Recommended Reading

In preparation for Abigail's birth I did a lot of reading and I barely scratched the surface of all that is out there. However of the books that I did get my hands on I have a few that I would definitely recommend. 

Ina May's Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin

This book, as I mentioned in this post, really gave me all I needed to begin working towards having an all natural birth. This book has great information on the woman's body, how it works in childbirth and ways to work with your body for your desired outcome. It is fantastic! 






The Birth Partner by Penny Simkin
Danny and I read this book together and it was very good. It was detailed, clear and packed with great information. I highly recommend this book if you are planning to have your partner be involved in the birth (which I hope you are!). I still recommend this book just as an educational read. I learned a lot and became very familiar with the stages of labor from reading this book. 





Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care by Jennifer Block  (Only read parts)
If you want to learn about how natural birth advocates view hospitals this is the book for you. This book is also especially good for those planning a natural birth at a hospital.  It was eye opening to say the least but I also feel it is one side of the coin. This book is packed with a lot of statistics that will most likely blow you away. I will say that this book helped me feel more confident in refusing certain aspects of the "standard" process of childbirth at the hospital for that I was glad I read this book. 



Childbirth Without Fear by Grantly Dick-Read (Only read parts)
This is a good book to pick and choose what chapters/topics you want to read about. It is an older book and is written in old English which makes it kind of hard to follow if you don't read carefully. What I loved about this book however was that I pulled some great quotes from it that were very motivational such as “The most contributory cause of pain in otherwise normal labor is fear.”





Two additional books that I still would like to read that were recommended to me are: Journey Into Motherhood: Inspirational Stories of Natural Birth by Sheri Menelli and Giving Birth: A Journey Into the World of Mothers and MIdwives by Catherine Taylor. Happy reading!