| What to Expect When You're Expecting: Women (and their doctors) love this book because it reassures them that the highly complicated and dangerous business of "delivering" babies is best managed in a hospital with specialized care of an OB, whose training is to discover and fix serious problems. This view has been statistically shown to be false in other countries where hospitalized, medicated, managed birth is not the norm. Of course there is a need for OB/GYNs, Cesarean surgery, medication, intervention, WHEN JUDICIOUSLY USED. When routinely or inappropriately used, these things INCREASE risk for both mom and baby, and this fact is sorrowfully ignored in this country, as well as by this book. My concern about this book is not a matter of wanting to "sugar-coat" or not wanting to hear the bad stuff that occasionally happens in pregnancy, just as in any other aspect of life. My concern is that it's not looking at the normal, simple, uncomplicated process of having a baby as just that; rather it views it as an accident waiting to happen. This book is like discussing the process of breathing in the context of lung cancer. Of course things can happen, but in labor, most often that is due to the intervention into a process that TYPICALLY works best left alone. And when intervention or medication is needed, there are ways to do it more safely and with the full educated knowledge and understanding of the parents. So much is lacking in this book. There is no discussion of the baby's position and its effect on labor, which is highly managed by Cesarean surgery. There is no discussion of fear and its affect on labor, or how to face and acknowledge it beforehand. And the glorification of calm, controlled Cesarean surgery versus out-of-control, painful, un-enjoyable vaginal birth is appalling and irresponsible. You may not see the problems with this book until you see the other perspective so wonderfully presented in books like Birthing From Within by Pam England, or The Thinking Woman's Guide by Henci Goer, or anything by Sheila Kitzinger. I'm not saying all-natural, non-medicated, home birth is the only way to go. Every labor, woman and baby is different. But your choices DO affect your labor and birth outcome. It is your responsibility to educate yourself - do NOT rely on any one caregiver, friend, author, relative. Seek out ALL of your options. This book probably presents a pretty good honest look into typical hospital birth in America. Unfortunately, this seriously limits women and reduces birth to a controlled "condition" that is to be survived and gotten over with. The fact that this is the best selling pregnancy book illustrates that we will probably never as a culture fully realize the impact of this. |