Ina May's Guide to Childbirth

I finished this book last night (finally, I've been such a slacker)! I got my three books I ordered from Amazon yesterday though and really wanted to get started on them so I told myself I had to finish this one.

I liked it. I will be honest and say that I did not read ALL of the birth stories which is the first half of the book. I read about half and then just really wanted to get into the information part, however, I will definitely go back and read them, likely as I get closer to my due date to inspire me. They are truly amazing.

Maybe I am already so informed from reading books like Pushed, articles online, taking Bradley classes with a doula of over 20 years, etc., but I was somewhat sad I didn't really learn a ton of NEW information from this book. I'm not sure why I was expecting some big break through information when really giving birth is pretty simple! I did learn some and I liked that each point she was making about each intervention was brief and to the point. I think if I had STARTED with this book (before learning things from all those other sources) it would have been a real eye opener and extremely informative.

That's not to say that it's a bad book or not informative. Quite the opposite actually and I would recommend it and will likely even reference it myself over the next 10 or so weeks. If nothing else it confirmed everything I believe already and gave me more confidence in my body and the birthing processes. That is always helpful!

One that that really suck out to me is how so many of the routine things that are done in standard Ob practices and hospitals are NOT evidence based (continuous fetal monitoring, Pitocin, etc). Yet so many woman think "well, because my Dr. does it or recommends it, it must be the right way to go". Yeah, it might be, but many times there is no evidence to show that is true. But there IS evidence to show that NOT doing it has benefits. I am reminded once again just how backwards birth in our country can be compared to other industrialized countries.

Another thing that stuck out was our maternal mortality rates. They haven't gone down since the 1980's and are actually going up! They are sky high compared to countries like The Netherlands, Germany, The UK, Canada, etc. What's up with that? What is worse is that the United States is the WORST at reporting these rates accurately because unlike these other countries (and way more) there is no accountability for said reporting. Why don't people realize things like this when they spout off about how all of our doctors and interventions are saving lives? Please don't misunderstand me, I truly believe there IS a time and place for doctors and interventions. Shit goes wrong. It can happen. I just don't believe (based on the evidence shown in books like these) that it's as common as we're led to believe and we're not causing the shit to go wrong because we are intervening with a physiological process that we need to leave the hell alone most of the time.