« Happy New Year | Main | Midwifery in Kenya »

Preparing for Birth

Today we took delivery of 15,000 “Preparing for Birth” books, enough to see us through the next few months. These books have been in print, in several editions, since 1987 and must be the all time most popular book on childbirth in Australia. Almost 300,000 copies have been sold.

There is still no other simple format and concise book like it on the market, as far as I know, especially at the price (cheap!). There are several imitations and many much longer books, but where they usually fall down is in the area of information on the effects of drugs and obstetric interventions on the mother and baby. Most books gloss over these, sometimes giving the impression that women should be protected from details that may make them anxious, especially if an intervention becomes necessary or medication is chosen in labour.

Preparing for Birth: Mothers takes a different approach - setting out the vital details on the impact of intervening in birth in a clear, unbiassed and simple fashion, using dot points and simple line drawings. Women will find information here on the effects on the baby, often overlooked when the comfort of the labouring woman is the chief focus of labour these days.

I have deliberately left the references for this information out of the publication, to keep it “user friendly” and uncomplicated. The educator presenting the classes should be able to provide this information, but if not, the references can be found on our website.

Everyone who registers for the forthcoming Preparing for Birth - new strategies for parent education conference in the UK will be receiving a free copy of “Preparing for Birth: Mothers and Preparing for Birth: Fathers. We hope they will find it useful for their own programs and the parents with whom they are working during pregnancy.

Posted by andrea at January 12, 2005 06:58 AM