Birthing In Good Hands

Use the healing power of touch for a healthier, happier pregnancy. Pregnancy is an exciting time full of promise, but most women could do without symptoms such as back pain, headaches, nausea, and swollen feet—luckily, many of these conditions can be treated with massage. Touch has the power to heal, calm, and nurture relationships. Christine Sutherland, co-founder of the Sutherland-Chan School and Teaching Clinic, teaches the basics of prenatal massage for healthy pregnancies. From the first trimester to postpartum recovery, Christine’s healing methods will help moms-to-be through every stage of pregnancy, including childbirth and breastfeeding. There’s even a chapter on the basics of baby massage, which new parents, grandparents, and siblings can use to relieve common infant conditions and bond with the new child. Hundreds of photos and illustrations clearly illustrate techniques that even beginners can master. Christine also includes real-life stories that showcase how the power of massage helped women through their own pregnancy journeys. If your partner or loved one is expecting, this book is for you.

Massage has many physical and emotional benefits for patients in palliative care, from preventing pressure sores and lessening physical pain to creating a tangible connection between the massager and the massaged. In Dying in Good Hands, massage therapists and trainees will find the tools they need for massage at every stage of dying, with stroke sequences adjusted for the unique needs of palliative bodies. Medical professionals will learn how to use massage techniques on their patients and how to teach basic techniques to others. And family and friends, even those who have never massaged before, will discover tips to provide hands-on care and support for loved ones in their final moments. Topics include: - Basic massage strokes and full-body massage routines, - Massage treatments to aid the key areas of the respiratory system, digestion, and circulation, - How to deal with the last moments of life and make the last breath more comfortable, - Massage ideas for the physical and emotional needs of family, friends, and caregivers, - Options on where to die, including hospitals, hospices, and home, - Featuring real patient stories that showcase the power of massage in making the process of dying more comfortable.

Discover tried-and-tested techniques to help you relax during labour, including mindfulness, breathing exercises and visualization, for an empowering, positive birth. Now with two new chapters, this brand-new edition of The Calm Birth Method will show you how you can make birth a gentle and enjoyable experience. This authoritative guide will help you to build confidence in your body and its abilities and offers practical techniques to support and prepare you. Walking you and your birth partner through the whole process of birth preparation, Suzy Ashworth and Liz Stanford share: Why many people feel so scared of giving birth and how to eliminate these fears during pregnancy How relaxing during birth transforms your physiology Practical techniques to promote deep relaxation and mindfulness How to unify birth partners and care providers to ensure the birthing environment is stress-free Take the power back into your own hands so that you can learn to trust your body and look forward to welcoming your child into the world.

Gives expectant parents an overview of the options available, offering up-to-the-minute advice on such matters as physical and emotional preparation, the father's role, avoiding a cesarean birth, and other information

The delivery of high quality and equitable care for both mothers and newborns is complex and requires efforts across many sectors. The United States spends more on childbirth than any other country in the world, yet outcomes are worse than other high-resource countries, and even worse for Black and Native American women. There are a variety of factors that influence childbirth, including social determinants such as income, educational levels, access to care, financing, transportation, structural racism and geographic variability in birth settings. It is important to reevaluate the United States' approach to maternal and newborn care through the lens of these factors across multiple disciplines. Birth Settings in America: Outcomes, Quality, Access, and Choice reviews and evaluates maternal and newborn care in the United States, the epidemiology of social and clinical risks in pregnancy and childbirth, birth settings research, and access to and choice of birth settings.

As an intelligent woman, you are probably used to learning as much as you can before making major decisions. But when it comes to one of the most important decisions of your life--how you will give birth—it is hard to gather accurate, unbiased information. Surprisingly, much of the research does not support common medical opinion and practice. Birth activist Henci Goer gives clear, concise information based on the latest medical studies. The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth helps you compare and contrast your various options and shows you how to avoid unnecessary procedures, drugs, restrictions, and tests. The book covers: Cesareans Breech babies Inducing labor Electronic Fetal Monitoring Rupturing Membranes Coping with slow labor Pain medication Epistiotomy Vaginal birth after a Ceasarean Doulas Deciding on a doctor or midwife Choosing where to have your baby and much more . . .

This is a revised and updated edition of Elizabeth Davis' guide to pregnancy and birth for midwives and parents-to-be. It includes new sections on homoeopathy and herbal therapy, sexual issues during pregnancy, adoption, water birth, sexual abuse, vaginal birth after caesarian, and foetal development. The guid efeatures boxed sections for parents covering subjects ranging from tips for expectant partners, to what to do when the baby cries.