Comments on: Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth

By: B. Moyer

B. Moyer — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 02:24:14 +0000

Item was recieved in excellent time and condition.
Rating: 5 / 5

By: Susanne E. Sonnabend

Susanne E. Sonnabend — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 02:11:55 +0000

I read this book together with a lot of other books during my wife’s pregnancy. The experience reports might be nice for people who like it (which I don’t) but the second advisery part is completely unbalanced. The world is not black and white as this book wants to make you think. None of the described evils that supposedly awaits you if you choose a doctor and a hospital during your pregnancy ever happened to us so far. This might have been relevant 40 years ago but with a little knowledge and curiosity nowadays you can easily get the best of both “worlds” (a differentiation that put me off right away). You definitely should not use this book as your only source of information.
Rating: 2 / 5

By: M. Loring

M. Loring — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:33:47 +0000

This book is sweet and old-fashioned but it is all about giving birth at THE FARM with midwives. For somoeone like me who knows I will have the baby in a hospital with a doctor, though naturally, the book did nothing for me. It in fact made me feel like what I wanted to do was not good enough. Plus, half of the book was just people’s boring stories, all of which were pretty much the same. If you are in my shoes, don’t buy this book.
Rating: 2 / 5

By: AnonInCA

AnonInCA — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:41:56 +0000

The “ecstasy” of childbirth? Having an orgasm as you push your baby into the world? Giving birth on a “farm” completely free of medical interventions? These are a few of the ideas this book touts to its readers, while simultaneously discrediting many legitimate obstetric procedures. This book does more to make women feel guilty and inadequate for requiring medical interventions with their births than it does to empower women with tools to use to reach the goal of natural childbirth. Most importantly, it loses sight of the fact that the ultimate goal of childbirth is not to forsake all medication, but rather for both mother and baby to emerge from the experience healthy.
Rating: 1 / 5

By: Purple Allison

Purple Allison — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:56:27 +0000

I’m in my 34th week of pregnancy and wanted to read up on what to expect when I give birth. This book was reccomended to me, but I couldn’t stand this book. Ina May pounding the messages of “hospitals are evil”, “Doctors are idiots” and “Men who aren’t your husband are all clueless” was too much. Since the book had been reccomended to me, I was trying to make my way through it (After skipping half of the “empowering” birthing stories in the first half of the book) but when I got to the message of “ALL prenatal screening and tests are unecessary and postentially harmful” I had enough. I’m returning this book to get something, anything better.
Rating: 1 / 5