Highly Recommended Reading

I'll admit that I was a little intimidated by the size of The Birth Partner by Penny Simkin, but now I believe that it is worth its weight in gold! The book is written for the birth partner (imagine that), however, I would recommend it for moms too. It has great questions to ask yourself and does a great job of going over a laboring mom's options. It also goes over what to expect postpartum. I liked it so much, I think I'll get another copy!

Recommended Reading

The Doula Guide to Birth: Secrets Every Pregnant Woman Should Know by Ananda Lowe and Rachel Zimmerman started off with information that I've read a hundred times. Once I got to the section of pushing, I thought, "this is good stuff" and pretty much everything after that was worth reading/recommending.

(Somewhat) Recommended Reading

Born in the USA: How a Broken Maternity System Must Be Fixed to Put Women and Children First by Marsden Wagner, M.D., M.S. is not a feel-good book. The stories he tells do not have happy endings, and I finished the book thankful that I was done having children (and more resolved to help the women I serve have better births)! It's one of those books that is meant to fire you up, so proceed with caution.

Recommended Reading

When I first picked up Birth without Violence by Frederick Leboyer, MD I found the poetry-like format hard to read and thought it was extremely out-dated (we no longer hold babies by their ankles or smack their bums to get them to cry). But as I continued I really appreciated his insight as to what the baby is going through during and after birth. It's a short read and I highly recommend it.

(Not So) Recommended Reading

Homebirth in the Hospital by Stacey Marie Kerr, MD was not what I was expecting. It was more like "Mostly Natural and Sometimes Intervention-free Births in the Hospital" - which is fine, but not homebirth. ;) The majority of the book was birth stories, so if that's what you're looking for then it's worth reading.

(Somewhat) Recommended Reading

I'd like to sing the praises of The VBAC Companion by Diana Korte, but the thing was written in 1997! Recommendations for vbacs were different then (hello Pitocin everywhere!) and at the time vbac was being encouraged and supported by insurance companies and doctors. So things have changed. I'm on the hunt for a more current vbac book, but in the mean time this one is worth reading if you want a vbac. It gives good insight on how to choose a care provider and birth location and there are snippets of birth stories throughout it.

As Diana herself says in the introduction, "Take only what you want from this book, and ignore the rest"

Recommended Reading (and Viewing)

Your Best Birth: Know All Your Options, Discover the Natural Choices, and Take Back the Birth Experience by Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein

I found this book to be informative and non-judgmental (which some of the natural birth books can be). It was written after The Business of Being Born and now there is More Business of Being Born (which is a series I am currently watching).

The definitely recommend this book and the videos (which can be watched on Netflix) for first time moms, or moms that weren't satisfied with their previous births.

Recommended Reading

I requested The Midwife's Tale by Sam Thomas after reading an interview with the author on Mama Birth's blog. I really enjoyed the story and how the author was true to the times. One thing in particular that was fun for me was reading about the "gossips" that attended the births. The author doesn't go into much detail about them, but I had already read a little bit about them in Get Me Out.

The best description I could find online was from the book Childbirth and Authoritative Knowledge: Cross-cultural Perspectives, which I was pleased to see is free to read on Google Books. (Apparently I can't copy and paste from the book, which makes sense, but if you want more detail it's on page 211)

Gossips originally were called God-Sibs and they were a laboring mother's sisters in God. They were there to "nurture her during labor and to care for both her and the baby afterward...They came from the surrounding neighborhood to make the birth room ready, to sit with, comfort, and encourage her, to cook sustaining food and prepare herbal drinks, to pray and sing together, and to share in what was essentially an exclusively female process of bonding in love and power."

In other words, they were doulas! Love it!

P.S. I wish the girl in white was pregnant because that would make a GREAT doula figurine, don't you think?

Recommended (with reservations) Reading

I just finished reading Get Me Out: A History of Childbirth from the Garden of Eden to the Sperm Bank by Randi Hutter Epstein, M.D.

This book wasn't so much a history of birth as it was a history of the woman's reproductive health and everything it entails. I found it interesting from a historical stand point, but it didn't enhance my doula skills at all. I recommend this with reservations because there were some rather disturbing parts and it's not exactly uplifting. ;)

You can read a more thorough review here

Recommended Reading Part 2

Another book that was on my list of approved books was The Doula Advantage: Your Complete Guide to Having an Empowered and Positive Birth with the Help of a Professional Childbirth Assistant.

This book was a MUCH smoother read than the one I previously mentioned. It still mentioned some statistics (which are pretty impressive), but they didn't dominate the book. Interspersed throughout the book were little glimpses about mother's experiences, and I enjoyed those "real life" scenarios.

While this book is aimed toward expecting parents (and I would highly recommend it to them), it is also helpful for doulas or doulas-to-be to read.

Recommended (with reservations) Reading

The second book review I did was on Heart and Hands: A Midwife's Guide to Pregnancy and Birth. As doulas we are not allowed to do any diagnosing or medical procedures, but the book was still informative and enjoyable.

One thing that I found interesting was that the author said after a woman reaches 6 cm, they go by how much cervix is left because some women need to dilate more than 10 cm. For instance, one woman might have to dilate to 11 cm before she is complete. So if she is 8 cm she would have 3 cm left to go and would be told she was 7 cm. Another woman might only need to dilate to 8 cm to be complete so she would be told she was 8 cm (when she was really 6) since she only has 2 more cm to go.

I see how this makes sense because a midwife can't possibly know how far a woman will need to dilate to be complete in advance. I once had a nurse tell me that it was impossible to go more than 10 cm and I thought that was the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Why on earth would every woman's cervix open exactly the same amount (and who is using a ruler, anyway?!)?

I would recommend this book to birth professionals, especially childbirth educators and aspiring midwives. I'm not sure I would recommend it to expectant mothers unless, like me, they are birth junkies. ;)

Recommended Reading

One of the books that I requested from the library that wasn't on the reading list was The Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times. I didn't realize until I picked it up that it is a companion to the PBS series Call The Midwife. *squeal* Knowing that Nurse Jenny Lee was a real midwife made the series all the more fascinating for me (Seasons 1 and 2 are on Netflix; Season 3 airs on March 30th).

Even though I was familiar with most (if not all) of the births in the first book, I devoured it. I loved that Jenny was able to go into more detail about the history of childbirth and the practices at the time. As a self proclaimed birth junkie, this was a great fix!

As soon as I could I went to the library and got books two and three; Call the Midwife: Shadows for the Workhouse and Call the Midwife: Farewell to the East End. I was sorely disappointed that the second book contained not one birth story, but I read it quickly anyway. The third book was back to births which thrilled me. I wish that there were more books; I don't know where the stories for Season 3 are going to come from.

While I don't think these books enhanced my doula skills, they sure fed my birth obsession (and made me appreciate modern accommodations)!

(Not So) Recommended Reading

As part of my certification, I needed to read 3 books off of CBI's required reading list. (As a side note, if I go on to take another one of CBI's courses, my communication assignment and test scores will be transferred, but I will need to read additional books. No sweat) I had already read many of the books on the list and own a few, but in order for the books to count they needed to be read after the course started. Which was fine, because I was going to read a bunch of books anyway.

I requested pretty much every book on birth from the library and dove right in. I've read many already, below are a couple that I don't recommend (stay tuned for books I *do* recommend)

• The first book was Child Birth (Opposing Viewpoints). It irritated me from the very beginning because no matter what the authors opinion was they had data (and a personal experience, of course) to back it up. The biggest thing I learned from that book is that you can find "evidence" to back up ANY claim you have! When I was about 3 chapters in I looked at the approved list and noticed this book wasn't on it, so I put it in the pile to return without a second glance!

• I did one of my book reviews on The Doula Book: How a Trained Labor Companion Can Help You Have a Shorter, Easier, and Healthier Birth. It was okay, I helped me to see just how valuable doulas are, but there were so many studies that I found it hard to drudge through them. Had I not read another book along the same vein that I liked better, I would've encouraged others to read this