Book recommendations

[laralou]

What is the best book on homebirth/waterbirth?

[jasnjakesmama]

I enjoyed Spiritual Midwifery, lots of homebirth stories in there.
Birthing From Within was helpful, Dr. Sears has a birth book, Sheila Kitzinger's books are good.
Try www.gentlebirth.org
www.waterbirth.org
I can't think of any more off the top of my head but if I do, I will post them.
I had a home birth 10 months ago and I love to talk about it so feel free to ask me anything you'd like.


Jennifer

[laralou]

I don't really have any specific questions until I learn more about it. I wanted one with ds but was too naive. So for years I have assumed I would do this with #2, but now that we are ttc I realize that there are probably tons I don't know. I want some ammunition against those nimwits that keep telling me how dangerous it is. Right now, all I can say is, "For every horror story you can tell me, I can tell you 50 good ones."
I am a little nervous about setting it up since we are on the road often and I don't know where we will be in 6 months, much less on my due date.
Did you have the tub or did you do it dry?

[jasnjakesmama]

Wow, I think it's fabulous that you are doing research so far in advance. I had a hellish hospital birth with my first so when I got pregnant with #2 I decided I would go the Midwife/Birthcenter route. But when I was actually seeing the Birthcenter based midwives I never felt quite comfortable with them. So in my 7th month I decided to drop them and find a Midwife who would help me do a homebirth.
I am so glad I did. Having a homebirth was one of my proudest achievements in life. It was so empowering.
We did have a birthing pool that we rented. I have heard people mention that you could use an inflatable children's pool but that didn't work for me. I think you have to figure what is important to you if you want to use a pool. I know I didn't want anyone running off on me having to heat water while I was in labor. With the tub I rented, you heat the water once and then it has a built in heater to keep it warm. Plus it was really large and very deep. When I sat in it, the water came up to my armpits. That was also very important to me.
I have a bunch of homebirth videos that were helpful to me but I have packed them away. Let me look for them later so I can give you the names. I think what really helped were seeing some homebirths in action.

~Jennifer

[BusyMommy]

I loved Sheila K's books, too. As my day approached, I kept flipping through hers and looking at the pictures in the tub...they look HAPPY...I can do that, too!

PS: MW checked the tub out to us at 36 weeks so we could set it up and have it ready if things moved quickly.

[laralou]

We just saw a homebirth on TLC and it grossed ds out! :LOL And they weren't even that graphic. He is not pleased that I am making him learn all this stuff with me because it grosses him out but I can count it as school. He's 8. He'll get over it. I want him to be used to it because I want him there with me. He's my little buddy.

I thought I had an ok hospital birth with him but now I see how they caused the few problems I had with the drugs etc. Plus they took ds after he was born and didn't bring him back to me for 6 hours! So much for parent/child bonding! The only thing they did right was to not do an episiotomy- I was a dictator on that issue and even though I had him in a Medicaid clinic they did what I asked. I didn't even tear.

I want to have more control, more choices and more time to bond with #2.

edited to say: Whenever you have time, post those video names. I have got a long way to go, so take your time.

[indigolilybear]

hi...we had homebirths w/both our kids and used water both times. We actually did use the kiddie pool and loved it. THough granted you do have to do some work to keep it hot. neither child was born in the water but had circumstances permitted, I believe that is what woulda happened. However, I do hear that many woman like to labor in water but feel like getting out to push. The gravity and all.

there is a thread on this site re: siblings and videos for them to watch you might want to check out. We just watched "gentle birth choices" and I thought it was pretty good. My all time fave is "a clear road to birth" which is actually a freebirth(unassisted) video. has awesome peaceful births w/mama catching her own babies. there is also supposedly (friend recommended but never got my hands on it) a wonderful waterbirth video called something like water....oh I don't remember exactly but it is about the russians who did a ton of them. I remember they sell it on www.midwiferytoday.com cuz I was planning on buying it.

as for books...hmmm...there are so many good ones. try Jeannine Parvati Baker books, special delivery by rahima baldwin, can't think of any thing else right now.
anyway...good luck. happy planning

[Mommy StormRaven]

Homebirth Books...

One of the best that I have read is called Special Delivery - Rahima Baldwin. What you may want to do is call one of your local Midwifery center/offices and ask them what they recommend. My MW sends you home with a notebook full of materials and a reading list 6 pages long. THat is abot the only title I can remember except for the Kitzinger books - having read everythign on the list the titles all sort of blurr together! Also, Birthing from within is great but I have to tell you if you can read the book and take the class you will get much more out of it... that is what dh and I did with dd. Good Luck!

Stormraven