Book Recommendations for fear of birth?

[CougBride07]

Hi Mama's!

I am wondering if any of you have any good book recommendations for getting my mind in the right place for birth. I have a 15 month old daughter that was born by c/s after I developed preeclampsia at 41 weeks and fought with doctors for 36 hours of labor, and 2.5 of pushing. My body and my mind just gave up and I signed the damn consent form. I am not currently pregnant yet, but I am having a hard time getting my mind in the right place. My husband and I want more kids, but the thought of birth terrifies me, I just keep having these horrible images of my uterus rupturing and me dying. I feel like I have done the work mentally to become at peace with my daughters birth, but I need some more work on realizing that my body can give birth naturally and normally, and that my body is not tainted because I have a scare on my uterus. I know the uterine rupture statistics, so it is kind of an irrational fear. I am planning on having an HBAC in the future, as I don't think I will ever be relaxed enough in a hospital. Any suggestions on books or website to look at? I do belong to ICAN. Thanks!

[notjustmamie]

Birthing from Within has some great stuff about dealing with fears. Also, I think the author had a UBAC, but I can't recall for sure.

[kathan12904]

I liked the book Silent Knife. It helped me learn more about the system that lead to my c/s as well as get in touch with anger, sadness, fear that my birth had left me with. Its very informative and helped me mentally/emotionally prepare for labor the second time. I second the suggestion of Birthing From Within.

[SalmonBayDoula]

Ina May's Guide to Childbirth!

Good luck!

Sharon

[Belle]

I second birthing from within and Ina May's guide to childbirth.

You also may want to get Gentle Birth Choices. The book is great but it also comes with a DVD that has some great birth videos on it. One of them is a mom who has a VBA2C in a birth center.

[cairomama]

Birthing from Within is great. The author had a c-section and then a VBAC.

I also recommend Hypnobabies Home Study (or live class).