childbirth he would have never known.

It's a nice book but definitely not THE ONE. I'm very practical, so for me more than a half here is just "bla-bla-bla" with too many real stories. Right now I'm reading "Active birth" by Janet Balaskas and from the first pages it gets very clear and practical about giving birth naturally, so in my case that is what I was looking for.

I really enjoyed this book as it laid out the reality of a hospital birth, and yet still makes me feel confident that natural birth can be had if conditions are met. I loved the way that this book when through all stages of birth, I loved the advice given, and I feel empowered to now use the lessons learned in this book to have a natural birth in a hospital if health risks are not a factor. I am due next month and I have been slowly reading this book for the past 3 months. It also helped guide me through many questions that I have asked my doctor, and has helped me realize that our hospitals do not naturally allow for natural childbirth as everything is so documented controlled, and scheduled. Only having this knowledge before will help me meet my hopeful expectations!

This book is easy to read and gives you tools to deal with the hospital setting and how best to approach different situations. The only downside is that it's very focused on the American public, so some bits are not relevant, but generally good.

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Good read so far. I'm only in chapter 3. It's well written and keeps you interested...makes you reflect on your vision of a natural birth for you with no judgment and a lot of realism.I recommand this book for expecting moms.

Helpful for someone going into birth with a mainstream hospital and doctor

As a labour doula, this is the book I most highly recommend to my clients.