Spiritual Midwifery,   ISBN:9781570671043

Customer Rating: 

If being a hippie means not buying into male-centered, technocratic prenatal and birth care then call me a hippie. I've read all of Ina May's books and it's hard to choose a favorite. Why not ditch the misogynist language like "contractions" and "delivery" and use words that are not only more accurate but less scary. Men created the culture of fear, prudity and misinformation. It's time we women took back childbirth as a normal, natural part of our spirituality and sexuality. Thank you Ina May for teaching us not to be ashamed of our child birthing parts, comfortable birthing positions and vocalizations.

Customer Rating: 

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this book! The first half is filled with amazing birth stories; the second half is filled with more of the technical aspect of birth but is so very easy to understand! This is absolutely a must read for anyone interested in birth!

Customer Rating: 

This book is the ABC's of natural childbirth, an uplifting and positive take on the birthing process. This book kept me positive about my choice to birth naturally, and gave great insight to midwifery.

Customer Rating: 

I first read this book in 1978 when I visited the Farm for a summer in my late teens. The following year, I studied in the first state certification program for lay midwives in Arizona where this, along with Margaret Myles "Textbook for Midwives", was one of our main textbooks. I gave birth to two children in the late 80s and because of this book and its heartfelt wisdoms and solid and grounded medical knowledge, gave birth with no pain. Not only did I not have fear, I had a foundation of love for my babies and pure surrender to the power of my own body to do this incredible thing. My second birth was a breech. My midwife had just moved and the doctor I used for a hospital birth was more than happy to let me have a "home birth" in the hospital and a vaginal breech, no routine interventions, etc. because I was clear that a breech was a variation not a complication of childbirth. My knowledge which started from this book, set me up to have amazing births and help others do the same. The U.S. still has the highest caesarean section rate of any industrialized nation. 1/4 of all babies born in the U.S. are surgically removed from the mother's body. This is most often due to the routine use of infant monitors and epidurals and other drugs which immobilize the mother. Giving birth is a joy and does not have to be medical torture. Babies are not meant for "removal" like tumors. Vaginal birth helps them breath, release certain enzymes, stimulate glandular activities, and other normal responses not present in a caesarean surgical birth. Read this book. Love your body and your baby. Allow your births to be your greatest rite of passage - and mind-blowing fun!

Customer Rating: 

I have a used, well read first edition of this book. I finished reading it last night, and I love it! It's nice to hear postive stories about natural birth. I personally loved the 'hippie' language. It made the stories seem more personal and real(after all, it was written by hippies in the 70s). I plan on becoming a homebirth midwife, and I would highly recommend this book to all pregnant women, midwives, and anyone else who is interested in birth.