Book review – A Guide to Childbirth
Author – Ina May Gaskin
Written by Doula Kylie Brettell
Ina May’s book “A Guide To Childbirth” is an in-depth look at the physiological process of birth. She uses her extensive knowledge, research and anecdotal stories to share with us really birth should be seen as a normal process women go through when they have children. We should see birth as a time to work together in love and not to fear the process or try to interfere with it …. unless true medical reasons are present.
I love her array of birth stories at the start of the book, I personally feel it’s through positive story sharing women can support each other and spread the word on how to honour this time and process in our life’s.
Ina May backs her stories with plenty of statistics which are mostly based on American births, it’s sad to realise a lot of these are very similar to Australia. Why hasn’t Australia seen what’s happening over there and made changes to our way of doing things…..I think its summed it up well by pointing out it comes down to money and what is convenience to hospital care providers.
From the book (which I have read twice) I learnt to trust my body and more importantly to trust women’s bodies to know what to do during pregnancy and birth. This trust leads to a reduction of fear, which in turn reduces the need for intervention during labour and then the biggest issue which is the potential of birth trauma.
Learning what a woman needs in labour makes sense when you see it on paper, of course we like to feel safe, secure and loved at a time when we are most vulnerable, but it’s never spoken about in standard antenatal classes or with a lot of other women who have walked the path before us. I love all the various techniques she speaks about to help during labour that don’t include drugs or medical intervention. I think the horse lips one might be the best and I would love to see this in practice more. I also enjoyed learning more about sphincter laws, again is something I had no knowledge of before reading the book and doing a hypnobirthing course.
Things I want to take from the book into my doula practice and Hypnobirthing classes is the conviction that birth is a natural process, women are more than capable, and I want to encourage my clients to really make sure they have all the tools to make informed decisions. I feel so many (myself included with my first birth) trust to much in the system over here which is currently set up to fail us. So many think “of course the Drs will do what’s best for me”, when in actual fact we are all just following their policies and procedures and their clock, which are all very rarely scientifically backed.
My dream is to take this knowledge and use it to empower other women when it comes to their births, to help them trust in themselves and to push them to also become more informed about what is most likely the most momentous time in their lives. Weather its someone’s first baby or fourth, this book has so many tips to help women during this time in their lives. It reminds us every birth, every baby and most importantly every mother is different and therefore should be treated as a magical unique individual.
My name is Kylie Brettell, and I am a qualified doula based in Sunbury, Victoria who has trained at the Doula Training Academy. If you would like more information about my doula services, please contact me:
Phone:
0423 553 191
Email:
[email protected]
Website:
www.takemyhandmumma.com
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