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.

Pregnancy and childbirth are normal life events, not medical conditions.

A woman’s body is perfectly designed to give birth. This process works best when interference is kept to a minimum. It is our cultural conditioning, fear, poor health habits and intervention in normal birth that make birth difficult often requiring more intervention, including surgery.

Perfect health is our natural state of being. When we work to align ourselves with natural laws, we regain our health and ALL functions of our bodies begin to work normally. This is a holistic, preventative approach to healing. This is the midwifery approach to childbirth.

There are many wonderful authors who have done exhaustive research to explain the differences between the midwifery model of care and the medical model. Suzanne Arms, Henci Goer, Ina May Gaskin, Sheila Kitzinger are a few of my favorites. I strongly urge you to read their books.

For a list of these and other great books, see Tree of Life Midwifery: Recommended Books.

Q: Is home birth safe?
A: When people ask this question, they are usually asking, “Can having a baby at home be as safe as having a baby in a hospital?” The answer is yes, even more so. Study after study has shown that midwife-assisted births have a lower mortality rate than physician-assisted births in comparable cases.

“Scientists calculate childbirth success rates by examining infant mortality per 1,000 births. Since the 1970s, the United States has had approximately 10 infant deaths per 1,000 hospital births. The mortality rate for planned and supervised homebirth is approximately 5 per 1,000 births. There is no conclusive evidence that hospital births are safer for either the mother or the newborn, and many insurance companies cover a percentage of midwifery service charges.

“Emergency situations can and do arise in home births, just as they do in hospital settings. Sonograms and blood tests can diagnose potential problems in the mother or the unborn child that might require hospitalization or the intervention of a knowledgeable physician.

“However, if a woman delivers her baby in a U.S. hospital, she has a one-in-four chance of receiving a Caesarean section. This statistic has prompted the World Health Organization to advocate that the United States return to a midwifery-based system of prenatal care, labor and delivery. If 95 percent of births are normal, then why do 25 percent result in surgery?

— Reno News and Review Cover Story May 9, 2002

The World Health Organization has affirmed its support for the midwifery model of care.

“A study conducted in the province of Gelderland, compared the “obstetric result” of home births and hospital births. The results suggested that for primiparous women with a low-risk pregnancy a home birth was as safe as a hospital birth. For low-risk multiparous women the result of a home birth was significantly better than the result of a hospital birth (Wiegers et al 1996). There was no evidence that this system of care for pregnant women can be improved by increasing medicalization of birth (Buitendijk 1993).”

“In conclusion, normal birth, provided it is low-risk, only needs close observation by a trained and skilled birth attendant in order to detect early signs of complications. It needs no intervention but encouragement, support and a little tender loving care.”

— Care in Normal Birth

More Information

* How Safe Is That Hospital, Anyway?