Recomended Books

 

• Ina May's Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin

This is a book packed with advice born from the mother of authentic midwifery, a very experienced midwife, teacher and founder of the Farm Midwifery Center which has handled approximately 3000 births, with remarkably good outcomes. This book will have a significant impact on your views of childbirth as you read through the positive birth experiences of many women. A good book to have under the pillow!

 

• Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering by Sarah Buckley

As doctor and a mother, Sarah Buckley approaches the question of how a woman and baby might have the most fulfilling birth experience with respect for the wisdom of both medical science and the human body. Using current medical and epidemiological research plus women's experiences (including her own), she demonstrates that what she calls "undisturbed birth" is almost always healthier and safer than high-technology approaches to birth. Her wise counsel on issues like breastfeeding and sleeping during postpartum helps extend the gentle birth experience into a gentle parenting relationship.

 

• Brith and beyond by Dr. Yehudi Gordon

This is a very comprehensive guide on birth and childcare. It advocates integrated holistic health care, combining up-to-date medical knowledge with traditional wisdom and practical advice. Talking you through the changes that both you and your baby are experiencing during pregnancy and early stages of development after birth, it helps you understand your experience. It includes an extensive A-Z guide covering illnesses and serious medical conditions and offering ways of preventing and treating them.

 

• New Active Birth: A Concise Guide to Natural Childbirth by Janet Balaskas

Active Birth helps parents to prepare for and to experience a more liberated, more natural and therefore more comfortable childbirth. This book shows how to develop the body’s natural resources and to deal instinctively with the experience of childbirth. It includes new sections on "Birth in Water" and "Recovery after the Birth" starting with breastfeeding and the first few weeks of life with baby. It also gives pre-natal and post-natal exercises and details of the Active Birth Movement, its history and the Active Birth Manifesto. Janet Balaskas is a counsellor for childbirth and trained with the National Childbirth Trust.

 

• Birthing from within: An Extra-Ordinary Guide to Childbirth Preparation by Pam England and Rob Horowitz

Reading this book can enrol you in a journey of self-discovery. You will tap into your own resources using birht art as a medium to express and bring into awareness  your strenghts and fears about childbirth and parenthood. An opportunity for parents to reflect on what they know about childbirth, and what they need and want; it initiates discussion and prompts questions that lead parents to acknowledge the life they will lead after the birth. It also provides pain coping techniques.

 

• Bump: How To Make, Grow and Birth A Baby by Kate Evans

Inspiring, fun and instructive. A must have for all pregnant women, profesionals and girls coming of age. All you need to know about the reproductive process, pregnancy and childbirth. Ilustrated with beautiful cartoons and written with an awsome sense of humor.

 

• The Oxytocin Factor: Tapping the Hormone of Calm, Love and Healing by Kerstin Uvnas-Moberg

The rol of this hormone in breastfeeding and childbirth, in eating, socialising, and sex. Beautifully and simply explained.