Sit Up and Take Notice!
Positioning Yourself for a Better Birth

by Pauline Scott

[2003, Great Scott Publications, PO Box 31, Tauranga, New Zealand, 186 pages, paperback]

[Review first published in Midwifery Today Issue 68, Winter 2004, © 2004, Midwifery Today, Inc. Review by Cher Mikkola.]

From one of the authors of Optimal Foetal Positioning comes another exceedingly important book that has the potential to change for the better the outcomes of an uncountable number of births. 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. She calls it "recovered common sense."

Part One of her book is an effective primer about pelvic structure, baby's position and the exquisite engineering of the two that is designed to culminate in uneventful, natural birth. Line drawings abound in this section to help the reader visualize this engineering miracle and understand how to work with it. Part Two discusses preparation for labor, labor positions, posterior babies and successful birth. The author makes all subjects easy to grasp by listing "key points" throughout both parts, and she invigorates her subject even more by adding wonderful birth stories to illustrate her point.

Every midwife and childbirth educator, no matter how experienced, should own this book, as well as Scott's earlier book, and should make them readily available to the mothers they serve. It's such a simple solution to the all-too-common cascade of interventions rife in hospital labor and delivery wards everywhere.

Reviewer Cher Mikkola is a contributing editor at Midwifery Today magazine, the editor of Midwifery Today E-News, and a freelance writer, editor and proofreader who specializes in the field of birth.