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"Child is Born" and other neat books



 
 
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  #1  
Old January 25th 04, 07:53 PM
Mary S.
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Default "Child is Born" and other neat books

I just got the new edition of "A Child is Born," and it is amazing. We
had the first (1970s?) edition in the house during my first pregnancy,
but the new pictures are just incredible.

I'm also enjoying the sentimental but lovely "Gift of Life," which I
never got around to reading with Sproutkin.

I'm finding that this pregnancy, I want plain old "feel good" books. I
spent so much of my first pregnancy battling the choices, feeling
defensive while going through Goer and others, arming myself with
knowledge and preparing for the unknowns ahead, etc. This time I just
want to focus on the process of being pregnant and enjoying it. It's nice.

Any other feel-good books to recommend?

Mary S.
mom to the Sproutkin, 22 months
and a new wee babysprout, due October 1

  #2  
Old January 25th 04, 08:53 PM
Ericka Kammerer
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Default "Child is Born" and other neat books

Mary S. wrote:

I just got the new edition of "A Child is Born," and it is amazing. We
had the first (1970s?) edition in the house during my first pregnancy,
but the new pictures are just incredible.

I'm also enjoying the sentimental but lovely "Gift of Life," which I
never got around to reading with Sproutkin.

I'm finding that this pregnancy, I want plain old "feel good" books. I
spent so much of my first pregnancy battling the choices, feeling
defensive while going through Goer and others, arming myself with
knowledge and preparing for the unknowns ahead, etc. This time I just
want to focus on the process of being pregnant and enjoying it. It's nice.

Any other feel-good books to recommend?



Do you have Costanzo's _Twelve Gifts of Birth_?

Best wishes,
Ericka

  #3  
Old January 25th 04, 10:39 PM
Taniwha grrrl
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Default "Child is Born" and other neat books

Mary many congratulations!!! what wonderful news, wishing
you a wonderful pregnancy!!

I liked Janet Balaskas's (sp) book of Natural therapies for
pregnancy (I can't remember the actual title) but it's full
of stretches, and pampers you can do for yourself when
pregnant, and it focuses on all the pregnancy niggles like
heartburn and gives you natural therapies you can use for
each complaint like naturopathy options, homeopathy,
essential oil, massage, cell salts. There's a nice massage
for pregnancy section too.
It satisfied the part of me that needs info on pregnancy and
the part of me that needs pamper things to read about for
pregnancy.


--
Andrea

If I can't be a good example, then I'll just have to be a
horrible warning.





  #4  
Old January 28th 04, 04:31 AM
Mary S.
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Default "Child is Born" and other neat books

Ericka Kammerer wrote:

Do you have Costanzo's _Twelve Gifts of Birth_?


No, but now it's on its way from Amazon.

Mary S.
mom to the Sproutkin, 22 months
and a new wee babysprout, due October 1

  #5  
Old January 28th 04, 05:52 AM
Ericka Kammerer
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Default "Child is Born" and other neat books

Mary S. wrote:

Ericka Kammerer wrote:

Do you have Costanzo's _Twelve Gifts of Birth_?


No, but now it's on its way from Amazon.



I think you'll enjoy it--it's very sweet. It's
not so much birthy oriented, but it'll make you all
mushy and I'll bet you read it to Sproutkin ;-)

Best wishes,
Ericka

  #6  
Old January 28th 04, 02:51 PM
Cathy Weeks
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Default "Child is Born" and other neat books

"Mary S." wrote in message ...

Any other feel-good books to recommend?


Well, I can think of two:

Rediscovering Birth by Shiela Kitzinger
and
Ever since Eve : personal reflections on childbirth by Nancy Caldwell
Sorel

The former is an anthropological look at Childbirth around the world,
and has beautiful photographs including the hands held over a belly in
a heart-shape (cool photo), the latter is the history of childbirth -
essays and such about birth including stuff like letters from Queen
Victoria to her daughter when she (the daughter) was pregnant.

I guess if I were to pick only one, it would be the latter, but both
are wonderful.

There's lots of info about the books on amazon and other sources.

Cathy Weeks
Mommy to Kivi Alexis 12/01
  #7  
Old January 29th 04, 03:53 AM
Mary S.
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Default "Child is Born" and other neat books


Rediscovering Birth by Shiela Kitzinger
and
Ever since Eve : personal reflections on childbirth by Nancy Caldwell
Sorel


The second one sounds really cool. I'm trying to avoid Kitzinger and so
forth because I don't want the negativity this time around. I don't
want to read another description of why traditional medical care sucks
ever again (although it was a necessary and valuable part of the
process I had to go through with my first pregnancy, and I appreciate
that the research and advocates are out there).


Mary S.
mom to the Sproutkin, 22 months
and a new wee babysprout, due October 1

  #8  
Old January 29th 04, 06:03 PM
Cathy Weeks
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Default "Child is Born" and other neat books

"Mary S." wrote in message ...
Rediscovering Birth by Shiela Kitzinger
and
Ever since Eve : personal reflections on childbirth by Nancy Caldwell
Sorel


The second one sounds really cool.


It *is* totally cool. I read it as a teenager - my mother got it when
she was pregnant with my brothers (who are MUCH younger than I am).
She then gave me her copy when I was pregnant with my daughter.

I'm trying to avoid Kitzinger and so
forth because I don't want the negativity this time around. I don't
want to read another description of why traditional medical care sucks
ever again (although it was a necessary and valuable part of the
process I had to go through with my first pregnancy, and I appreciate
that the research and advocates are out there).


That's fine - I expect you to pick and choose the stuff that interests
you!!
:-) I don't think the Kitzinger has quite the 'tude that others may
have. Out of curiousity - why are you so turned off to reading about
the idea that traditional medical care isn't what it should be?

Cathy Weeks
Mommy to Kivi Alexis 12/01
  #9  
Old January 30th 04, 02:51 PM
Mary S.
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Default "Child is Born" and other neat books

Cathy Weeks wrote:

That's fine - I expect you to pick and choose the stuff that interests
you!!
:-) I don't think the Kitzinger has quite the 'tude that others may
have. Out of curiousity - why are you so turned off to reading about
the idea that traditional medical care isn't what it should be?


My first pregnancy (especially the first trimester) was so taken up with
that fight. I read, researched, battled everyone around me, visited
hospitals, watched Maternity Ward, read "Thinking Woman's Guide," and
was *miserable.* The whole approach to presenting an alternative
birthing situation is so steeped in negativity. I would read other
women's hospital birth stories and feel my hackles rise. I was
defensive all the time, fists doubled against the evil world of doctors
and the horrific nightmare of standard hospital care (as presented by
those books). I couldn't find a single natural childbirth book, except
Sears, that didn't spend way too much time bashing standard care, with
page after page of really negative energy. Every time I thought about
birth, during those first weeks of trying to choose a care provider, I
would feel stressed -- "I don't want to be tied to the bed -- I don't
want some strange nurse I've never met -- what if I have to fight them
not to give my baby formula" -- etc.

Now, doing that research and taking on that fight was a necessary part
of the evolution I had to go through in order to end up where I ended
up, making the choices we made, which were absolutely the right ones for
us. And once I had picked a birth center and met the midwives, I was
finally calm and peaceful and actually happy about birth again.

But, the negativity still bothers me. I hate, absolutely hate, the book
"The Continuum Concept." If I'm going to read a book about attachment
parenting, give me Dr. Sears' positive approach, who says, "Babies are
happy and secure in their mothers' arms." Not TCC, which says, "Most
babies in America are ripped from the womb and isolated in hard, plastic
mother substitutes." It's like vegetarian cookbooks that contain
horrific "why eat vegetarian?" chapters -- I bought the book because I'm
already sold, you know? Filling my head with pictures of debeaked
chickens is just going to make me feel awful. I understand that
exposure of the "dark side" and making people angry is a way toward
social justice -- I just don't want that anger for myself, for this
pregnancy.

This is getting really long, but one of the things I am loving about a
second pregnancy is the opportunity to enjoy it for what it is.
Everything in Sproutkin's pregnancy was so new and exciting, and every
new development and twinge and feeling was a delightful surprise, and I
had no idea what was coming next (which was both wonderful and scary).
The first of everything was so wonderful and unique... it's an amazing
time of life, a first pregnancy.

But I love it even more the second time. I'm released from the burden
of having to battle through the hard decisions and educate myself about
every possibility -- I'm free to concentrate on enjoying pregnancy, on
celebrating and loving this little life inside of me, on all the
positive aspects of pregnancy and motherhood. I don't mean there will
be no physical discomforts, or that it's all rose-colored experience all
the time -- and I did enjoy my first pregnancy, in between stressing
about the negatives -- but the mental defensiveness and preoccupation
isn't there now, and I don't want it.

I worked and fought hard to establish the kind of birth environment that
was best for me and my baby last time, and so now I've earned total
faith and confidence in my care providers. I'm released from that
worry. I've been through a long and difficult labor, but unlike last
time, I know I can get through it; I know now that labor is finite and
that I am strong enough to meet it, even if it's hell; the huge unknown
isn't there. I know how my body handles pregnancy, and I know that it's
both manageable and fleeting. I don't have to spend my mental energy
reading about all the ways the system is broken and feeling angry and
attacked; I want to give all of my mental resources to enjoying the
moment, cherishing just where I am, and savoring everything I like about
it. I want to read "feel good" pregnancy books, skip the heated debate
threads on epidurals or formula feeding here, and encourage other women
to explore the possibilities by sharing my positive experience and,
hopefully, being a contented example this time around as well.


Mary S.
mom to the Sproutkin, 22 months
and a new wee babysprout, due October 1

  #10  
Old January 30th 04, 10:03 PM
Cathy Weeks
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Default "Child is Born" and other neat books

"Mary S." wrote in message ...

I want to read "feel good" pregnancy books, skip the heated debate
threads on epidurals or formula feeding here, and encourage other women
to explore the possibilities by sharing my positive experience and,
hopefully, being a contented example this time around as well.


Ok, gotcha. Thanks for the response, which makes a lot of sense. You
might - if you happen to run across it in a bookstore, flip through
the Kitzinger book, if only for the photos, which are BEAUTIFUL.

However, I think the Ever Since Eve book will fit the bill nicely.
It's a wonderful book, but it's not only feel good stuff. It contains
EVERYTHING - from the good to the bad, anthropologicial, to diary
entries of frontier women (who often went home to their mothers to
give birth). It relates the first documented c-section that the woman
and child survived (It's actually a neat story with a happy outcome).
It's almost all personal reflections - except for the stories that
arise from more primitive cultures where there's not much written -
and that's covered by the anthropological stuff. Because it's
personal reflections, it's all very matter-of-fact.

Cathy Weeks
Mommy to Kivi Alexis 12/01
 




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