Major TW for the birth story told from the father's POV. I'm not normally one to give away spoilers, but putting a story of infant death in the middle of a collection of positive birth stories is a horrendous move. It triggered some major anxiety for me, as I have epilepsy, and the baby died as a result of complications from the mother seizing during childbirth.
Other than that, I didn't like some of the dated language and the condescending attitude (and frankly, some of her takes on medical things are flat-out wrong -- her insistence that gestational diabetes doesn't exist, for instance). However! I did enjoy the birth stories and the positive perspective surrounding vaginal birth. There was some great information about the birth process. It's a useful book if you are preparing for an unmedicated birth, as I was.
Major TW for the birth story told from the father's POV. I'm not normally one to give away spoilers, but putting a story of infant death in the middle of a collection of positive birth stories is a horrendous move. It triggered some major anxiety for me, as I have epilepsy, and the baby died as a result of complications from the mother seizing during childbirth.
Other than that, I didn't like some of the dated language and the condescending attitude (and frankly, some of her takes on medical things are flat-out wrong -- her insistence that gestational diabetes doesn't exist, for instance). However! I did enjoy the birth stories and the positive perspective surrounding vaginal birth. There was some great information about the birth process. It's a useful book if you are preparing for an unmedicated birth, as I was.