Being a doula, I try my best to equip my clients on their upcoming birth and postpartum journeys. It is important to keep educating mothers (and partners) to ensure that they can arrive at an informed decision based on evidence-based information.
Books by reputable authors and teachers are the best start aside from attending our workshops will help empower these women.
For new/first-time parents who would like to understand and empower themselves for the upcoming birth can start with the below books:-
- Pam England’s Birthing from Within
This book is the basic book I would recommend for first-time mothers who want to dive into empowering their birth.
Here is a holistic approach to childbirth that examines this profound rite-of-passage not as a medical event but as an act of self-discovery. Exercises and activities such as journal writing, meditation, and painting will help mothers analyze their thoughts and face their fears during pregnancy. For use during birth, the book offers proven techniques for coping with labor pain without drugs, a discussion of the doctor or midwife’s role, and a look at the father’s responsibilities. Childbirth education should also include what to expect after the baby is born. Here are baby basics, such as how to bathe a newborn, how to get the little one to sleep, and tips for getting nursing off to a good start. Pregnancy, birth, and postpartum is a process of continuous learning and adjustment; this book provides the necessary support and education to make each phase of birthing a rewarding experience.
- Ibu Robin Lim’s can purchase these books via Ibu Robin Lim’s website
(a) Placenta: the Forgotten Chakra
The placenta, the root of your origin, is a miraculous organ that shares and protects your life. It is the conductor that unites you with your mother and serves as the control panel of the womb-ship that sustains you until you are born. It was conceived at the moment of your genesis. Your placenta is genetically identical to you. Though you share some of your parents’ genetic identity, unless you have a monozygotic (identical) twin, no one, except your placenta, has ever been so perfectly, exactly you. Sexual reproduction, the act of creating new life, only works because of the placenta.
As mammals, we reproduce sexually, so sex is the reddest, hottest tile in the mosaic of our earthly lives, and the placenta is the mandala in the center of this miracle. Historically, our creation stories tell of the Earth Mother birthing the world: her amniotic fluid became the oceans, the placenta became the Tree of Life. This demonstrates how essential the placenta is to our survival and how embedded it is in our psyche.
According to Chaos Theory, dynamic systems are sensitive to start-up conditions. Human beings are extremely dynamic systems, and our survival hinges on the strength of our individual immune systems. The placenta is the commander-in-chief of the baby’s immune system during embryonic development (i.e. condition of start-up). Thus, we must protect our offspring’s placentas by being gentle during the transition of birth, to give our children the best possible start and protect the very foundation of their immune systems.
(b) After the Baby’s Birth
The first few weeks and months after a baby’s birth can be a wonderful and confusing time. While trying to discover the best ways to care for her child, new (and experienced) mothers often neglect their own health. It is essential, however, that mothers pay as much attention to their own wellness as they pay to their baby’s health and happiness during this crucial time.
In a completely revised and updated edition, childcare, and women’s wellness expert Robin Lim guides mothers through the best methods of mother and baby postpartum care, including parental nurturing, breastfeeding, the role of the father, nutrition, and early sensory education.
Focusing on natural and wholesome practices, this book gives a sensitive, practical guide to post-pregnancy health. This includes touching personal stories based on real-life experiences of mothers.• Features a collection of delicious recipes formulated especially for postpartum women, plus a special chapter dedicated to the ancient practice of Ayurvedic medicine.
- Ina May Gaskin’s Guide to Childbirth
This book draws upon thirty-plus years of experience, Ina May Gaskin, the nation’s leading midwife, shares the benefits and joys of natural childbirth by showing women how to trust in the ancient wisdom of their bodies for a healthy and fulfilling birthing experience. Based on the female-centered Midwifery Model of Care, this book gives expectant mothers comprehensive information on everything from the all-important mind-body connection to how to give birth without technological intervention.
Filled with inspiring birth stories and practical advice, this invaluable resource includes reducing the pain of labor without drugs–and the miraculous roles touch and massage play, etc. This book takes the fear out of childbirth by restoring women’s faith in their own natural power to give birth with more ease, less pain, and less medical intervention.
- Penny Simkin’s Pregnancy, Childbirth and the Newborn: a complete guide
This puts parents in control of the birth. It is based on the latest medical research and recommendations from leading health organizations. It provides the information and guidance you need to make informed decisions about having a safe and satisfying pregnancy, birth, and postpartum period–decisions that reflect your preferences, priorities, and values. This book tells you up-front all the things:- normal healthy birth process, their variations and the usual care practices for monitoring to possible complications and the care practices for resolving them. The language is clear and tone is reassuring while empowering parents through inclusion.
It gives sensible nutrition advice to realistic birth plans, from birth doulas when desired to cesareans when needed, from reducing stress during pregnancy to caring for yourself as well as your baby after birth, this pregnancy guide speaks to today’s parents-to-be like no other.
- Debra Pascali-Bonaro’s Orgasmic Birth
Based on the hit documentary that inspired a vibrant online community, this innovative approach to birthing shows women how to maximize childbirth’s emotional and physical rewards.
With more than 4 million babies born in the United States each year, too many women experience birth as nothing more than a routine or painful event. In her much-praised film Orgasmic Birth, acclaimed filmmaker Debra Pascali-Bonaro showed that in fact childbirth is a natural process to be enjoyed and cherished. Now she joins forces with renowned author and activist Elizabeth Davis to offer an enlightening program to help women attain the most empowering and satisfying birth experience possible. While an orgasmic birth can, for some, induce feelings of intense, ecstatic pleasure, it is ultimately about taking control of one’s own body and making the most informed decisions to have a safe, memorable, and joyful birth day.
Whether women choose to give birth at home, in a hospital, or in a birthing center, Orgasmic Birth provides all the necessary tools and guidance to design the birth plan that’s best for them. Featuring inspiring stories from mothers and their partners and filled with practical advice and solutions, this one-of-a-kind resource is the next frontier of natural, intimate childbirth.
Those who are looking into VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Caesarean) would want to prepare with the below books:-
- Diane Korte’s The VBAC Companion: the Expectant’s Mother’s Guide to Vaginal Birth After Cesarean.
The Cesarean Rate is finally dropping in the United States, primarily because women who have had this operation are saying no to a repeat cesarean. They are doing so because vaginal birth after cesarean, or VBAC, is generally safer than the alternative. For most women, though, VBAC is still a scary prospect.
In this book, Diana Korte explains the risks and benefits of both VBACs and repeat cesareans. She tells how to work on overcoming fears about labor, how to find a VBAC-friendly doctor (or midwife) and hospital (or birth center), and how to get extra support, from a labor assistant, childbirth educator, or VBAC support group. Korte also describes pain-relieving techniques for labor, and routine hospital procedures to avoid. Throughout the book are VBAC success stories, told in the mothers’ own words, for inspiration on the path to a safe and joyful birth.
- Louis Esner’s Silent Knife: Cesarean Prevention and Vaginal Birth After Cesarean
This is the bible of cesarean prevention. It will help provide the course of obstetric care by giving parents the information they need to make the decisions that are best for their own families. It is comprehensive, highly readable, sensitive and should be read by everyone who cares about someone.
This is the second book I refer to mothers who are opting for a VBAC birth.
- Cut, Stapled, and Mended: When One Woman Reclaimed Her Body and Gave Birth on Her Own terms After Cesarean
“Birth isn’t a battle to win or lose. It’s the result of delving into your vulnerability and finding your true feminine power.”
In exquisite detail, Roanna holds nothing back in her powerful birth memoir, plunging the reader deep into the intimacy of this universal rite of passage. Part memoir, part manifesto, this is a must-read for anyone who has given birth, will give birth, or who loves someone who will give birth.
For Spinning Babies books, I would recommend the following:-
- Janet Balaskas’ Active Birth: The New Approach to Giving Birth Naturally
This book revolutionized childbirth by turning birthing mothers from subdued and passive patients to active and empowered owners of their childbirth experience. Janet Balaskas started a movement of women who refused to give birth lying down and she has been teaching women about “active birth” ever since. She emphasizes the importance of movement during labor, the wide range of options and positions for the delivery itself, and the many natural alternatives to heavy sedation and other medical interventions. Her book is eminently useful whether you are planning to give birth in a hospital, a free-standing birth center, or at home. If such options as water birth or hypno-birthing are appealing to you, this is an essential book; at the same time, it is non-judgmental and encourages you to give birth in whatever manner and position you see fit. Let Janet Balaskas show you how to prepare for and experience a truly natural, joyful and empowering birth.
- Gail Tully’s Belly Mapping Workbook
Belly Mapping Workbook is 48 eye-opening pages of childbirth preparation with 100 illustrations describing how pregnant women can discover their baby’s position and what to do when it isn’t ideal, including breech and posterior.
This informational workbook empowers parents wanting easier birth using Gail Tully’s 3-part process for a woman in late pregnancy to approximate fetal position using her baby’s kicks and wiggles. Childbirth educators, doulas, and yoga teachers join parents around the world enjoying the Belly Mapping Workbook.
Bereavement and Postpartum Depression Books
- Paul Kirk’s When Hello Means Goodbye
A guide for parents whose child dies before birth, at birth or shortly after birth. This sensitive booklet is a help to families during the early days of their grief. It helps answer questions and prepare parents for the days ahead. It can be given to parents at the first acknowledgment of their baby s death to help them best use the short time they ll have with their little one. Among topics covered are: collecting keepsakes; ways to celebrate the birth and death of a baby; reasons for seeing, holding and naming a dead baby; emotions common to bereaved parents; information about autopsies; where to find help; and the unique situations of fathers, siblings, and grandparents.
- Amy Wright Glenn’s Holding Space: On Loving, Dying, and Letting Go
This book looks at the spiritual, emotional, and philosophical implications of end-of-life care by an elegant and literary writer who is a hospital chaplain.
As a hospital chaplain, Amy Wright Glenn has been present with those suffering from suicide, trauma, disease, and unforeseen accidents and has been witness to the intense grief and powerful insights that so often accompany loss. She weaves together memoir, philosophical inquiry, and cutting-edge research on death/dying to chronicle how we, as individuals and as a culture, handle everything from grief to mortality.
Glenn is also a professional birth doula with a deep and committed mindfulness practice who has thought deeply about the significance of human love and loss. She asks us to embrace the task of being present with what is — through courageous and mindful expressions of compassionate presence — and helps us to accept the fact of our own mortality on a visceral and emotional level, not simply as an intellectual abstraction.
This book concludes by integrating key insights drawn from working directly with the dying into a moving and compelling meditation on the healing power of “holding space” for all involved in caring for the dying, a healing sorely needed in our culture at this time.
- Melissa Bruijin’s How to Heal a Bad Birth: Making Sense, Making Peace and Moving on
How to Heal a Bad Birth is a straightforward guide for women who have experienced a difficult, disappointing or traumatic birth, and want to gain understanding and clarity about ‘what happened’ and why they feel so bad…and move on.
Written by the founders of Birthtalk.org™, this book works double-time as an indispensable resource for partners, family and health professionals, enabling them to offer meaningful support for a woman in this situation.
- Pacific Post Partum Support Society’s Postpartum depression and anxiety: A self-help guide for mothers
The idea for this book came from the realization that many women are suffering from some degree of postpartum depression and that very few will find access to supportive care while going through it. Some of our own mothers are only now feeling safe enough to talk about their experiences and describe how alone and crazy they felt. The material in this book is based on over thirty years of counseling thousands of women with postpartum depression. These women have willingly shared their experiences with each other, and together they have explored what has helped them. It is their knowledge, wisdom, courage, and generosity that has made this book possible. Emphasis has been put on those common threads which run through the experience of postpartum depression. The term “perinatal depression” is being used to describe postpartum depression in many newer research, journals, and publications. It is an umbrella term that better reflects the fact that symptoms can begin during pregnancy as well as postpartum. In this book, we refer to “postpartum depression”, which fits under the more general category of “perinatal” symptoms. As you read, keep in mind that you are going to survive this. However hopeless you may feel, try to remember that it will end. Women grow and change as they cope with their depression. After it is all over, many women say they are glad they went through the experience.
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Karen Kleiman’s This Isn’t What I Expected [2nd edition]: Overcoming Postpartum Depression
This book was written by two postpartum experts. It is a definitive guide in offering support and solid advice on dealing with every aspect of Postpartum Depression (PPD).
If you or someone you love is among the one in seven women stricken by PPD, you know how hard it is to get real help. This proven self-help program, which can be used alone or with a support group or therapist, will help you monitor each phase of illness, recognize when you need professional help, cope with daily life, and recover with new strength and confidence.
Fertility Issues:
Toni Weschler’s Taking Charge of Your Fertility, 20th Anniversary Edition: The Definitive Guide to Natural Birth Control, Pregnancy Achievement, and Reproductive Heal
Since the publication of Taking Charge of your Fertility two decades ago, Toni Weschler has taught a whole new generation of women how to become pregnant, avoid pregnancy naturally and gain better control of their gynecological and sexual health by taking just a couple minutes a day using the proven Fertility Awareness Method.
This 20th Anniversary Edition has been thoroughly revised and fully updated with:
(a) the latest medical advances in assisted reproductive technologies (ART)
(b) more in-depth coverage of women’s gynecological and sexual health
(c) new illustrations, photographs, and an expanded color insert
(d) new sample charts
(e) an expanded appendix
(f) Six new chapters including Three Prevalent Conditions—Endometriosis, Ovarian Cysts, and PCOS, Natural Ways to Balance Your Hormones, Preserving Your Future Fertility, Miscarriages, Idiopathic Infertility, Causes of Unusual Bleeding
It is clear and comprehensive, yet warm and approachable, and is one of the most universally lauded health books on the market today. It is an essential reference for every woman of reproductive age.
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