Books for Homebirthing? « Back to Group Discussions

[stephanieflora]

hello there, 

First: A little introduction about me

I'm Stephanie Khoury, a newbie here, Lebanese, 26 years old, live organically as strict as 99%,

doing our own organic bread, mouneh [conserves] ...

married to a wonderful husband,

had a molar pregnancy 2 years ago, ended with a D&C

and now I'm pregnant in week 19, expected due date March 12 2013 

Avoiding all unnecessary medical interventions, with no ultrasounds unless required [I did it once in week 12 to make sure my new pregnancy is doing ok,

it is also when the doctor calculated the EDD]

To nobody's surprise, I'm living in a place where birthing at hospital is the standard, and homebirthing is kept for the villages in the mountains where there is no access to hospitals,

and who bounce from homebirthing to hospital birthing whenever a governmental hospital is near [they charge less than midwives here!]

So!

Second: I'm planning for a homebirth, and am still looking for a decent midwife

But I need to have some books about Homebirthing within reach, in case I couldn't find a qualified midwife by my due date, or if she fails to reach me on time.

a friend of mine has already lent me 2 books:

Ina May's "Spiritual Midwifery" which I absolutely find fantastic and relieving. Which encourages me to choose another book from Ina May.

and Sheila Kitzinger's "The Complete Book of Pregnancy and Childbirth" which I have read the introductory pages so far and quickly eyeballed the rest

So! I'll be glad to hear your suggestions!

Thanks in advance

Stephanie

[LDoulaSteph]

Congrats!! I would suggest all of Ina May's books and also you should check out the Unassisted Childbirth section on this website just in case that is what you end up doing (planned or not) 

I found lots of great info there :)

[stephanieflora]

Hello,

Thank you for your reply,

and wishing you a safe journey as well!

I have looked for the unassisted Birthing section you have mentioned , and so far I have only found this link:

http://www.mothering.com/community/a/u-c-roll-call

I would appreciate it if you inform me of the correct link

Kind Regards

[LDoulaSteph]

Here is the link to the UC forum.

http://www.mothering.com/community/f/306/unassisted-childbirth

[maydaymom10]

Are you on Facebook? If so I can add you to a group on there where most of the members are planning either very low intervention homebirths with a midwife or UC's. There is a wealth of information between the members of the group and I know that they could steer you in the right direction with resources, books, & such.

[Sara79]

Oh I'd def. read Ina May's Guide to Child Birth, there is a homebirth section in Birthing from Within. I was searching the other day for homebirth books on amazon and came across some unassited childbirth books, I think going to the UC forum here you will find lots of info :)

[SamiPolizzi]

Originally Posted by maydaymom10 

Are you on Facebook? If so I can add you to a group on there where most of the members are planning either very low intervention homebirths with a midwife or UC's. There is a wealth of information between the members of the group and I know that they could steer you in the right direction with resources, books, & such.

I would love to be added to that group. :)

[maydaymom10]

Originally Posted by SamiPolizzi 

I would love to be added to that group. :)

PM'd you.

[MissMuffet]

Hey Stephanie, your post caught my eye because I'm also originally from Lebanon (west Beirut) but I don't live there. Due to various circumstances, I thought that I would have to have my third baby there a few years back and was pretty much decided on a UC due to absolutely no options. (I ended up birthing in a hospital in a different country.) Anyway I am a member of LLL in the Middle East yahoo group and if I recall correctly, one of the members on there is a LLL leader in Lebanon (originally Russian I think) and I remember she mentioned something about having a midwife attended home water birth in Lebanon. Let me know if you want her contact, I'll get the ok from her and pm it to you. Hope all goes well for you!

[jodieanneanton]

Originally Posted by maydaymom10 

Are you on Facebook? If so I can add you to a group on there where most of the members are planning either very low intervention homebirths with a midwife or UC's. There is a wealth of information between the members of the group and I know that they could steer you in the right direction with resources, books, & such.

I am interested in that group, too!

[maydaymom10]

If anyone is interested in being adding to the UC/Trust Birth group on FB, here is a link to my profile: https://www.facebook.com/beth.r.jones.7

Friend me & send me a message letting me know that you want to be added & I'll get you on there!  

[withlittlelungs]

Sent you a FB message, Mayday!

[maydaymom10]

Originally Posted by withlittlelungs 

Sent you a FB message, Mayday!

I didn't get anything :(  You can PM on me on here too.

[jodieanneanton]

I sent you one, too maydaymom... but it was before we were friends.  So, you may have your privacy settings set up to not accept messages from non-friends.  :)  I will try again! :D

[stephanieflora]

[oops!!double post, deleted]

Edited by stephanieflora - 10/28/12 at 6:07am

[stephanieflora]

Hello, 

Thank you everybody for your replies,

Apologies for being late in replying as my internet connection was down for a few days.

Quote:

Originally Posted by LDoulaSteph 

Here is the link to the UC forum.

http://www.mothering.com/community/f/306/unassisted-childbirth

Thank you for the link, very resourceful :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by maydaymom10 

Are you on Facebook? If so I can add you to a group on there where most of the members are planning either very low intervention homebirths with a midwife or UC's. There is a wealth of information between the members of the group and I know that they could steer you in the right direction with resources, books, & such.

I sent you a friend request and a message, (display name: Stephanie Khoury Ibrahim]

thank you in advance

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sara79 

Oh I'd def. read Ina May's Guide to Child Birth, there is a homebirth section in Birthing from Within. I was searching the other day for homebirth books on amazon and came across some unassited childbirth books, I think going to the UC forum here you will find lots of info :)

Thank you for your suggestions, I would also love it if you keep me updated about your opinion on the books you might buy from amazon

Quote:

Originally Posted by MissMuffet 

Hey Stephanie, your post caught my eye because I'm also originally from Lebanon (west Beirut) but I don't live there. Due to various circumstances, I thought that I would have to have my third baby there a few years back and was pretty much decided on a UC due to absolutely no options. (I ended up birthing in a hospital in a different country.) Anyway I am a member of LLL in the Middle East yahoo group and if I recall correctly, one of the members on there is a LLL leader in Lebanon (originally Russian I think) and I remember she mentioned something about having a midwife attended home water birth in Lebanon. Let me know if you want her contact, I'll get the ok from her and pm it to you. Hope all goes well for you!

wow! what a breath of relief!

I'm glad both our roads crossed! as it seems a hard job to locate a non authoritative midwife around, lest someone attending a home water birth!

I would be grateful if you provide to me her contact info, thank you,

If you're interested, I am planning to record my milestone in this journey and post it on my website, 

and will include the link in my profile page

I will keep this post updated as soon as I start this blog

Kindest Regards

Stephanie

Edited by stephanieflora - 10/28/12 at 6:11am

[maydaymom10]

For those of you who contacted me via FB, I've sent request for you to be added to the group. The group's name is "Family Birth Support for Trust Birthers". You have to be approved by the admins before it will show, and I've sent a message to the admin to let her know that I've added you. She's dealing with a house full of chicken pox, but hopefully she'll get around to approving that adds soon.

[happylemon]

Originally Posted by maydaymom10 

If anyone is interested in being adding to the UC/Trust Birth group on FB, here is a link to my profile: https://www.facebook.com/beth.r.jones.7

Friend me & send me a message letting me know that you want to be added & I'll get you on there!  

I am going to send you a PM shortly, I am just now seeing this but would love to be added!

[nadiya]

hi dear Stephanie! Sorry I didn't see your thread till now. The books that I read preparing for my water home birth were "Birth without Violence", "Birth without Fear" by Dick-Read, "Spiritual Midwifery", "Ina Maya's guide to birth" by May Gaskin, "Birth from within", "Active birth" by Balaskas, "Husband-coached childbirth" by Bradley, "Natural Pregnancy and Birth". I also have read several books on water birth but I don't remember their exact names, I can look them up if anyone is interested and now I'm reading "Orgasmic Birth" (really nice one). I live in Lebanon, Middle East and if anyone would like to borrow my books, you are very welcome :) I also would not mind sharing our experience of home water birth in person if someone would like to get together and learn about it to help them make their own decision if home water birth is something they would like to attempt as well :) my email is [e-mail]. I also can share the contacts of a midwife who assisted us in our first birth and a OBGYN of whom I recently I got to know who also performs home births in Lebanon!

[nadiya]

and since I know that you already gave birth to your lovely sweet daughter, I wonder if maybe you would be interested in reading books on the subject of natural raising of kids? :) 

I greatly enjoyed and can whole heartedly recommend these (you are welcome to see me and borrow any of them at any time! Some of them are available through our La Leche League group library for members too):

Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, 8th edition (the "golden standard" on breastfeeding education and support that every breastfeeding mom will enjoy having by her side! I totally loved the book! I don't think I could have breastfed exclusively for 6.5 months and then continued till 2.5 years if not this book!)

Vaccination Decision by Neustaedter and "Vaccinations. A thoughtful parent's guide" by Jill Romm (both of these books try to to take an objective stand on pros and cons of vacinations so the parents can make their own decision. After reading them we actually decided not to give any vaccinations at all and our almost 4 year old daughter could not be healthier :)

"Growing up together" by Sears (month by month guide on what to expect for healthy development of a child)

"Attachment Parenting" by Sears (amazing book that started us on loving and bonding parenting way)

"Naturally Healthy Babies and Children. A commonsense guide to herbal remedies, nutrition and health" by Jill Romm (this is a great and very thick book on home and natural remedies for most of the kids diseases you can every think of! Simple suggestions on how to help the child recover literally from anything without going to conventional medicine. We love this book and we have never given antibiotics to our daughter even once and we have never been hospitilized or needed to see a doctor due to sickness either :)

"Encyclopedia of natural health and healing for children" by Weber (a little smaller and a bit drier book on home remedies for kids diseases, also avoids conventional medicine and drugs)

And now I just ordered a book on "EC Simplified" (Elimination communication is a technique that allows to learn how to communicate with your baby when baby needs to do kaka or peepee right from birth! We have done it with our daughter last time just by following online instructions and had great results - at 3 months my baby stopped doing kaka in the diaper completely - she would always learn to be on the potty (which was great since we were using cloth diapers) and would do pee-pee over potty every time if I hold her regularly and at 1 year we removed all the diapers completely as our daughter learned how to give us a sign that she needed to go. So this time we decided to take our EC to a higher level and I just ordered and received a book on it! It's so exciting! Hopefully this time we can eliminate the diapers even earlier! They say some parents using this method don't use diapers at all straight from birth!) Here is a link where I learned about this technique in the first place: http://www.diaperfreebaby.org/. and here is a link to the book that we just ordered: http://ecsimplified.com/book/

So if I had to choose the 3 best books to recommend for starting in motherhood I would narrow it down to:

Womanly art of breastfeeding

Attachment Parenting

Elimination Communication (if parents are interested in getting rid of diapers as soon as possible and learn to have special communication with their child as early as possible :)

Let me know if you are interested in taking  a look at any of the books mentioned, dear!

Hugs and kisses,

Your Nadiya