Say ‘Aaah’ : Media Mix...
Women seeking alternatives to the conventional birth experience in Western hospitals will get plenty of support from this book by a childbirth educator and advocate of home or midwife-directed births. Goer’s book is dedicated to looking at everything that is less than perfect in conventional obstetrics. She details the many known problems: too-high rates of caesarean section, overuse of technology, lack of support for the mother’s wishes. It’s hard to believe, however, that so many highly trained obstetricians could get it as wrong as Goer would have us believe.
In describing the problems in conventional obstetrics, she fails to point out that those problems--while certainly genuine--affect a rather small percentage of women. For example, having an epidural can prolong labor and thus can lead to a C-section. But it doesn’t in most cases--as Goer fails to quantify.
The book serves as a reminder that conventional hospital birthing is far from perfect, and that midwives and alternative birthing styles offer many advantages. But Goer’s insistence on making the bad seem as bad as possible does not paint an accurate picture of conventional birthing and may unnecessarily alarm readers.
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PREGNANCY FOR DUMMIES
By Joanne Stone, Keith
Eddleman and Mary Murray
IDG Books Worldwide
$19.99; 382 pages
Despite the fact that there is something truly unsettling about the title of this book, “Pregnancy for Dummies” is a thorough, accurate and highly informative guide. Written by three highly credentialed authors--Stone and Eddleman are doctors, and Murray is executive editor of Women’s Sports & Fitness magazine--”Dummies” is wonderful in the way it transcends trendiness, attitudes and biases to provide useful information.
Readers will find things in this book that are missing from most other pregnancy guides. I like the chart on commonly used medical abbreviations related to pregnancy; the graphic of the wheel physicians use to calculate due dates; the diagram of the fetal heart rate and how it differs from the uterine contraction rate; and the candid discussion of sex after delivery (which no one talks about).
Throughout the text, the authors never waver from their philosophy: “A well-informed pregnant woman and her partner know enough not to sweat minor discomforts, inaccurate advice from friends and strangers, and old wives’ tales.”
***
EXPECTING MIRACLES
On the Path of Hope From
Infertility to Parenthood
By Christo Zouves with
Julie Sullivan
Henry Holt
$25; 266 pages
*
Tales from the front lines of reproductive science are some of the most interesting in medicine, as this book attests. “Expecting Miracles” tells the stories of various families’ pursuit of parenthood, often against all odds. In fact, readers should bear in mind that the majority of people who seek “miracles” through assisted reproductive medicine don’t get them.
In this book, however, only one of the 22 chapters details the plight of a couple who did not get a baby through Zouves’ assistance. Nevertheless, the stories are beautifully told by writer Julie Sullivan, and readers will be astonished at what some people go through to achieve their dreams of parenthood.
