Anyone read "misconceptions"??(m)

[maybebaby]

It's by Naomi Wolf, and it's *fantastic*!!!! I read it in one day it was so good. I only wish I had read books like that before I ever had kids.

It's about birth choices and the problems with the "birth industry", and the changes that take place for new mothers that society seems to disregard.

Great book, put it on your to-read list if you have room ;-) I know my to-read list is huge...but I keep piling more stuff on it!

[driad]

I mostly loved it and agreed with it - but, i didn't love the "spin" she put on homebirths - and I do not understand why she immersed herself back into that environment for #2!!!

[maybebaby]

I agree about the second birth...(m)

After all the researching she had done, to go back and be involved in the same type of delivery as she had before. She didn't say why the second c-section was necessitated, but I wondered about why she didn't try for a more alternative birth what with everything she had learned.

The part where she talks about Ina May Gaskin was good though, I thought. Some of the hb info she had wasn't so pro-hb, but that particular part (about Gaskin and The Farm) seemed to be more favorable.

[Elphaba]

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[maybebaby]

I did like the book, but I read it in the wrong order ;-) I had gone to the library and checked it out, along with Homebirth, Special Delivery and Birth Without Violence. I read Misconceptions first, but after I got thru the others I realized it wasn't really news.

I think it's still an excellent book to read for the uninitiated. For those who don't necessarily know much about or agree with the natural birth movement. But for people who are already in the know about homebirth and such, I agree that it might not be such an enlightening read.

Thanks for the input (and I thoroughly enjoyed the other thread!! :-))

Cheryl

[luvmykids]

I like the book, in part. The chapters that she devotes to exposing the hospital births for what they are were excellent...I think more mainstream women need to hear that. However, I was quickly annoyed at how she just wouldn't endorse homebirth and how she catagorized women who do and have little pain during their births as "Naturalists": women on "the fringe"...like we are some sort of freaks of nature! And that by communicating these ideas to other women, we are doing them a diservice in some way. Also, she certainly puts Ina May Gaskin on a pedestol, and admires her work greatly, but would never make the leap to homebirthing with another laymidwife. She makes Ina May out to be the "exception".....why can't women from all over this country/world have gentle, loving births with qualified lay midwifes....clearly "the Farm" is not the only place that this can happen?? I also think that she gives CNM's more weight/credit than laymidwifes.....I had a CNM/hospital birth with my first and a Lay Midwife/homebirth with second child.....my lay midwife clearly had more experience and was more competent then my CNM with all the credentials!! I only realized that after having my wonderful homebirth. Was also annoyed with her chapter about PPD....had to stop reading it there, bc I am ready to deliver in 2-3 weeks again. I just thought it was sick how she was making it out to be completely normal that all her "new mommy friends" were all on medication for PPD.....wasn't crazy about all the feminist rhetoric I felt she was spewing either.....well, this is just my humble opinion.......Tricia