Adela’s premise is that the capacity to birth gently is within yourself.  A chapter titled ‘Clearing the past’ looks at the importance of processing your own birth experience if it was a negative one, grieving for any miscarriages and ensuring that you are well in mind as well as body.   Issues are touched on that other writers do not go near such as a few paragraphs encouraging couples to think about what action they might take if they are given bad test or scan results.

Adela uses real examples of how her listening skills and homeopathic remedies have helped women.  Written in a gentle, understanding style these are considered pages which say a lot in a short space and aim to guide discussion between couples rather than give strict advice.

Chapters take you through the labour and birth ‘what to expect’ and ‘what do to’, but briefly and calmly outlining the key issues to consider.  This is not an extensive biology lesson or ‘how to’ manual but rather a little book of helpful thoughts to get you going.

Adela takes a holistic view of the whole approach to pregnancy, labour, birth and the postnatal period understanding the emotional – or spiritual – side of this life changing event.

I recommend this book for women looking for the supportive views of other women.  Having had the pleasure of meeting Adela, reading this book conveyed to me the gentle wisdom I felt face to face.  That is a good place to start for most of us.

In the current economic climate when families are struggling with everything from employment to food it is incredibly heart warming to know that a dedicated band of midwives are coming to the end of the beginning of their long standing battle to improve the UK maternity services.  

Campaigning for normal birth

The Independent Midwifery Association (IMA) has for several years been campaigning for NHS funding for their work; insured midwives with a small caseload offering continuity of care wrapped around a home birth service.  Their website Neighbourhood Midwives clearly states their vision and purpose. “We are currently setting up an employee-owned social enterprise organization. Our primary purpose is to provide an NHS commissioned caseload midwifery homebirth service, based in the local community, wherever it is required.” Planning to pilot in London they want to be commissioned around the country and are reaching out to commissioners, midwives and mothers to support their endevours.

With all my heart I hope this succeeds.  This has many of the hallmarks that Maternal Link has been campaigning for, also for many  years.  Indeed the concept of a social enterprise providing an umbrella organisation to support local community midwives was what I met with Brenda van der Kooy and Liz Nightingale, board members of the IMA, to discuss when I first started campaigning for this very concept.

Government policy

With the government titling policy documents such as ‘liberating the NHS’ and GP commissioning on the cusp of implementation it looks like the time has finally come to celebrate patient choice, diversity of provider and women finally being at the centre of care.

However, though I would happily lie back and dream of this vision I fear that the reality of the existing NHS structure may continue to keep from us the variety and quality of healthcare provision we crave.  GPs will have a vested interest in keeping their local hospitals afloat, hospitals will have a vested interest in keeping their maternity services within their financial control.  Women may not be made aware of the choices available to them and certainly may not be told the huge benefits of the Neighbourhood Midwives model.

Reality?

I suspect this success opens the next chapter in the ongoing struggle to improve the British maternity services.  Soon, we will be able to celebrate a landmark number of years for striving for this cause though I fear it will not be to celebrate an out and out victory.

Regardless of whether you are pregnant, a mother or a birth professional this book will guide you through the complexities surrounding the rituals, religious and secular beliefs and methods of childbirth of many cultures around the world. Chapter titles such as Birth and Spirit, The God-Sibs: Woman to Woman Help and The Birth Dance will give you a clue as to what this book explores; a cross-cultural perspective where the traditions, beliefs and methods of supporting women in labour are discussed and to some extent, compared against modern obstetric practice.

If you’ve heard Kitzinger speak, you can image her reading this, bringing her vast knowledge of midwifery and instinctual knowledge of how a labouring woman needs to be supported. Having studied midwifery in many countries including the Caribbean, Eastern and Western Europe and South Africa and Japan, Kitzinger writes as an authority and the reader is left in no doubt that often she is writing from first hand experience.

There is a lot to be learned from this book. I was particularly taken with this sentence especially having never come across this information before, ‘Yet ultrasound itself has a direct effect on the baby too. It produces a shrill noise that we can’t hear but is like a dog whistle to the baby, who from around 18 weeks has a keen sense of hearing’. Had I known this I would have thought twice about a 4D scan I had with my first daughter.

Kitzinger’s book explores the historical and contemporary importance of feminine symbolism and one which has rippled into developed countries is the image of an opening flower representing the opening of the woman’s body. However what I didn’t know what that this symbolism is used in southern India, Malaysia, rural parts of Mediterranean countries – southern Italy and Greece. The symbolic birth flower of Jericho is the rose. Dry and shriveled it is placed besides the mother and as the labour progresses begins to soften and open from the heat of the birth room. As Kitzinger says this is ‘an intense visual image’.

Rediscovering Birth is a rich and fascinating text. It explores birth in her natural state and draws in the social, spiritual and historical elements from the world over. This book is not an instruction manuel. You are not going to find how to adapt ritual practices for use in modern obstetric or birth units but you can use this book as inspiration in helping to determine what you want for your labour. And for the professionals – you’ll love it. It will educate and inspire.

Betsy Dewey was so moved by her two homebirths and the relationship she built up with her wise, experienced midwife that she was moved to write a book about it.  Excellent.  It is published by MomOwners which appears to be an independent organisation supporting mothers taking the next step in their lives after their children have left the crib.  Excellent.

However, this book is poorly researched, badly written and appears to be almost unedited or completely over edited and these are the comments left in the margins from a book twice its length.  I found it almost unreadable.  It is over-familiar and folksy in style repeating what the midwife said to the mother; second hand information at best without the background or current research explanations to support some fairly dubious statements.  It is possible that the American audience it was written for may find the vernacular more acceptable but I still question some of the health advice.

That said, any attempt to educate American women on their choices in childbirth and in particular the ease and comfort of midwifery led home births is a good thing but I would not recommend this to a British reader because there are so many British books that do this significantly better and with more reference to the British system.

In January 2012 midwives Donna Burns and Alison Fyfe won the Royal College of Midwives Award for Promoting Normal Birth by using HypnoBirthing, The Mongan Method to help women achieve a calm, natural birth.

Since July 2009 Ayrshire and Arran NHS Trust have audited the referral of women by medical staff to the HypnoBirthing classes.  Women were referred for conditions such as extreme fear of childbirth (tokophobia), a traumatic pregnancy or a previous bad birth experience.  Therefore, although the classes are not unusual (though not many Trusts are so forward thinking as to have them on the NHS) the women were unusual because their fear of birth was deemed to dramatically hinder the possibility of a natural birth.  Many were contemplating an elective caesarean section.

Qualitative Analysis

Alison and Donna have developed their own audit which they have tweaked as their work has continued drawing out more qualitative and quantative analysis.  They start the courses by asking women to write down their feelings about birth.  Words like ‘pain’ and ‘painful’ were uniform.  After their births the same questions were asked and much more empowered responses were given; only 2 women described the birth as painful which when you discover one was born face to pubes and one by forceps is understandable.  All women felt more confident of their ability to birth describing it as a positive experience and saying they would definitely use HypnoBirthing again.

Quantative Analysis

During the first 12 months of the classes 35 couples attended; 22 were having their first baby.  During childbirth, 22 laboured spontaneously.  4 women were medically induced because of pregnancy complications and one for postdates at 41+6.   6 (17.14%) women had planned caesarean sections, 3 because they had had a previous caesarean section and 3 because of pregnancy complications.  This compares to a 2009/10 Scottish average of 26.6% caesarean section.  There were no preterm births.  68% used either no analgesia or Entonox only as pain relief and only 18.2% had an epidural.  All women who went in to spontaneous labour had vaginal births.

In the most recent qualitative audit Alison and Donna have developed which 12 women responded to, 1 (8.5%) had an epidural, 4 (33%) only used entonox and 7 (58.5%) no analgesia.

Conclusion

Working with a particularly frightened population anticipating poor birth outcomes this is a huge victory for the promotion of natural birth and its associated benefits to mothers and their babies as well as the NHS.

Having had the enormous pleasure of hearing Donna and Alison give a presentation on their work I can testify that success like this is hard won.   In an organisation such as the NHS huge personal commitment is required from midwives with passion and foresight to achieve the means to deliver change and the energy and drive to see it through.  This award is recognition from the industry that Alison and Donna are doing something very special – and successful.   I hope this recognition reaches far and wide to the many Trusts and individual midwives who could learn from this about how to improve the birth outcomes for the women they are meant to be helping.

Sign the following petition to increase the international pressure on the Hungarian government to see sense.

Helping normal birth deserves rewards, not punishment. This is not about birth, this is about control. Poor form Hungary.

Through the voices of mothers, Stadlen shows that becoming a mother is a journey and some move faster and find it easier than others.  For me one of the most interesting themes that ran through the book was the issue of ‘just’ being a mother.  It is hard to say this without sounding like a cliché but how else to put this; mothers are the most important influence over society because they are raising the next generation.  From the physical well being of the person (if the mother is healthy during conception and pregnancy the baby starts life with a good chance of also being healthy) to the emotional and practical example of how to behave (the parent’s example is what goes in and that alone is what will come out) mothers are the creators of the future.  No pressure then.  Good to know when faced with a screaming toddler at tea time.

With this in mind, Stadlen begins by looking at how mothers make ‘heartroom’; how mothers grow themselves to accept, include and work with their children from the total dependency of babies to the much more independent phases of toddler and small child.  But not everyone does this.  Some mothers struggle to adapt to the changes a new baby requires and since this book is about the relationship between mother and child even the words of those that are struggling are comforting because it reminds us we are all in this together.

There are thoughts on the practicalities of parenting.  One that made me laugh with recognition was the woman that wanted to go out on her own but when her husband finally made this a possibility she realised she only wanted the option to go.  This quandry of motherhood is as difficult for mothers as husbands to understand, believe me.  Many of the chapters do focus on the ‘problems’ of motherhood, though maybe this word is too strong.  ‘Issues’ that mothers want to discuss, to seek answers for or just receive support through recognition are brought up.  From understanding toddler behaviour to relationships to loving your child without letting them consume you, this book covers a huge range of topics as I can imagine in a mothers discussion group.

Stadlen ends with a look at the different styles of parenting referring to them as ‘Spartan’ or ‘Athenian’.  Though acknowledging the existence of both and that elements of both have a role to play, it is clear which camp she is in and I would suggest that the research, indeed these days science, is on the side of the Athenian philosophy.  But, there I go looking like I haven’t read the last chapter; Mothers Together.  This chapter barely uses the words of mothers but is Stadlen’s opportunity to express her desire that we acknowledge the importance of mothers and the role of mothering.  If women supported one another there would be a better chance that other groups in society including those without children and business would also look around and realise that ‘just’ being a mother is the most important ‘job’ in the world.

This is an excellent book.  Well written, clearly laid out and covering a wide range of issues and emotions important to mothers.  However, it is because it made me stop and think that it was not a quick read.  I needed time to reflect but that was what made it a beneficial read.  I do not feel that I have learnt anything new but I do feel that I am not alone when sinking in feelings of maternal passion and guilt.  I also wish we all had access to a Stadlen group.

Babies were often conceived hot on the heels of the one just born.  For most, sex resulted in conception and the working man expected to have rights over his woman so a life of childbearing and domestic drudgery was the accepted norm.  Women spent their lives caring for babies; first siblings, then their own, then their grandchildren if they did not die of exhaustion.

This first programme was an excellent reminder to the modern woman of exactly what the ‘liberation of the pill’ really meant to women of the time.  When people say it changed lives, this is as good an illustration as any of what that reality was.  The opportunity not to have 25 children without a period in between, the opportunity not to conceive every time you had sex, the opportunity not to be tied to the hearth by children against your will – or at least until you felt ready.

Call the midwife also shows in stark contrast, the lives of the midwives.  Those that are not nuns may as well be.  None have any practical experience or either sex or childbirth.  No doubt working with the best intentions and doing a lot of good they may even have worked with sympathy but never empathy.  This programme suggests they were working selflessly for the women of East London and providing a vital public service before the care of the NHS stretched this far, but I am not convinced they would be accepted onto a midwifery course these days!

Tantalising references are made to educate as well as entertain such as the explanation that the ‘flying obstetric squad’ was the first NHS foray into childbirth – and that Kangaroo care was known to be successful to the Spanish.  I’m sure gripped viewers were also quick to spot the fact that home birth, whilst looking dirty and unpleasant, was in fact safe.  That’s why there were so many women having so many children, all happy to be at home, amongst kith and kin who had done it before, would do it again and would look after them through it all rather than in the new fangled hospitals.  Over 60 years on we now have the science to support this basic truth.

Though derided by some as the ‘Cranford’ of midwifery costume drama I think for others this will be a thoroughly enjoyable and interesting series.

Using her personal knowledge of motherhood and esoteric teachings, Kristina’s book effortlessly blends contemporary information about the physical elements of pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding with the importance of the mental attitude of the mother. She explores the harmonious relationships between the physical and mental states which challenge the reader to question their conditioned ideas about childbirth. Perhaps most importantly, emphasis is placed on parent and child bonding and how natural methods and beliefs can greatly enhance and cement these critical foundations.

Here and there, as so often in pregnancy literature, references are made to expected and inevitable pain. I do not believe that pain has to be inevitable in all cases. Women who are able to enter into a deep relaxation, enhancing the production of birth hormones can experience strong uterine sensations but these feelings are not necessarily translated in the mind as being painful. I believe this is an important point and one I have experienced myself with my two labours.

This book will help those who are passionate about natural birth and those who like the concept but for whatever reason remain sceptical. ‘Natural Birth’ can genuinely help mothers and their birthing companions realise that calm, gentle, maybe even exhilarating births will, can and do happen.

For others there will not be enough substance here.  It is not weighed down by research references, ponderous philosophical pages on the lot of women or long diatribes on any subject.  There is no serious detail on any one subject, but this is what makes the book so readable.

Information on the actual ‘babymoon’ referred to in the title occurs at the end of the book and is simply the section on the postnatal period.  Again, in a simple and friendly style it lays out the benefits of looking after yourself in order to look after your baby after birth.

The main benefit to this book is the friendly language that is used.   There are no aggressive metaphors about men being ‘gorillas’ or anyone ‘protecting’ space or turning into ‘tiger mothers’.  There is no talk of bad care, poor services or inadequate healthcare spaces.  From this perspective, this is a relentlessly positive book designed to banish negative thoughts from new mothers and paint a reassuring picture of how it can all be.  For some, they may come out of the experience wishing they had been told more, but then the philosophy of positive thinking is that if you think positively it will be positive.  I think it is a bit of a gamble since for many women taking an active approach to creating the birth scenario they want, they feel they have to do rather a lot of work with their local healthcare providers and this book does not give enough information to prepare women for that task.  However, maybe for every one woman with that approach there are 10 more who are just happy to walk out of hospital with a baby and this book will provide enough support to keep them positive about their experience.

There is most definitely a place for this book on the shelves and since no one book will meet the needs of all women I would happily recommend this book as a good starting point.  For some it will be a totally adequate end point to.  Thank you Caroline for a positive addition to the cannon of parenting books!