Tree of Life Midwifery

Here are some of my favorites. I’ll be adding new book reviews in the future so check back soon.

Pregnancy and Childbirth
* Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth Ina May Gaskin. 2003.
* Special Delivery Rahima Baldwin. 1991.
* Immaculate Deception II: Myth, Magic & Birth Suzanne Arms. 1994.
* Transformation Through Birth Claudia Panuthos. 1984.
* Birth As An American Rite of Passage Robbie E. Davis-Floyd. 1993.
* The Thinking Woman’s Guide to A Better Birth Henci Goer. 1999.
* Your Baby, Your Way: Making Pregnancy Decisions and Birth Plans (1987) and Rediscovering Birth (2001) Sheila Kitzinger.

How Birth Affects Babies
* Birth Without Violence Frederick LeBoyer. Revised 2nd Edition, 2002.
* Ghosts From the Nursery: Tracing the Roots of Violence Robin Karr-Morse, S. Wiley, T. Berry Braselton. 1999.
* Your Amazing Newborn Marshall Klaus and Phyllis Klaus. 2000.

Exercise and Diet
* Prenatal Yoga and Natural Birth Jeanine Parvati-Baker.

Breastfeeding
* Babies, Breastfeeding and Bonding Ina May Gaskin. 2000.
* Bestfeeding: Getting Breastfeeding Right for You Mary Renfrew, Chloe Fisher, Suzanne Arms. 2000.
* The Nursing Mother’s Companion Kathleen Huggins, Harriet Hartigan. 1999.

Herbals
* Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year Susun S. Weed. 1985.
* Herbal Healing for Women Rosemary Gladstar. 1993.

Fertility and Family Planning
* Your Fertility Signals: Using Them to Achieve or Avoid Pregnancy Naturally. Merryl Weinstein. 1991.

Ina May Gaskin is sometimes called the Grandmother of modern midwifery. Her book, Spiritual Midwifery, was the authority for aspiring midwives in the 70s, 80s and 90s. The book is divided into two sections; birth stories and information for practitioners.

Thirty years later, her new guide is set up the same way but now includes experience and statistics to back up her words.

This is one of my all time favorite books. Highly Recommended.

Introductory Maternity and Pediatric Nursing
N. Jayne Klossner, RN and Nancy T Hatfield
Published 2006 by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins

This is a great reference book for aspiring midwives to give them a better understanding of maternity nursing. It has a user-friendly, colorful format and a family-centered approach to care. It includes an interactive CD-ROM.

Check out the section on Pain Management and you’ll see an unmedicated water birth at home. That’s me, in all my glory! The photo is credited to Kaye Bullock, CPM. Every day in every way, we’re doing our part to make midwifery mainstream.

In 1976, Juliana van Olphen-Fehr had her first child in a hospital. Influenced by Frederick Leboyer’s Birth Without Violence, she and her husband tried to have as natural a childbirth as possible under the circumstances. However, the attending physician performed an episiotomy, not because of any medical necessity, but just because it was hospital routine. Before Julianna was wheeled out of the delivery room, her infant daughter had already been whisked off to the “well-baby” nursery. Although, she was to be the hospital’s first “rooming-in” patient, Julianna was allowed to be with her daughter only when she was brought in to nurse. Her husband was not allowed to stay with her except during visiting hours, and he had to wear a mask and scrubs, whenever the baby was in the room.

Juliana’s feelings of isolation and separation lead her to challenge the medical model of pregnancy and childbirth that is prevalent in the United States. Because she was born in Holland, where home birth and midwifery are the norm, she began researching midwifery alternatives and decided to become a midwife herself.

“My own experience as a mother as well as a nurse attending hospital births taught me that there is a need for change in our birthing system…And that is why I have written my story.” –p. 7

The resulting Diary of a Midwife follows Juliana’s training, apprenticeship, and midwifery practice in West Virginia. If you are considering having your child in a hospital, it is a very sobering read.

Ultimately what is revealed through this personal account is the dehumanization that results when a healthy woman is treated as a patient and a healthy baby is treated as a product.