Read a Selection of Reviews from Midwifery Today

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• A Midwife’s Story by Penny Armstrong and Sheryl Feldman
  Penny Armstrong's experiences come alive in the telling of this story, which shows the unfolding of her midwifery career in a hospital in Glasgow, Scotland, and in the homes of women in Amish Pennsylvania.
• A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 - by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
  Painstaking research by historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich has produced this Pulitzer Prize winner, a captivating investigation into the life of a Maine midwife. Martha Ballard's diary records not only her midwifery activities, but such mundane undertakings as weaving, washing clothes...
• A Mother's Circle - by Jean Kunhardt, MA, Lisa Spiegel, MA, and Sandra K. Basile
  This easily read book lets the reader eavesdrop on a composite group of nine new mothers as they meet weekly to discuss their changing lives and concerns under the watchful eyes of professional parenting counselors.
• A Walk to Beautiful (video) - produced by Mary Olive Smith
  I've read the articles about women with fistulas and the programs that help them in Midwifery Today ... and, while they artfully depict the situation, nothing beats a documentary film for showing what it's like.
• A Woman’s World: Discovering the Dynamic Menstrual Cycle - by Joan L. Moon
  I can see how this may be useful for midwives or doulas working with young mothers who are not familiar with how their cycles work. ... Mothers could also use this as a tool for teaching their children how this amazing system works.
• Abuse of Pregnant Women and Adverse Birth Outcome
  Sexual and physical abuse can have adverse and devastating effects on pregnancy, read about abuse of pregnant women and adverse birth outcomes.
• Amazing Birth Stories - by Diane Gregg
  Diane Gregg’s Amazing Birth Stories is a continuation of her 2001 first book Tree of Life: Stories of Birth. Diane is quite the woman, with incredible wisdom and experience with pregnancy and birth.
• An Introduction to Biological Nurturing: New Angles on Breastfeeding - by Suzanne Colson
  Biological Nurturing is an approach to breastfeeding that gives the priority to maternal comfort. An expert on the subject, author Suzanne Colson has a history of experience behind her including working at Pithiviers State Hospital in France ... where she worked alongside Dr. Michel Odent...
• Arms Wide Open: A Midwife’s Journey - by Patricia Harmon
  I would recommend this book to any practicing or aspiring midwife or doula. Harmon's story gives insight into the life of a midwife and the recent history of midwives in the United States. Most important of all, it is a work of great inspiration.
• Around the Circle Gently - by Lyn Moen
  This book is a delightful collection of quotations and observations about life, from pre-conception through death, gathered through the years by Birth and Life Bookstore founder Lynn Moen and her assistant Judy Laik.
• Baby Matters - by Linda Folden Palmer
  Backed by science, the author takes on such issues as bonding; immune protection (including vaccination); circumcision; food allergies; nutrition and digestion; breast- and formula-feeding; and a variety of health conditions that can affect babies.
• Birth As We Know It
  This stunningly beautiful film by one of the co-founders of the "Conscious Birth" movement in Russia features 11 natural births - in the water, at home, breech and the birth of twins. Some of the most amazing scenes are of women birthing in the Black sea.
• Birth Crisis - by Sheila Kitzinger
  Passivity, drugs, machines and bullying are often the order of the day, causing women to come away from the experience traumatized and depressed.
• Birth Day (video)
  Anyone planning to have a baby should see this video to gain understanding of the true meaning of birth. Every practitioner should witness the potential power and beauty of uninterrupted birth that this video with Naolí Vinaver Lopez and family reveals.
• Birth Day, Extended Edition DVD - Naoli Vinaver Lopez and Family
  I think everyone who is going to have a baby should watch a variety of birth films to get an idea of what to expect. I would definitely include this video in that collection.
• Birth Emergency Skills Training - by Bonnie U. Gruenberg
  Birth Emergency Skills Training is a book that should be in every midwife's personal library. If you take the first letter of each word in the title, it spells BEST. The book is a comprehensive 'Manual for Out-of-Hospital Midwives.'
• Birth Into Being (video)
  Video review: Water symbolizes both spirit and healing. As such, it has been used to facilitate labor for decades, and its innate ability to help relax, warm and nurture the birthing woman through birth is well known among those who use it or who witness it.
• Birth Matters, A Midwife’s Manifesta - by Ina May Gaskin
  Ina May has done it again. She has written a midwife's manifesta, truly. She dismantles the technologies that have overtaken birth practices ... as well as outlines the costs of too much surgery, detailing how things have gone woefully wrong.
• Birth Space, Safe Place: Emotional Well-Being through Pregnancy and Birth - by Adela Stockton
  The author’s style is like an enjoyable, informative talk with a friend who knows a lot about birth. The bonus is that Stockton is also a childbirth homeopath.
• Birth Wisdom: Tricks of the Trade Volume III - Jan Tritten, editor
  No less than forty of your favorite Midwifery Today authors are represented in these pages...midwives you have come to love and trust through the eighteen years the magazine has been serving you.
• Birth: Countdown to Optimal: Information and Inspiration for Pregnant Women - by Sylvie Donna
  This book is a true gift for all pregnant women and their partners--and all who are in one way or another involved in pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding. If as a pregnant woman you only want to read one book, read this one first.
• Birthing From Within - by Pam England, CNM and Rob Horowitz, PhD
  This book encourages women to be powerful in birth, offers a wealth of resources and exercises, and can help couples move through their birth journeys with awareness, power and insight.
• Birthing in the Spirit - by Cathy Daub
  Cathy Daub, founder of Birth Works International...has penned a volume that manages not only to explain the concept of spirit in its everyday, non theological manifestation, but to describe how birthing women can move closer to that spirit and feel empowered and beyond fear.
• Birthing Your Baby: The Second Stage - by Nadine Pilley Edwards and Beverley Lawrence Beech
  This booklet is designed for those interested in learning more about the second stage of labor. The authors examine two different approaches: physiological and actively managed second stage.
• Birthsong Midwifery Workbook - by Daphne Singingtree
  I'll bet that Daphne Singingtree has been a teacher of midwifery just as long as she's been a midwife.... Her Midwifery Workbook...grows with her expanding knowledge, and this third edition is her best work yet.
• Birthwork: A compassionate guide to being with birth by Jenny Blyth
  Jenny’s unique concepts thread this book together. Her idea is to fast-track the exploration of awareness during the childbearing year, keeping up with the continual fast pace at which life moves.
• Botanical Medicine in Midwifery: A Handbook for Women’s Health Professionals - by Susan Perri
  Clinical herbalist Susan Perri has provided us with a booklet explaining appropriate uses of medicinal herbs based on tradition and science. She gives information on herbs most commonly used during the childbearing year.
• Breastfeeding Your Baby - by Sheila Kitzinger
  This simple, authoritative guide to breastfeeding success upholds Sheila Kitzinger’s tradition of excellence in childbirth education literature.
• Breastfeeding: A Mother’s Gift - by Pamela K. Wiggins, IBCLC
  Lactation consultant Pamela Wiggins has distilled all the information about breastfeeding that really matters into one compact, easily read and used volume of advice and encouragement.
• Breech Birth - by Benna Waites
  This is a seminal work about breech babies and the power of their mothers to reclaim a positive attitude about their pregnancy and make informed decisions for themselves and their very normal babies.
• Breech Birth Woman-Wise - by Maggie Banks
  "Any midwife will feel the lick of the flame as she challenges the status quo," writes Maggie Banks in her new book. Banks should know. Involved with childbirth and woman care since 1972...
• Brought to Earth by Birth - by Harriette Hartigan
  When I gave birth to my own children, I didn't see how they looked when they first entered this world. So the opportunity to view the faces Harriette captured in her photography was as breathtaking as catching a glimpse of a rare and magical creature.
• Butterfly People - by Robin Lim
  Butterfly People is, quite literally, one of the most beautiful stories I’ve ever read. It follows the Lim family from the late 1800s through today. Getting to peek at the life of a family like this, in the Philippines in their everyday existence, is a gift.
• Caesarean: just another way of birth? - by Rosemary Mander
  This well-organized, meticulously researched book is an important addition to the debates surrounding caesarean deliveries.
• Call the Midwife: A True Story of the East End in the 1950s - by Jennifer Worth
  Call the Midwife reveals a district midwife's training by Anglican nuns, her spiritual journey and a gripping eye-opener on the challenges of midwifery among the urban poor, without running water or electricity.
• CALMS: A Guide to Soothing Your Baby - by Carrie Contey and Debby Takikawa
  CALMS presents the refreshing perspective that children are meant to be respected and honored “right from the start.” This idea forms the basic foundation for the techniques for soothing babies described by the authors.
• Catching Babies - by J.D. Kleinke
  Kleinke’s novel provides accurate descriptions of the numbing fatigue reproductive specialists experience, as well as the exhaustive medical training these trainees must undergo regardless of where they plan to work after their residencies.
• Cesarean Voices - Krista Cornish Scott, Laureen Hudson, Jill MacCorkle, Pamela Udy, eds.
  In 2003, a woman on the International Cesarean Awareness Network (ICAN) e-mail list asked, "Why shouldn't I have a cesarean?" Four years later, ICAN has published this book of responses to that question from women who had had cesareans and were not happy with the experience or with the outcome.
• Cesarean: Beyond the Wound - by Ana Alvarez-Errecalde
  The themes contained in this book of photography and verse, however, are universal, and would be especially poignant for mothers desiring VBAC.
• Childbirth in the Age of Plastics - by Michel Odent
  While some worry about issues such as the hazards of bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalates, without plastic we may not have developed neonatology or intensive care units. ... Michel Odent explores how plastic has changed medicine for both good and bad in his book.
• Childbirth without Fear - by Grantly Dick-Read
  This classic book has been reissued, after having been first set in print in 1959. I have to wonder how many babies it saved from the ravages of 1950s', 60s' and 70s' obstetrics, before midwifery in all its wisdom reemerged.
• Clinics in Human Lactation: Non-Pharmacologic Treatments for Depression in New Mothers - by Kathleen Kendall-Tackett
  Midwives and doulas have an optimal opportunity to help mothers who are exhibiting symptoms of depression in the postpartum period. Mothers already trust their midwives and doulas, and may be more apt to follow their advice….
• Compendium for a Healthy Pregnancy and a Normal Birth - by Joan Donley
  Supporting a grass-roots, traditional midwifery model, this book is packed with useful information.
• Creating a Life: The Memoir of a Writer and Mom in the Making - by Corbin Lewars
  The need for women’s health care providers (i.e., obstetricians, gynecologists, doulas and midwives) to be knowledgeable about the impact of sexual abuse and violence on women’s lives and their experience giving birth is critical.
• Creating Your Birth Plan: The Definitive Guide to a Safe and Empowering Birth - by Marsden Wagner, MD, MS
  Dr. Wagner provides pros and cons for various birth choices, and unlike many pregnancy books, gives midwives their due.
• Culture & Clinical Care - Juliene G. Lipson and Suzanne L. Dibble, eds.
  This book will be helpful to anyone who provides health care to people from different cultures.
• Deliver Me from Pain—Anesthesia & Birth in America - by Jacqueline H. Wolf
  With a writing style that is academic but not cumbersome, Wolf takes her readers through a history of pain relief during labor and tries to pinpoint why women have come to believe that they need epidural anesthesia.
• Diary of a Midwife - by Juliana van Olphen-Fehr
  This book gives an accurate account of issues we face in modern-day birth: separation of mother and child and the distress it creates; inadequate prenatal care due to lack of money and lack of workable systems for pregnant women; exorbitant fees charged by doctors and hospitals....
• Doula Programs: How to Start and Run a Private or Hospital-Based Program with Success! 2nd edition - by Paulina Perez with Deaun Thelen
  With more than 45 years experience in maternity care, Perez has been writing about doula issues since the word first popped up in the US birth scene in the mid-1980s and is a recipient of the Childbirth and Postpartum Professional Association Lifetime Achievement Award.
• Doula! The Ultimate Birth Companion - produced by Alto Films, Ltd.
  This is a wonderful film to introduce the concept of doulas to parents-to-be, and would be useful in childbirth education classes or to have on loan for parents during the prenatal period.
• Dying at Home: A Family Guide for Caregiving - by Andrea Sankar
  Dying at Home is a thorough, well thought out guidebook to making and then living with the decision to help ease a person's last days amongst the familiar surroundings of home and loved ones.
• Eating Expectantly - by Bridget Swinney, M.S., R.D.
  Both comprehensive and easy to read and use, this book is suited to a wide audience of consumers. It has a wide scope of information about nutrition and food preparation.
• Encyclopedia of Childbearing - by Barbara Katz Rothman
  Well-organized, open-minded, up-to-date, and wide-ranging are just a few adjectives that describe this fascinating book, and readers of all persuasions will spend many a pleasant and educational hour with it.
• Essential Exercises for the Childbearing Year - by Elizabeth Noble
  Long acknowledged by birth educators as the most useful and popular exercise treatise, Essential Exercises for the Childbearing Year now provides a new exercise regimen for birth classes: partner exercises.
• Exploring the Dirty Side of Women’s Health - edited by Mavis Kirkham
  Using an underlying definition of dirt as “matter out of place,” these essays explore dirt--something that straddles boundaries, does not fit into a particular category and crosses from one category to another--in relation to women’s health issues.
• Female Genital Mutilation: Legal, Cultural and Medical Issues - by Rosemarie Skaine
  While painful to read in parts, the book provides a comprehensive look at a practice that has affected between 110 and 140 million women around the world.
• Fit and Pregnant: The pregnant woman’s guide to exercise - by Joan Marie Butler
  Exercise is an essential part of health. In this fast-paced world of today, exercise is used as both a stress reliever and a way to enhance oneself physically, emotionally and spiritually.
• Gentle Birth Choices (book) - by Barbara Harper, RN
  This book is exactly the sort of guide that pregnant women have been needing to help them sort through the myriad choices and options that confront them…. It conveys the magic, wonder and excitement of birth when women approach it as a natural process they can trust.
• Gentle Birth Choices (video) - Produced by Barbara Harper, RN
  Barbara Harper, RN, oversaw the production of what should become a classic visual and audio essay about how birth should be. The viewer's attention is held by scenes from six births interspersed with interviews with parents, midwives, and physicians.
• Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering: The wisdom and science of gentle choices in pregnancy, birth, and parenting - by Dr. Sarah J. Buckley
  Divided into three sections, she first recounts her own birth experiences; then discusses the evidence on ultrasound, breech birth, cesareans, epidurals and other birth-related issues...
• Having Faith: An Ecologist’s Journey to Motherhood
  What do you get when you cross a poet, a scientist and a mother? You get the author of this outstanding book!
• Healing Passage: A Suturing Manual for Midwives - by Anne Frye
  Finally, a concise teaching duo to aid midwives' course of suture education. This manual and companion video are quintessential Anne Frye - clear, organized, and thorough in her approach to suturing.
• Heart & Hands: A Midwife's Guide to Pregnancy and Birth, 4th Edition - by Elizabeth Davis
  Davis's revision updates information about important matters such as group B streptococcus, VBAC, gestational diabetes, and postdatism, reworks her previous writing about psychosocial issues and introduces new material about the practice of midwifery.
• Heart and Hands - by Elizabeth Davis
  Heart and Hands is both a textbook for beginning midwives and a reference book for parents who want to expand their knowledge of pregnancy and birth.
• Herbal Medicine: From the Heart of the Earth - by Dr. Sharol Marie Tilgner
  An essential reference for any health professional that incorporates the use of herbs in their practice, this text is also very accessible to the lay person.
• Herbs, Helps and Pressure Points for Pregnancy and Childbirth - by Katherine Tarr
  Drawing on her more than 18 years of practice, midwife Katherine Tarr has created an easy to read and use collection of tips to help make pregnancies healthier.
• Holistic Midwifery: A Comprehensive Textbook for Midwives in a Homebirth Practice, Vol. II; Care from Onset of Labor through the First Hours after Birth - by Anne Frye
  At long last, volume II of Holistic Midwifery has come to fruition. Anne Frye has once again created a book that is thoughtful, informative and innovative. She introduces ideas and concepts never before offered in textbook form.
• Homeopathic Medicines for Pregnancy and Childbirth - by Richard Moskowitz, M.D.
  Serious students of homeopathy would do well to buy two copies of this book: one for their reference shelf, and one as a permanent component of their birth bag equipment.
• Homeopathy for Pregnancy, Birth, and Your Baby’s First Year - by Miranda Castro
  Despite the fact that this book is more than 10 years old, it is still as useful as it was when first published. The book would make a good first purchase for women who want to learn about homeopathy in general and in relation to pregnancy, birth and babies.
• Illustrated Dictionary of Midwifery - by Nicola V. Winson and Sandra McDonald
  This slim, nearly pocket-size dictionary contains relevant midwifery terminology, abbreviations and illustrations for easy reference in classroom or in the field.
• Is My Baby All Right? A Guide for Expectant Parents - by Christine Gosden
  This book discusses abnormalities in babies, how they occur and are detected, and the options available to the prospective parents. It helps make sense of the testing system.
• Journey Into Motherhood - by Leslie Kirk Campbell
  We recommend this book not only to pregnant women and birth practitioners, but also to counselors and writing teachers.
• Laboring On: Birth in Transition in the United States - by Wendy Simonds, Barbara Katz Rothman and Bari Meltzer Norman
  Laboring On relies on qualitative interviews with direct entry midwives, nurse-midwives and midwifery students to provide an analysis of midwifery reform in the United States since the 1970s.
• Lady's Hands, Lion's Heart- A Midwife's Saga - by Carol Leonard
  [The author's] tenacity, love and commitment to women shine in this account of her personal journey through life as a midwife, a mother and a wife. This book is a must-read!
• Life Before Birth - by Marjorie A. England
  This full-color volume takes the reader through the normal process of fetal development including pre-embryonic, embryonic and fetal stages.
• Life of a Midwife - Jan Tritten, Editor
  Midwifery Today has brought together a rich and striking blend of voices and informative, thought-provoking, heartfelt and diverse material in its new book for both aspiring and practicing midwives.
• Listening to Mothers II: Report of the Second National US Survey of Women's Childbearing Experiences - by Eugene R. Declercq, et al.
  Listening to Mothers II is the second report that comes out of an initiative devoted to understanding experiences and perspectives of childbearing women and using the information to improve maternity policy, practice, education and research.
• Making Midwives Legal: Childbirth, Medicine and the Law, 2nd Edition - Raymond DeVries
  The focal point is "what the states allow and what they prohibit, and the relationship between the statutes and the reality of day-to-day practice." He begins by maintaining that the relationship between the law and medicine is far from being interactive or cooperative.
• Mama's Milk - by Michael Elsohn Ross, illustrations by Ashley Wolff
  With simple poetry it celebrates breastfeeding among a variety of mammals, including cats, armadillos, whales and humans.
• Mastering Pregnancy Massage (video) - directed by Sean Riehl
  A must-have for massage therapists, this video is also highly recommended for any health professional working in a hands-on capacity with women in the prenatal stage.
• Maternal Fitness - by Julie Tupler, with Andrea Thompson
  This book takes us past the 'Just keep fit' attitude and really shows women how to stretch, strengthen, and relax the muscles they will use most in labor, as well as instructs them in what changes occur in the pregnant body and how to work with these changes.
• Medicine Women, Curanderas, and Women Doctors - by Bobette Perrone, H. Henrietta Stockel and Victoria Krueger
  This book would be appropriate reading for many: people involved in women's health care, cross-cultural and cross-religious studies, sociology, public health, medical ethics studies, women's studies, and those simply interested in the lives of other female healers.
• Mending Invisible Wings: Healing From the Loss of Your Baby - by Mary Burgess
  From the beginning of this sensitive journal and spiced throughout are lovely black and white drawings. Even if a mama is too grief-stricken to read or write words at the beginning of her grief journey, she can still take in the insightful drawings.
• Mindful Birthing: Training the Mind, Body, and Heart for Childbirth and Beyond - by Nancy Bardacke
  The purpose of the book is to teach mindfulness during pregnancy, labor, birth and beyond in lieu of taking an actual MBCP class or as a supplement to the class. Bardacke coaches expectant couples to let go of their preconceived ideas about childbirth and become free to discover for themselves ….
• Miss Margaret: The Story of an Alabama Granny Midwife - by directed by Diana Paul
  In this amazing film we learn the story of Margaret Charles Smith, one of the last granny midwives from the Southern United States. Miss Margaret practiced for 28 years, until Alabama outlawed midwives in 1976.
• Morning Sickness: A Survival Guide for Pregnant Women - by Miriam Erick
  The book gives information on the possible causes of morning sickness, its history, its physical and mental manifestations, and available resources from which to get help.
• Mother and Child Were Saved - The Memoirs (1693-1740) of Frisian Midwife Catharina Schrader
  Catharina Schrader's memoirs span 52 years and an estimated 4,000 deliveries, which she carefully documented throughout her life as a midwife.
• Mother Massage: A Handbook for Relieving the Discomforts of Pregnancy - by Elaine Stillerman
  This book teaches a course in Mother Massage to professional masseuses, and it's wonderful to study her techniques in this handy, usable form.
• Mothering Twins: From Hearing the News to Beyond the Terrible Twos - by Linda Albi, Deborah Johnson, Donna Florien Deurloo, Debra Catlin and Sheryll Greatwood
  A thorough resource directory gives information on pregnancy and birth, prematurity, miscarriage, death of a child, child health and safety, breastfeeding, twin information services including twin equipment, parenting resources, and special needs child help services.
• Mother-To-Be: A Guide to Pregnancy and Birth for Women with Disabilities
  This very optimistic and comprehensive guide to pregnancy as experienced by women with disabilities is written for the expectant woman, but also has much valuable information for those who provide their prenatal care.
• MotherTouch: Nurturing Touch for Birth (video) - produced and directed by Leslie Piper and Leslie Stager
  Calling on the birth practices of women throughout human history, this beautiful half-hour film documents the use of touch and massage in four different births.
• MotherTouch: Touch Techniques for Birth (video) - produced and directed by Leslie Piper and Leslie Stager
  Also including scenes of nurturing touch and massage in practice in a variety of labors and births and comments from the new mamas and their birth attendants, this companion film to Nurturing Touch for Birth starts up where the previous film left off.
• My Brother Jimi Jazz - by Christine Butler
  Only a few books bring tears to my eyes, and this is one of them! I am not sure if it is artist Chrissy Butler's graceful way with words or the stunning illustrations that capture me most.
• Normalizing the Breech Delivery (video) - by Valerie El Halta, CPM and Rahima Baldwin Dancy, CPM
  This video is clear, understandable and riveting. It has the power to replace fear and doubt with knowledge and understanding.
• Nurturing Baby and Me During Pregnancy
  This book and audio CD provide a week-by-week program of exercises, relaxation and music that women can use during pregnancy.
• Nurturing Massage for Pregnancy: A Practical Guide to Bodywork for the Perinatal Cycle - by Leslie Stager
  With this comprehensive textbook, Leslie Stager has produced an essential resource for massage therapists and birth practitioners alike. While much of the book is geared toward the massage therapist, anyone in a hands-on field who works with pregnant or birthing women will find much that will be of use.
• Optimal Pelvic Positioning - produced by BirthWorks International, Jean Sutton and Cathy Daub
  Sutton's wisdom and humor are the best things about the entire video. ... Sutton's methods of turning occiput posterior babies during labor and ensuring that the baby can practically fall out during birth are eye-opening if you've never heard of her techniques.
• Orgasmic Birth - by Elizabeth Davis and Debra Pascali-Bonaro
  ...couples are encouraged to think about the setting of their birth and to include in this setting things that would be present in an intimate sexual experience (e.g., soft lighting, music, touch) to foster privacy, trust and familiarity.
• Orgasmic Birth (video) - directed by Debra Pascali-Bonaro
  This film is a great way for a family to learn a lot about birth in a short period of time. ... All mothers-to-be should see this film before they give birth and, preferably, before they choose their midwife or doctor. This film has the potential to change the world of birth—thereby changing the world!
• Painless Childbirth: An Empowering Journey through Pregnancy and Birth - by Giuditta Tornetta
  When I first picked up Giuditta Tornetta's book Painless Childbirth, I must admit that I was skeptical. What was she proposing?
• Paths to Becoming a Midwife: Getting an Education - Reviewed by Sue LaLeike
  Honor yourself by educating yourself, as you would have your moms educate themselves. Get a copy of this book and use it.
• Paths to Becoming a Midwife: Getting an Education, 4th Edition - edited by Jan Tritten and Kelly Moyer
  The articles are valuable in helping the prospective midwife identify what she requires and expects of any program.... From apprenticeship to distance learning, direct entry to certified nurse-midwifery, equal attention and respect is given to each philosophy and approach.
• Positive Pain: A Guide to Emotional Well-being through Pregnancy and Birth - by Adela Stockton
  The book is directed toward helping those who are questioning not only the physical but the mental challenges of pregnancy and childbirth, and shows that having one’s mind in proper alignment is just as important as learning about childbirth breathing and the mechanics of labor.
• Pregnancy & Childbirth Secrets - by Gail J. Dahl
  This accessible and down-to-earth book came about after the author found a dearth of helpful information about childbirth during her own pregnancy.
• Pregnancy, Childbirth and the Newborn, 4th edition - by Penny Simkin, Janet Whalley, Ann Keppler, Janelle Durham and April Bolding
  The book covers everything from prenatal nutrition to making a birth plan. Doulas, pain relief options and homebirth are all presented in a fair, evenhanded manner, leaving the reader to decide what options may be best for herself and her baby.
• Pregnant in America: A Nation’s Miscarriage (video) - directed by Steve Buonaugurio and produced by Betsy Chasse
  This documentary is an engaging and fantastic follow-up to Ricki Lake's The Business of Being Born, and speaks to the growing alarm of parents in the US over the hijacking of birth by obstetricians and the health care system in general.
• Prenatal Massage: A Textbook of Pregnancy, Labor, and Postpartum Bodywork - by Elaine Stillerman
  What factors determine whether it is safe to massage a pregnant client? How does the specific trimester affect the massage approach? Elaine Stillerman demystifies the art of pregnancy massage with the comprehensive reference Prenatal Massage
• Preparing for a Healthy Birth - by Sylvie Donna
  Another special aspect of this book is that many of the women who share their stories, including the author, had birth researcher and male midwife, Dr. Michel Odent, as an attendant at their births. How many readers have wished to have an experience like that?
• Presenting Unexpected Outcomes: A Childbirth Educator's Guide - by Sherokee Ilse
  In Presenting Unexpected Outcomes, Ilse shares with educators the reasons and methods for bringing up this painful topic.
• Prolonged Labor Handbook - Jan Tritten, editor
  Another in the Midwifery Today Holistic Clinical Series, this little book is packed with articles gleaned from the pages of Midwifery Today publications and penned by authors such as Nancy Wainer, Sara Wickham, Marion Toepke McLean and Sharon Glass Jonquil.
• Raising Baby Green: The Earth-Friendly Guide to Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Baby Care - by Alan Greene, MD, with Jeanette Pavini and Theresa Foy DiGeronimo
  It's an excellent resource for learning about the toxins your baby is exposed to—from the pesticides absorbed in the womb to the paint fumes in the nursery.
• Scientification of Love - by Michel Odent
  This book explores love from a scientific angle yet with great respect for the beautiful orchestration of normal physiology as it works to its best capacity when it is undisturbed.
• Shoulder Dystocia Handbook - Edited by Jan Tritten, et al.
  Read Sue LaLeike's review of Midwifery Today's Shoulder Dystocia Booklet!
• Sit Up and Take Notice! Positioning Yourself for a Better Birth - by Pauline Scott
  By teaching women and practitioners the pivotal importance of fetal position to the outcome of labor and birth, Pauline Scott hopes to reverse a major reason for the seemingly relentless march toward cesarean section.
• Sleeping with Your Baby: A Parent's Guide to Cosleeping - by James J. McKenna
  I have shared the family bed with my daughter since she was born, believing that it was the best choice in my situation. James J. McKenna, a widely-recognized expert in co-sleeping, confirmed that belief in Sleeping with Your Baby.
• Stars of the Sky and Dancing Waters - by TR Tulley and KC Clark
  These two books were written by TR Trulley, a midwife, and colorfully illustrated in watercolor by KC Clark.
• The Art and Soul of Midwifery: Creativity in Practice, Education and Research - Edited by Lorna Davies
  Editor Lorna Davies has put together a diverse collection of writings that thoughtfully explore the intersections of art, creativity and midwifery. Birth art, craft, theater, dance and poetry are some of the art forms explored in-depth….
• The Belly Mapping Workbook - by Gail Tully
  What a joyful and creative way to get to know your pregnant body and your baby before birth. In this small but valuable workbook, Gail Tully provides step by step instructions, complete with practice exercises on how to learn your baby’s position after 32 weeks.
• The Childbirth Kit - by Marie Fellenstein Hale and Liz Chalmers
  This lovely and useful kit can help other birthing women focus on the energy of labor in a positive way.
• The Doula Business Guide: Creating a Successful MotherBaby Business - by Patty Brennan
  The Doula Business Guide is a step-by-step guide to setting up your doula business. From writing your business plan to tax issues, this book will be a great asset to doulas everywhere who need to know more about the business side of things.
• The Farmer and the Obstetrician by Michel Odent
  Here is a book that so encapsulates the historical demise of healthy food and of healthy birth, it could be the basis for two huge social movements.
• The Father’s Home Birth Handbook - by Leah Hazard
  Fathers’ stories often get lost in the torrent of birth literature, so Hazard’s book is a lovely change of pace. The book not only spotlights men’s stories, but also points out the special role that men have traditionally played in births throughout the world.
• The Functions of the Orgasms: The Highways to Transcendence - by Michel Odent
  Michel's newest book is overflowing with important information that can help you be a better midwife, doula, childbirth educator, doctor or parent. He gives a mini course on the history of childbirth 'methods,' as well as a discussion of how culture has...disturbed birth over the millennium.
• The Hemorrhage Handbook - Jan Tritten, editor
  When Midwifery Today founder and mother Jan Tritten plans conferences, she almost always includes a class about hemorrhage, because nearly every practitioner dreads it and thus wants to be informed about and prepared for it.
• The Infertility Diet: Get Pregnant and Prevent Miscarriage - by Fern Reiss
  Good diet and a healthy outlook can alter so many ailments and illnesses. Fern Reiss takes this concept into the realm of pregnancy. She proposes that a sound diet, including certain hormone-balancing nutrients, can help put a woman's body into the ideal state to conceive and carry a child.
• The Mama Bamba Way - by Robyn Sheldon
  The Mama Bamba Way shows a different approach to care during pregnancy. Along with the usual prenatal care, mothers in author Robyn Sheldon’s care also get instruction in chakra clearing, meditation sessions, guided imagery to meet their baby as well as many other empowering lessons.
• The Pink Kit: Essential Preparations for Your Birthing Body
  The Pink Kit: Essential Preparations for Your Birthing Body, Common Knowledge Trust
• The Postdates and Postmaturity Handbook - Edited by Jan Tritten
  Induction rates are at an all-time high with a corresponding increase in prematurity rates and adverse complications. The prevailing societal expectation is that it is perfectly acceptable to choose a baby’s birth date…
• The Second Nine Months - by Vicki Glembocki
  [This book] is an object lesson on why not to have an interventionist hospital birth. Unfortunately the author fails to make a connection between her inability to bond with her baby and her medicalized, unsupported birth and hands-off style of mothering
• The Second Stage Handbook - Jan Tritten, editor
  We find 21 essays about myriad aspects of second stage, including pushing for primips, second stage in home versus hospital, the medicalization of second stage and insights about pushing.
• The Use of Water for Birth and Labor (video)
  This video explores the therapeutic use of water during the labor and birth of two families. It illustrates the individuality of homebirths and provides an outline for the basic concepts of the use of water.
• The Worst Is Over: What to Say When Every Moment Counts—Verbal First Aid to Calm, Relieve Pain, Promote Healing, and Save Lives - by Judith Acosta and Judith Simon Prager
  While this volume is not about pregnancy or even childbirth, it clearly demonstrates how our words affect healing and how their absence or even harmful words can seriously compromise health.
• Training Midwives: A Guide for Preceptors - by Daphne Singingtree and contributors
  As midwifery has re-emerged in past decades, it has been continually transformed and redefined by its practitioners, guides, teachers and consumers. Daphne Singingtree has played an important part in this transformation through her midwifery practice, training courses and publications. Her updated guide for preceptors
• Understanding and Teaching Optimal Foetal Positioning - by Jean Sutton and Pauline Scott
  The way a baby is positioned in its mother's pelvis at term will have a major effect on labor and birth. It is said that up to 50 percent of babies are not in the optimal position at term.
• Understanding the Dangers of Cesarean Birth - by Nicette Jukelevics
  This book could not be more timely, in light of the fact that the broken health care system in the US is on the radar screen of citizens and politicians alike. The cesarean rate in the US is fast approaching one-third of all births.
• Vitamin K and the Newborn - by Sara Wickham
  The routine administration of vitamin K to newborns has been called into question in the past many years and debated heatedly among parents as well as practitioners of all kinds.
• Voices of Maya Midwives: Oral Histories of Practicing Traditional Midwives from the Mam Region of Guatemala - by Sarah Proechel
  ...an oral history project that tells the stories of six traditional Maya midwives from the Mam area of Guatemala, how they practice their art and the value of the temescal (traditional sweat bath) in both prepartum and postpartum care.
• Water Birth: A Midwife’s Perspective - by Susana Napierala
  Birthing options, prenatal care, preparation, and the benefits of water are discussed. Laboring in water, postpartum, and birth stories are also included. A helpful chapter on how to make your own tub is a nice feature.
• What's Right for Me? Making Decisions in Pregnancy and Birth - by Sara Wickham
  Everyone has the right to choose, but is there always an opportunity to fully exercise that right? Let's face it, the answer is no.
• Where Women Have No Doctor, A Health Guide for Women (updated edition) - by A. August Burns, Ronnie Lovich, Jane Maxwell and Katherine Shapiro
  This book combines self-help medical information with an understanding of the ways poverty, discrimination and cultural belief systems limit women health and access to care.
• Whole Family Recipes: For the Childbearing Year and Beyond - Patty Brennan, ed.
  This is a nifty little book with recipes and tips for pregnant moms, as well as for the kids, once they start eating. ... While not a vegetarian cookbook, Whole Family Recipes has a variety of nutritious vegetarian recipes, such as kale chips, Mexican tofu and vegetarian chili.
• Wild Feminine: Finding Power, Spirit & Joy in the Female Body - by Tami Lynn Kent
  Kent...takes her readers on a journey through the "wild feminine landscape." The energies of the ovaries and uterus are discussed in detail and, together with the fallopian tubes and vagina, comprise the "pelvic bowl," the sacred root of the female body.
• Williams Gynecology - by John Schorge, et al.
  All in all, this is a useful book, when used as a reference along with other texts that can enlarge on the less technological of women’s reproductive health care.
• Williams Manual of Obstetrics: Pregnancy Complications, 22nd edition - by K.J. Leveno, et al.
  As a companion to the classic Williams Obstetrics textbook, the streamlined manual is concise and easy to use.
• Wind in the Blood: Mayan Healing and Chinese Medicine - by Hernán García, Antonio Sierra and Gilberto Balám
  The book is divided into chapters that explore ideas about the cosmos, the human body, causality and illness, diagnostics and therapeutics, as well as the role of traditional health workers and the evolution of traditional medicine and its relation with the West.
• Wisdom of the Midwives: Tricks of the Trade Volume Two - Jan Tritten, editor
  Broken into ten nicely indexed chapters, this book sums up literally hundreds of years of combined practice from nearly three dozen midwives.