Spiritual Midwifery

This book gave me so much confidence in my abilities to give birth naturally! I was a nervous first-time mother-to-be, but wanted to make a serious attempt at natural childbirth due to all the complications associated with epidurals and the like. I read my mother's copy from cover to cover and filed all the wonderful details away for use during my own labor. I was born in the 70's, and found the hippy langauge a little amusing, but brightly descriptive and calming. I like being talked to as a person who has a mind of her own, not someone who cannot make decisions of her own free will, as some other birthing books tend to do. I recommend this book highly to all new mothers that I meet. The message that you are completely capable of giving birth to the child living inside you with little or no intervention, aside from real emergencies, is an invaluable one, and all the actual recounts put you in this frame of mind. Ina May and the midwives in this book create a loving voice in your head that stays with you when you need it the most. With no fear tactics, either! What a novel idea... And I also have to add that I used tons of the information given to aid my labor, and it all worked, at various levels. It gave me the confidence to labor at home for the majority of the first day, and by the time I went into the hospital I was already 7 centimeters dialated, much to my surprise. I gave natural birth to a healthy baby boy the next day. Everyone's labor experience is different- I just wanted to share my real-life labor that was made significantly better by this book.

When I first read this book, I must admit I was put off by the hippie language, and the way they referred to contractions as "rushes", which are an interesting sensation that requires all of your attention. I thought, who are they trying to kid? Despite my initial reaction, I have grown to love this book. If you can ignore the groovy hippie language (if it bothers you), this is a super book, chock full of consise information for both pregnant families and midwives. The language is plain, no "medicalese", and the information is sound. The book was written about The Farm, an intentional community started in Tennessee in the 1970's. When the women of the Farm started having babies, some women became midwives to serve them. Learning from experience and some helpful doctors and texts, they have had excellent results with maternal and infant health. Their statistics are better than any hospital I know of, as far as maternal and perinatal mortality. The book is half birth stories, and half information for parents and midwives. I recommend it for both consumers and midwives.

This is true!!! I read this book when I was pregnant with my first child in 1991, and it changed my life. I am now a doula with an BS in nursing on track to be a midwife by 2001. The 3 people, 3 fellow nursing students, who I have given copies of this book to, to help them with their birth experiences, are also persuing careers in the OB-GYN 'field'. The 10 women that I have loaned this book to have all come back to me to confide that they too believe that there are purely physical totally sacred things that we humans must acknowledge. During their birth experience they trusted them selves because they 'just knew, the same as the women at the farm just knew'. Every woman I have ever spoken to who had a powerful, positive birthing experience admits that they read this book before the birth and now have this book in their permanent library. Please understand that there are many people who have never read, seen or heard of 'Spritual Midwifery'. The majority of mothers that I know have not read this book,BUT the ones who have are deeply empowered and committed to empowering more birthing mothers. OH, and get used to over coming the language-generation-gap while reading this book, it will be good practice for when you have teenagers!

I bought this book in 1975 and have read it many times since. To the Florida reviewer: Being "stoned" during labor is not about drugs, it's about being divinely, serenely aware of the life force! This book is so much more than a book about having babies. It's about living life moment by moment; it's about loving your children; it's about being here now. I wish every man and woman in America would have to read this book before they had a child. It's life changing!