Birth: Countdown to Optimal - Inspiration and Information for Pregnant Women: Information and Inspiration for Pregnant Women: 1 (Books for Better Birth) - Softcover

Birth: Countdown to Optimal is a wonderful book for a pregnant woman (and her partner and family) to dip into. Written in a deliberately user-friendly style, it's a bit like a really juicy magazine. It's pitched just right for pregnancy reading... This is a very important book for our times, when we sure have got this whole process of birth wrong. I heartily congratulate Sylvie for her passion and all the work that went into compiling and writing this book. --Janet Balaskas, founder of the Active Birth Centre in London

Sylvie has created a prescription for healthy birth in a 10-step approach to keep parents focused on what is important in a potentially disastrous birth environment... She has provided us with a book that encapsulates anything you wanted to know about keeping your birth normal and healthy. --Betty-Anne Daviss, midwife, perinatal researcher and adjunct professor

What every pregnant woman will want to know, put simply and clearly. --An antenatal teacher

A book for pregnant women who would prefer to give birth with as little intervention as possible, so as to make things as good as possible for both themselves and their babies. The 'countdown' takes the reader through 10 key topics, and all discussion of issues is supplemented with birth stories and comments from all kinds of women and professionals too. The tone is practical, reassuring and even inspirational because the many positive birth stories show how it's possible to have a really happy, healthy experience of birth. Contributions come from Janet Balaskas (the woman who realised we're better off not lying down when we give birth!), Michel Odent (pioneer of water births) and Bill Bryson (the travel writer)... as well as from many other experts and 'ordinary' but extraordinary mothers, who made this book possible. The advice is based on current research evidence and in any cases where the evidence is controversial the research and relevant issues are discussed in an optional extra 'notes' section at the back of the book. There is a comprehensive Glossary of pregnancy terms and a user-friendly Index, so as to make it an optimally useful book in all sense of the word. In short, this is a handbook which could make a real difference to a pregnant woman's experience and also to that of her baby. A comment from an antenatal teacher: "What every woman will want to know, put simply and clearly." A comment from a midwife, perinatal researcher and adjunct professor (Betty-Anne Daviss): "Sylvie has created a prescription for healthy birth in a 10-step approach to keep parents focused on what is important in a potentially disastrous birth environment... She has... provided us with a book that encapsulates anything you wanted to know about keeping your birth normal and healthy..." And a comment from a mother: "Had a very late night Friday as I could not put your book down. Wow!"