The first evidence-based book covering natural childbirth practices written by an obstetrician Natural birth plans have emerged as a battle cry of resistance among women who are dissatisfied with today’s medically-aggressive model of maternity care and high cesarean section rates. However, natural birth does not need to be a source of controversy or conflict between women and their nurses and doctors. Natural Labor and Birth: An Evidenced-Based Guide to the Natural Birth Plan seeks to broaden the medical community’s understanding of the motivations and needs of naturally laboring mothers, while also exploring why natural birth is often so difficult to achieve within our current system and what can be done to change that. It is a complete resource on the topic of natural childbirth, teaching healthcare providers and other birth workers the skills necessary to assist a woman through an unmedicated birth and reviewing the compilation of medical evidence in support of those methods. It demonstrates how natural birth can exist within the framework of traditional antepartum care and hospital deliveries, and offers alternative solutions to common challenges that often disrupt the physiologic birth process. Natural Labor and Birth: An Evidenced-Based Guide to the Natural Birth Plan is also an unbiased resource for pregnant women seeking a more thorough and scientific understanding of unmedicated birth. This guide will help women and their partners make their own birth plans from a truly informed place. It will help women understand the barriers they may face when seeking a natural birth and give them the ability to better communicate their needs and preferences. By creating room for natural birth within our maternity system, this book will help readers build a community of care where all women feel respected, acknowledged, and empowered during their birth experience.

Helps expectant mothers make informed decisions about their pregnancy and childbirth, furnishing information on what to expect when delivering in a hospital, birthing center, or at home; how to select an advocate; the natural stages of labor; natural alternatives to drugs, surgery, and technology; and explanations of various medical interventions. Original. 25,000 first printing.

Offers expectant mothers seeking natural childbirth in a hospital a detailed look at pregnancy and labor, explaining how to create a mutually supportive relationship among birth-care providers and make informed choices.

An authoritative guide to natural childbirth and postpartum parenting options from an MD who home-birthed her own four children. Sarah Buckley might be called a third-wave natural birth advocate. A doctor and a mother, she 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.

The easy, trusted way to develop a birth plan As an expectant mother and parent, navigating all of the information and options for labor and delivery can be cumbersome and confusing. Birth Plans For Dummies, is the ultimate resource guide to help you understand, develop, and implement a plan for the birth of your baby. A birth plan is a communication tool for expectant mothers and those involved in the delivery of a child. The plan explains the mother's preferences for labor and delivery and eliminates any confusion. There are a wide variety of methods, strategies, and techniques available to pregnant women preparing for delivery—and this hands-on, friendly guide covers them all. Covers choosing the setting and method that best fits the mothers needs and wishes Informs expectant parents about the numerous pain management and labor intervention options Provides instruction on developing and writing a birth plan and putting it into action If you are an expectant mother or parent looking for a guide to help develop a plan for the birth of your child, then Birth Plans For Dummies is the perfect book for you.

There is no right way or best way to give birth, but if you’re pregnant, you’re likely already hearing advice and stories about what you should do, how you should feel, and what you should want from your birth experience. Your Birth Plan is an intervention: it’s a birth book that equally honors all paths and all pregnant people, guiding and empowering you to make informed decisions, without judgment or prescription, for your own positive birth experience. Long on information, short on opinions, Your Birth Plan is a how-to guide filled with practical descriptions, insights, stories and tips to make it easier for you to pick where, with whom, and in what way you would like to give birth. Your Birth Plan is comprehensive and free from judgment and prescriptions. It offers unbiased information about all birthing options, including birthing in a hospital, at home, or in a birthing center; having an epidural or an unmedicated birth; induction of labor; vaginal or Cesarean birth; and more. This is a new, inspiring, inclusive, and much-needed guide to help you plan for a birth where you are empowered to make your own choices and to have your needs met, whatever they are.

The classic guide to an unmedicated childbirth, fully revised for the twenty-first century—with updated information and attractive new illustrations and photos throughout. For women birthing vaginally, 90% of Bradley births are drug-free! The Bradley Method®, used and praised by women for almost seventy years, prepares you for drug and surgery-free childbirth and puts you in control by providing the tools to navigate evidence-based care. Certified childbirth educator Susan McCutcheon, one of Dr. Bradley’s first students, now makes this natural approach to childbirth more accessible than ever. You will learn: • Exercises and nutrition to get your body ready for birthing • To defuse fear by understanding all aspects of laboring • How to involve your partner as a birth coach and a fully engaged participant • What’s driving the induction epidemic and how to avoid an unnecessary induction • What’s driving the cesarean surgery epidemic and how to reduce your risk • How to get the information you need to make informed decisions about your birth “The Bradley Method’s simple objective, through relaxation, breathing, and visualization, is a birth free of the interventions frequently offered to women in the different stages of childbirth: fetal monitors, drug-induced labor, anesthesia, episiotomy, and Caesarean section. (Its) other defining feature, the husband’s active participation in the delivery, is critical to this overall goal of an intervention-free birth.”—Mothering