Rating: 
Summary: Real information in a very readable story
Review: I'm a practicing homebirth midwife, so went right to the 'homebirth' chapter, thinking, "I'll just read this one chapter and then go the beginning of the book and read it 'properly'".
Well, I just kept on reading-did not put the book down! Read to the end and then started at the beginning and read thru to where I started in the middle! Loved the insight, the attention to detail, introduced accurate statistical information in a way that didn't make my brain glaze over and included all the other issues that face a pregnant woman today. Catherine Taylor covers a lot of the concerns, real and fleeting, that most woman have, but never really get to verbalize or talk to anyone about, or at least anyone with unbiased answers! This book helps balance all the fear-mongering, mis-communications and half-truths that surround birthing, will change your presective on how birth is now and what is truly possible; for yourself and in the 'bigger picture'.
Get a copy for yourself and one to give away-you'll grin and nod throughout the whole book.
Rating:
Summary: behind-the-scenes look at the practice of midwifery
Review: If you are part of the 99% of American women who choose to give birth in a hospital, attended by a physician, because you think that is the safest way to go, this book may well change your mind, or at least get you thinking about the possible benefits of a more natural, midwife-attended delivery. The author is decidedly pro-midwife; she weaves numerous statistics and stories into the text that underscore the decline of healthy delivery commensurate with the "medicalization" of delivery. For example, the US has the highest rate of hospital/medical deliveries but ranks 22nd in the world in maternal health / infant mortality -- well behind other countries, primarily western European, where home delivery and birth center deliveries are much more common. Other surprises -- according to the author, the World Health Organization recommends home deliveries and birthing center deliveries over hospital deliveries. The rates of C-sections and episiotomies are much, much lower for midwife-attended deliveries. Midwifes generally treat childbirth as something the female body is fully capable of doing on its own, rather than as a medical condition or disability to be treated. And the midwifes interviewed for the book seem to be very respectful of their clients -- assisting the client in her own birth experience rather than making the birth something the midwife choreographs & directs. The author writes about the history of childbirth & delivery and the practice of midwifery, interviews numerous midwifes, and even participates in home births attended by midwifes. At the same time, she discusses her own pregnancy (that is progressing while she is conducting the research for the book) and she trains to become a doula, or birth assistant. The book is gripping and easy to read; it reads fast like a novel -- and the discussions of home births she has attended are page-turners -- but it is also full of factual information and would serve to help prepare a woman for childbirth. In her interviews with midwifes, she discusses the risks to the profession -- insurance company's reluctance to cover home births and midwife fees, even though they're statisfically safer and less expensive than OB-attended hospital births, midwife's difficulty in getting insurance coverage for their practices, pressure on midwifes working in hospital settings to spend less & less time with their clients and to introduce more medications (Pitocin) -- to conform more to the medical model.
Rating:
Summary: my letter to the author
Review: Ms. Taylor,
I was one month along in my first pregnancy and, without much real thought, I bought your book "Giving Birth." I think I liked the tasteful cover and that it didn't seem to be a dry catalog of what to expect during pregnancy.
I read your book twice during my pregnancy, and it completely changed the way I approached my medical care and how I wanted to give birth. Before reading "Giving Birth," I had just assumed that I would trust the doctor and do whatever he said while I was in the hospital. I naively trusted his and the hospital's authority. But because your writing style is so vivid and thoughtful, I learned a tremendous amount about labor and delivery (going far beyond the mechanics of the process) without even realizing it. I feel like I entered the larger conversation about how best to give birth, and that I acquired a real voice of my own.
My doctor wanted me to shut up and let him do what he thought was best. I switched providers at 37 weeks after realizing that I couldn't just wish him into being the doctor I wanted. (He patted my head at one point and told me that I couldn't possibly know what labor was going to be like, so I shouldn't even plan on trying for an unmedicated birth.) Through a series of comedy of errors with my insurance provider, and the fact that I went into labor at 38 weeks, I wasn't able to switch to the birthing center in time. My original doctor still caught the baby. But I did everything else as I had hoped, with no medical interventions and the majority of my labor at home. (I gave birth thirty minutes after my arrival.)
I gave birth almost six months ago and I have always thought I should find a way to write and thank you. As cheesy as it sounds, your book truly changed my life!
I had a wonderful recovery and I honestly can't wait to give birth again.
Rating:
Summary: Essential Reading on Childbirth!
Review: Reviewed by Susan Hodges, President, Citizens for Midwifery, a national grassroots organization advocating for the Midwives Model of Care.
Review first appeared in the Citizens for Midwifery News, Fall, 2002. Catherine Taylor has beautifully crafted a tapestry of birth stories, birth facts, midwives and midwifery, the needs of mothers, and maternity care realities. I highly recommend this eminently readable book to anyone who wants to learn more about pregnancy, the realities of maternity care in the U.S. and the midwife/birth setting choices that may be available. Like several other recent autobiographical books about pregnancy and birth, Catherine Taylor's Giving Birth is organized around the sequence of pregnancy and giving birth, but there the resemblance stops. This book is a wonderfully readable narration of the author's research and learning about birth and midwifery over the time of her own second pregnancy and birth, at the same time personal and informative, but neither didactic nor judgmental. A writer and editor, Catherine Taylor undertook to write about childbirth and midwifery, "for both personal and professional reasons." Already a mother of a seven-year-old, and wanting another child, she set out to explore and understand midwives and midwifery, not by just reading or through interviews alone, but by actually spending days with a variety of individual midwives as they went about their work. The process eventually led her to undertake doula training, and to spend time with both hospital-based nurse-midwives and direct entry midwives. In addition, the author researched her topic thoroughly, and her factual statements are referenced in "Notes" at the end of the book. Written in the first person (and sometimes in the present tense), she reports her observations and experiences with an intimate and conversational style. In a very natural way, she has interwoven research and facts, related to the narrative by her own observations or subsequent knowledge: "At the time, I knew nothing about..." or "I later learned...." or "Now I know that...." Taylor started out following midwives that were part of an HMO hospital where 80% of deliveries were with nurse-midwives. Along with her, we discover how individual each midwife is and their differences in practice, as she observes the midwives at work with women who permitted Taylor's presence. We learn about the frustrations, politics, pressures and compromises involved with practicing midwifery in the hospital. And Taylor is not passive in her thoughts. "I am a bit surprised by...." Or "I don't understand why..." pop up frequently. In addition, Taylor draws the midwives out with questions, getting them to talk about how they practice and about the political/professional aspects of their work. The result is a broad-spectrum picture of "nurse-midwives," including their relationships with their "patients" and with each other, and their vulnerability in the hospital system. In addition, the reader can't help but get an understanding of why, even though the nurse-midwives are doing their best, mothers frequently get shortchanged when giving birth in the hospital, even when attended by nurse-midwives. Because Taylor is observing as neither "patient" nor midwife, she notes when, for example, the supervising doctor makes a decision, but the midwife persuades the mother on a course of action (intervention) without letting her know that the doctor, not the midwife, actually made the decision. Recognizing that one of the problems is that nurse-midwives in the hospital often simply cannot be with a woman during labor (a situation she experienced in her first labor), Taylor not only read about doulas, she completed doula training with Pam England (author of Birthing From Within). By this time Taylor was happy to be pregnant, and she also continued to follow midwives around and be at births. In addition, she became interested in home birth as a possibility, and observed several home births with different direct entry midwives. Does the setting affect childbirth? The stories and information in Giving Birth makes a strong case that it does. If there is a weak part of this book, it is the brief conclusion. The issues and problems are well summarized, with emphasis on the need for respectful treatment of mothers, birth as a normal process, and attention to the spiritual, transformative and empowering aspects of giving birth. However, less than a page is devoted to "what can we do to change the system." Unlike the rest of her book, this section reveals a lack of understanding about the political and economic challenges involved, with rather vague "we can support" suggestions and no mention of the need to coordinate efforts if we are to effectively change maternity care in the US. She does, however, include a useful "resources" section, with lists of books, publications and organizations (including Citizens for Midwifery). To be fair, "what can be done" is not the focus of her book, and she has otherwise addressed birth and midwifery admirably.
Rating: 
Summary: Not very impressed. with midwives.
Review: This book reveals that what midwives do and what OB-GYN's do is basically the same. As near as I can tell, the only difference between the two is that the midwives has slightly longer prenatal visits and get paid less per delivery. They see almost the same number of patients in a day, juggle the same number of laboring patients, rotate delivery call (17 midwives in the group- more than most OB groups), change shifts, and intervene just as often as the Doc's. Almost all the midwife patients had epidurals and pit, and delivered on thier backs in a hospital bed. I believe I'll just skip the midwife and go to the OB-GYN so I won't risk getting handed off to a stranger on delivery day.
Rating:
Summary: fast read...worth it, every page!
Review: This is the personal journey of the author into discovering her path to empowerment through childbirth. She becomes a doula and a homebirth mother along the way. The book offers real insight into the world of midwives and mothers.
Rating:
Summary: fast read...worth it, every page!
Review: This is the personal journey of the author into discovering her path to empowerment through childbirth. She becomes a doula and a homebirth mother along the way. The book offers real insight into the world of midwives and mothers.
|
