The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth

Feb 20, 2008 Rachel rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: pregnancy-babies

This book was so helpful! While Goer clearly states her bias for "natural" childbirth in the introduction (in a very nice, straightforward way), as someone who hasn't ruled out an epidural, I didn't find this book in the least bit alarmist or slanted. In fact, if I was convinced by the end of the book that the fewer medical interventions the better, it was only because of Goer's meticulous research, which appears both in a bulleted summary at the end of each chapter and in a long annotated bibli...more

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Jan 16, 2009 Crystal rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone who will have a baby

Shelves: parenting-self-help, pregnancy-childbirth

The reason this book only gets 3 stars is not because I didn't think it was helpful, but because the subtitle states that it is an "unbiased" view. However, the author is completely biased, and I got the feeling that she believes if you deliver in the hospital you have a high chance of your baby dying, or at least of having a c-section. However, 3 per 10,000 versus 4 per 10,000 is not really a "higher" risk in my opinion. She had lots of research, and I actually agree with most of her arguments...more

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Nov 23, 2007 Jenna Jenks rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: any woman who is currently pregnant or who has questions about her birth experience.

Shelves: women-s-health, activism-science

The Thinking Woman's Guide is, in my opinion, one of the best ways to prepare oneself for the choices involved in childbirth. Many women may not realize the draw backs to common birth practices, but this book goes through both pros and cons as well as how to make sure that if you do choose certain interventions that they are done in a way that encourages the fewest possible negatives. An important read for anyone who wants a say in their birth experience or anyone who questions what happened.

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Mar 30, 2013 Andrea rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: NO PREGNANT WOMAN EVER!!!

HORRIBLE! Please stay away from this book by all means, as it grossly exaggerates the risks of routine medical interventions during hospital birth while it downplays the dangers of real emergencies like hemorrhaging and shoulder dystocia in a home birth setting: "[...]things that go wrong in labor tend to go wrong slowly[...]" and "(The most common) unpredictable emergencies can be resolved or stabilized for hospital transport by a skilled pair of hands and readily portable medication and equipm...more HORRIBLE! Please stay away from this book by all means, as it grossly exaggerates the risks of routine medical interventions during hospital birth while it downplays the dangers of real emergencies like hemorrhaging and shoulder dystocia in a home birth setting: "[...]things that go wrong in labor tend to go wrong slowly[...]" and "(The most common) unpredictable emergencies can be resolved or stabilized for hospital transport by a skilled pair of hands and readily portable medication and equipment." Suuuuuuure! Want to see that for yourself when your baby struggles to survive a cord prolapse?

This book will not help you to make an informed decision and be assured, the author does not want to "educate" you at all. Henci Goer pushes her own agenda and uses the very same scare techniques, that "all the evil OBs" practice.

She tells you exactly what you want: "[...] you want someone who provides midwifery-style care, not obstetric management." First of all, missy, I want a healthy baby (but as I was told by Mrs. Goer's guide to a BETTER birth, this argument doesn't count).

Alsmost as evil as every OB and every hospital in the U.S. - according to Mrs. Goer - : the epidural!!! Of course you can choose to have one if you want your baby to end up with all kinds of horrible complications but come on now, you want the BETTER birth, right? I mean, what kind of mother would choose pain relief?

At the very end of her book, Mrs. Goer makes sure to mock every woman who dares to be satisfied with her "obstetric management" care during pregnancy and childbirth: they simply don't know better and wouldn't say so if they would have ever experienced the wonderful, loving attention of a midwife.

To all my fellow preggos out there: you do not have to fight someone elses battle while you are in labor. You considered this book because you are one of the thinking women. Please, think again: no birth "educator" has the right to make you feel like a failure just because you want an epidural. They pride themselves with only having your best interest in mind. But clearly just as long as you agree with them. You and I, we both deserve better. And much more important: our babies deserve better.

(less)

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Feb 20, 2013 Danielle rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013-read, parenting, non-fiction

History: I had a birth where with some minor interventions. Preparing for my second birth, I'm striving to be intervention-free (again), so I'm reading in order to remind myself, rather than taking a birthing class again.

This book isn't for 'thinking' women. It tells you exactly what you should think, and if you don't believe hospitals/doctors are Teh Evil, then you are clearly wrong. I was looking for something more balanced, that takes into account the fact that hospitals/doctors can have a pl...more

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May 23, 2012 Tina rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

This book has some really great information that makes it a must-read for anyone who ever plans on giving birth in a hospital/under OB care (if you're already fully committed to a natural/home/midwife-attended birth, then much of this doesn't really apply to you and/or you probably already know this stuff). It's also an interesting read for anyone who wants to learn more about birth and the general way it's practiced in hospitals.

The author admits her bias toward natural birth right from the sta...more This book has some really great information that makes it a must-read for anyone who ever plans on giving birth in a hospital/under OB care (if you're already fully committed to a natural/home/midwife-attended birth, then much of this doesn't really apply to you and/or you probably already know this stuff). It's also an interesting read for anyone who wants to learn more about birth and the general way it's practiced in hospitals.

The author admits her bias toward natural birth right from the start, and she supports all her claims with tons of solid research. I kind of wish she included the research within the chapters themselves, even if she just cited it in-chapter and then summarized it later (as it stands, all the references are cited and summarized at the back of the book). If you don't realize that she includes all that information at the end, it might initially seem like her conclusions are unsupported, but all the research is, in fact, there -- it's just later on.

As others have pointed out, I like that she's not black-or-white about things; while overall she clearly recommends a midwife-attended birth with as few interventions as possible, she does list pros AND cons for everything, as well as specific ways which you might reduce risk/harm if you do opt for certain interventions. I honestly didn't feel like the goal was to make women feel bad for any choices they've made/might make, but rather, to make sure they are fully informed before making them, because honestly (and personal experience in various non-pregnancy areas has confirmed this for me), you can't just automatically trust everything doctors say/do.

I realize the intended audience for this book is the woman who plans on choosing (or doesn't even realize it's a choice) the traditional OB/hospital/intervention-filled route, and in that light it has some crucial information, but I do feel like it focuses more on what to avoid rather than what to do. I guess that's why I'm only giving it four stars. For a reader like me, who went into it already pretty determined to avoid the kind of birth she warns about, this mostly solidified my committment to have my births attended by midwives and, if possible, not in a hospital, but it didn't really offer me much guidance for a better birth within a birth center/home birth environment. I realize getting out of the hospital is the major step toward "better" here, and I also realize there are other birth books that can help guide me, but...I don't know. Maybe I'm just wishing this book is something that it's not.

At any rate, highly recommended, at least if the subject matter interests/applies to you. Be prepared to be pretty outraged (if you're not already) at the blatant disregard for research within the medical model. It's kind of mind-blowing that OBs practice the way they do.(less)

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Mar 02, 2012 Christy Ford rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: parenting

I think I would have had a more favorable impression of this book if it weren't for expectations set by the title.

'Thinking' implies facts. Lots of facts. It does not imply opinions.

Ms. Goer, however, has chosen to do our thinking for us. This book clearly has an agenda, and an opinion. The book strongly advocates for low-intervention birth in place of the highly medicalized lawsuit-shy assembly line which has become the norm in the modern US. Honestly, I largely agree with her that this philoso...more

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Jul 18, 2010 Holly rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: All pregnant women

Recommended to Holly by: Laura Lund

Shelves: pregnancy, non-fiction

This is the best book I've read so far for educating women about the risks and benefits of where, how, and with whom you give birth.I love the format of each chapter, which gives a bulleted pros/cons list of every drug and intervention you can think of, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of giving birth in the hospital, a birthing center, or at home with a OB, doctor, or midwife. Each chapter also ends with a section called "Gleanings from the medical literature," complete with footnote...more

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Jun 27, 2010 Jeanna rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: parenting, nonfic

I enjoyed getting a review of a lot of information I had previously read or learned. However, I am already very converted to her way of thinking and just needed some refresher information to back up my position. I think if I were strongly in favor of the modern obstetrical model of birth, I would be insulted by the assumption that "thinking women" all choose the more natural, midwifery model. If I were sitting on the fence, though, I think this book would give me a lot of reason to go the nonint...more

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Sep 11, 2009 Mark rated it 4 of 5 stars

A thorough if biased book that describes how obstetricians are prone to treat pregnancy and labor as an illness rather than a natural process through medical techniques such as artificial induction, episiotomies, and cesarean births. The fundamental premise is that doctors often over-diagnose or overtreat women (primarily to cover their own liability) without much evidence to show this treatment has a positive effect, and Goer backs up her point of view with multiple references and summaries of...more

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Jul 14, 2009 Courtney rated it 4 of 5 stars

The main point the author seems to make is that women who don't know their options end up not having any. The author admits to being biased in her interpretation of research, as she is an advocate of natural birth. However, many in the mainstream United States' medical community tend to also be biased (albeit in the opposite direction) when they inform of the risks/benefits of various birthing options. So become an educated parent, not relying on any one source's statements--this book is just a...more

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Jun 26, 2011 Michelle rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: breastfeeding-and-birth-books

When I first picked up this book as required pre-reading for my studies into becoming a Doula, I thought it would be great. As an educated woman, "The Thinking Woman's Guide" particularly appealed to me.

But this book is last in a series of other readings I've recently done into childbirth (including authors such as Ina May Gaskin, Michel Odent, Klaus & Kennell, Penny Simkin, Janet Balaskas) and the title when finally picking up the book didn't seem to fit. For a "better birth", a mother nee...more

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Jun 18, 2011 kristin rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read the retarded What to Expect. . . book when I found out I was "expecting" my daughter. It glazed over some pretty pesky, fairly common things to expect while you're expecting. And Murkoff (et al) wasted way too much text on parenthetical cuteness and punning to leave room for instilling confidence on one's body.

The Thinking Woman's Guide cannot be accused of those things. It tells you that a lot of scary shit can go down while you're trying to have a baby, and that there are plenty of way...more

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Oct 17, 2010 Amanda rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: procreating, 2010

This book was meticulously well-researched. Despite being ten years old, it is incredibly relevant and important for anyone thinking about having a baby to read. There are more supporting articles and back-up data in here than any other birth-themed book I've come across, allowing one to really delve into specific subjects if they wish. I especially appreciate the alternative means the author establishes are available before jumping to a traditional intervention. The path to having a baby is not...more

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Feb 20, 2009 Kendra rated it 3 of 5 stars

Okay, I read this book after reading Pushed. I am pregnant for the second time and am trying to educate myself on childbirth options. This book was informative and thorough, with plenty of sources cited to back up the author's opinions. I did gain some valuable insight into how many unnecessary interventions are entrenched in our current hospital labor and delivery wards, and how difficult it can be to avoid such interventions. It's even encouraged me to decline when offered a routine induction,...more

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Mar 31, 2010 Mary rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: any expecting parents

Recommended to Mary by: my sister

I loved this book! For me, it was not so much a life-changing eye-opener as I assume it could be for people never exposed to homebirth and so on, but more an affirmation of many of the ideas that I have felt intuitively in my pregnancy. It was nice to have some scientific back-up though since I often feel like a counter-culture hippy with what I guess were extreme views since they didn't seem shared by many people I know. I will say I did learn a lot though. For example, I knew I didn't want an...more

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Aug 09, 2012 Jeff rated it 3 of 5 stars

Overall this book was informative and worth reading, and while I agree with the overall conclusion, I'm disappointed with the method. The author's premise of presenting the facts so that a thinking (wo)man could evaluate their options was not achieved. There was a clear bias toward natural birth that was evident in the tone, the obscure presentation of data, and the contradictory logic.

The tone of the book was very negative on hospital births, with repetitive statements about the dangers of givi...more Overall this book was informative and worth reading, and while I agree with the overall conclusion, I'm disappointed with the method. The author's premise of presenting the facts so that a thinking (wo)man could evaluate their options was not achieved. There was a clear bias toward natural birth that was evident in the tone, the obscure presentation of data, and the contradictory logic.

The tone of the book was very negative on hospital births, with repetitive statements about the dangers of giving birth in a hospital. Again, I'm inclined to agree with the overall message, but for a thinking person, I don't want the author's opinions, I want facts, and those weren't always forthcoming.

Compared to many books, this book did a good job of summarizing the literature and actually providing a bibliography. What it often didn't do was provide an apples to apples comparison. In many cases the author gave a statistic on how little help a given intervention would have (epidurals, cesareans, oxytocin, etc.) and then list a litany of possible complications associated with these interventions without providing data on the frequency of these associated complications (e.g., "it has a 1% chance of helping, and look at all the crazy side effects!"). What is the expected probability of a side effect? I'm willing to take a 1% chance of something helping if it only has a 0.001% chance of causing a problem. Without giving the expected incidence complications, the entire description is actually quite worthless. In other instances, the author does give numbers for both but presents them in a way that makes it an equally useless explanation (e.g., "technique X will decrease infant mortality by 0.1%, but it is likely that 10 mothers will die from it each year"). Either present the number of infants that will be saved or present the percentage of mothers that will die. Without comparing apples to apples, this is a useless statement!

Finally, there were points at which the author refuted someone's logic and then made the mistake of using the same logic herself:

"One obstetrician defended electric fetal monitoring on the basis that half the admissions to newborn intensive care come from healthy women who started labor with healthy babies. What a powerful, though unintended, indictment of obstetric management!"

The author is criticizing the obstetrician for making the assumption that healthy women with healthy babies sometimes end up in the neonatal ICU as a result of spurious anomalies and not considering that the hospital may be causing the trip the to the ICU in the first place. However, the author is making the same mistake by assuming the reverse and not considering that the number of healthy women with healthy babies dwarfs the number of unhealthy women or babies and that it's likely for half the babies in the ICU to have originally been healthy due to the sheer force of numbers on their side. Because we're not talking about all healthy babies, just the ones that ended up in the ICU, which is a pretty small percentage of the total number of babies born in hospitals, most of whom are born normally and go home without any problems.

Overall, I liked the book. It was informative and did a really good job of giving me references to dig deeper. But the clear bias was a real problem for me. It was frustrating to not be given statistics that could be compared. If you weren't really interested in the science and just wanted to be told what to think, this would probably be fine for you. But when someone shows an overt bias like this, I can't help but wonder what their process for writing the book entailed. Did they only include studies that supported their beliefs? Did they misrepresent facts or present them in obscure ways to make their point seem unassailable? It makes me want to dig deeper.(less)

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Feb 16, 2009 Inder rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: health, women, read-2009, parenting-2009

Ah, the politics of childbirth. There is a lot of good information here, and I largely agree with the author, but found her aggressive polemics to be a turn-off at times. If you are looking for an indictment of the "obstetrical mindframe," this is your book. This book does a more-than-adequate job of telling you what you don't want when it comes to childbirth. But if you are looking for helpful hints on how to manage labor naturally (that is, what you do want), look elsewhere (specifically, you...more

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Sep 08, 2010 Melissa Wilkinson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: baby-stuff

I started at the back of the book because I was anxious to read about OBs vs midwives and the chapter on "location location location", which is fine, but I wouldn't recommend doing if you can start reading it earlier on in the pregnancy (I’d recommend right away; alongside when you're choosing your caregiver at square one). Especially if it's one of your first books, or you're just starting to 'educate'... It gets a bit overwhelming with the position they take (the back of the book says it's har...more I started at the back of the book because I was anxious to read about OBs vs midwives and the chapter on "location location location", which is fine, but I wouldn't recommend doing if you can start reading it earlier on in the pregnancy (I’d recommend right away; alongside when you're choosing your caregiver at square one). Especially if it's one of your first books, or you're just starting to 'educate'... It gets a bit overwhelming with the position they take (the back of the book says it's hard to find an unbiased book... This is BIIIAAASED, but I think still needed, considering what we're surrounded with today) (wow, I’m sounding vague)...

The book is basically about a lot of misconceptions with birthing in today's culture. Hospitals, doctors, medicine, cesarean rates... And promotes midwives, birth centers, and home births above all else. It was recommended to me by a doula, and I was somewhat skeptical of it when I first opened it, and I didn't think I wanted any of what it was promoting originally, but I brought it with me on the subway and though I’d at least skim it... Within 2 pages I was sold. Seriously, I highly highly recommend this as primary reading. At the very least, it opens your eyes to a lot of the birthing process and the knowledge you should have, no matter what routes you end up going. There is so much out there to learn about and I nearly literally knew none of it. Especially from what I’ve been fed from the media and 'stories', this is just so much more of the bigger, more detailed, picture.

She has a TON of sources listed at the back (like a half inch of pages), but it kinda bugged me [a lot] she didn't actually cite them throughout the text. So it seems very statistic laden, but you can't really pinpoint which is which. Regardless, the point gets through. And even though I found myself aggravated at parts on how crazily anti-hospital/OB/drugs she is, I still found it all to be insightful and helpful, and I still read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Her other book I just came across Obstetric Myths vs Research Realities (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/79...) looks amazingly full of sources cited, research, statistics, graphs, and all sorts of case studies. Just perused it in Google Books, but it seems very similar to this one in point, except MUCH much more analytical and factual; more like a fieldwork paper with findings. If you're a skeptical person or more left-brained, this second book seems like a good sidekick to have alongside with this read.(less)

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Jun 16, 2010 Julia rated it 4 of 5 stars

I think its fascinating that women have such different opinions about childbirth...ranging from it is the worse pain you will ever feel to it is easy and a beautiful experience. I like this book because it is research based and she includes all the research at the end of the book. Its amazing that all the interventions that supposedly save a baby from distress can at the same time cause extreme distress for a laboring mother and result in c-sections and other drastic interventions. I think this...more

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Mar 21, 2010 Lauren rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: family

I read this book on the recommendation of one of my good friends. And despite the three stars, I really kindof liked it. Most of the books I've come across for this phase of life seem to be pretty biased. A few haven't been. This one struck me as especially so, and the title was nearly insulting to those who disagree, which is why I hesitate to give it more than three.

That being said, it was helpful for me to more fully understand the home/natural/anti (at times) medical view, and at least the a...more

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Aug 16, 2011 Ami Vincent rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was recommended reading by my doctor which I enjoyed. (As much as you can enjoy a book that is full of research and statistics and citations!) It's a very well researched book to a give women a resource that clearly says 'here are the pros and cons to all the choices you are given in childbirth'. So when making decisions along side the caregiver, women can really give 'informed consent'. At the end of each chapter is a section that lays out in a list form the pros and cons of everything dis...more

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Jan 03, 2011 Doreen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Clear, comprehensive overview of modern birth practices and how they work to the advantage/detriment of laboring women. I'd started this book first of the pile of "natural birthing" books a friend loaned me, and found the tone somewhat strident... and then I hit pause and read the other books and found this the most thoughtful and least grating of the bunch. Ms Goer has clearly done a lot of research on the subject and I do feel myself more educated for it. I don't know if it would necessarily c...more

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Nov 09, 2009 Ashley rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is amazingly full of all the research and information about how to understand all that goes into obstetrics and childbirth processes in hospitals (I say hospitals because it only contrasts home-births from hospital births in general). It helps you understand your choices and options and all the stuff that doctors and nurses don't have time to inform the expecting mother about. This book plus Husband-Coached Childbirth are the two books I'm grateful to have read to prepare me for childb...more

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Apr 11, 2011 Alisha rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: self-education, 2011, lll-slc-library

This book blew my mind and I have read the bulk of books about birth that are currently circulating.

The way it is organized is fluid and allows for easy key points review, which was beneficial the first time, but will be even better as I am getting quite a few calls about natural birth lately.

Basically, this book makes it undeniably clear that homebirth is good and frankly preferable, and it is explained through the statistics. It doesn't hurt that the last 3rd of the book in an appendix of the...more

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Jan 19, 2012 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-reads

This was the last book I needed to read for my doula certification, and is another fabulous resource. The only reason I gave it four stars is because having been published in the late 1990's, some of the hospital policies are outdated. However, the research and information is still very much relevant on the things that today's laboring mother will come up against. The pros and cons and risks and benefits of things like epidurals, inductions, repeat cesarean and artificial rupture of membranes is...more

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Apr 17, 2013 Tom Panning rated it 1 of 5 stars

I only made it through the introduction and a sampling of two other chapters to see if the tone of the book changed; I just didn't want to wade through that much negativity. In this book, Henci Goer is on the attack. The text on the back cover points out how hard it is to find unbiased in formation on childbirth, and if you're looking in this book, that's certainly true. To be fair, Henci Goer points out in the introduction that she is biased, and I don't hold that against her. But the contents...more

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Oct 22, 2012 Mimi rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: pregnancy-labor-birth

First, this book is exceptionally researched, and in the back of the book (taking up over one hundred pages!), you can find literature summaries, a bibliography, charts, and an index. It was very impressive. I enjoyed that while she admitted a few times in the book that she obviously has her own opinion, the vast majority of the book is merely a retelling of the intensive research she has conducted.

And while some books will only list pros to medical interventions at childbirth and others will li...more

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Feb 22, 2012 Anna rated it 2 of 5 stars

Love the concept of this book, but I think it falls short on delivery.

First and foremost, the organization is off-putting. Rather than relegate supporting evidence to an appendix of sorts, the exercise would have been far more productive with coordinating end notes. As a reader, I would like to know exactly which studies are referenced on one page vs another.

Secondly, I appreciate (and often agree with) Goer's bias toward natural childbirth. Nevertheless, this book has more than one sin of omi...more Love the concept of this book, but I think it falls short on delivery.

First and foremost, the organization is off-putting. Rather than relegate supporting evidence to an appendix of sorts, the exercise would have been far more productive with coordinating end notes. As a reader, I would like to know exactly which studies are referenced on one page vs another.

Secondly, I appreciate (and often agree with) Goer's bias toward natural childbirth. Nevertheless, this book has more than one sin of omission, which is worrisome if this is the only book an expectant mother reads. Perhaps Goer assumes that this is to be a companion piece to standard hospital labor and delivery curriculum? Generally speaking, Goer will take issue with the primary technical/medical intervention, finding it (often rightly so) unnecessary, potentially harmful, and costly. But she doesn't account for secondary or tertiary reasons for considering it. Reason number one might be easily dismissed, but the cumulative picture is much more complex.

What's more, the statical analysis doesn't always add up. For example, to demonstrate that resuscitation is often the result of other hospital procedures (in this case narcotics during labor), she argues that 65 babies (roughly 5% of a hospital study) needed assistance with breathing, and 11 needed Narcan (Goer 205). But this leaves 54 babies or 83% unaccounted. She then uses a different study to note another 43% can be attributed to other hospital interventions. Putting the apples to oranges comparison aside for a moment, there are still 26 babies or 40% that would require resuscitation for unknown reasons. How can 39 of hospital-attributed resuscitations be alarming, while 26 represent a "miniscule risk" (206)?

Finally, one should note the author's general distrust of OBGYNs and hospital nursing staff. Regardless of her opinion, some women with high risk pregnancies will need to have hospital birth no matter what. Why on earth would she want to instill such fear and distrust in these readers? Are they simply lambs to the slaughter? Yes, ideally, women should make an educated choice [on where and how to give birth], but, in the event that they do not have that option, they should be given tools to make the most of this experience as well.(less)

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Oct 23, 2012 Brittany rated it 4 of 5 stars

“The typical obstetrician is trained to view pregnant and laboring women as a series of potential problems, despite the fact that pregnancy and childbirth are normal and physiological processes that are no more likely to go seriously wrong than, say, digestion.”-Henci Goer

The blessing of having this book recommended to me came in my second pregnancy, not my first. I had planned on having a home birth completely removed from all of the medical procedures that I eventually had to make decisions ab...more “The typical obstetrician is trained to view pregnant and laboring women as a series of potential problems, despite the fact that pregnancy and childbirth are normal and physiological processes that are no more likely to go seriously wrong than, say, digestion.”-Henci Goer

The blessing of having this book recommended to me came in my second pregnancy, not my first. I had planned on having a home birth completely removed from all of the medical procedures that I eventually had to make decisions about and although I felt somewhat knowledgeable about what I was experiencing, after reading Henci Goer’s book, it was clear to me just how much more there is to know. The Thinking Woman’s Guide to a Better Birth is nothing less than brilliant and brutally informative. Through my own experience I was able to see more of the options that should have been available to me in the hospital, but more importantly I saw that those who would benefit most from this book are first-time mother’s; women who have no idea what to expect in birth.

Henci Goer is an award-winning medical writer and birth activist. She makes it obvious exactly why women should be clearly informed when they go into birth. She shows this through a very biased opinion—though justified through research– of why women are seen as a “hazard” when in labor and why realistically their wants are put aside for “needed interventions”. She covers topics such as the full-term breech baby, the cesarean epidemic and induction of labor. Most importantly in my opinion, she addresses the topic of “long” labor and the idea that a lengthy birth is in fact natural, and shouldn’t be pushed along unless there is severe emergencies for either the mother or child.

Goer is very adamant about showing the research she’s done to support her belief in at home-births and the need for midwives not as an alternative birthing choice, but as the main deliverers of children. She is clearly against the techniques and the procedures of the hospital and her evidence gives her every right to be! What makes this book so wonderful is that Goer showers the reader with information that otherwise might not be sought out. Through her incredible presentation every pregnant woman can at least develop her own opinion about the interventions of the medical industry, if not also come out on the other side of the book as a strong and prepared mother-to-be.

Henci Goer’s The Thinking Woman’s Guide to a Better Birth, is a resource that should be valued by all pregnant women AND their partners. It should be read for the reality of needing to be informed and also for seeing birth through different eyes than the care provider that may have their own conditioning and agenda. I know that for me, it has prepared my body and mind in solid decisions of what I will do if certain obstacles arise with my second child’s arrival. “Solid decisions” and empowerment, that’s what Goer’s resource for labor provides, and in labor, that’s a very necessary position to come from.

(Read my other book reviews at: http://shelteredbecomings.com/book-re...)(less)

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