Orgasmic Birth

Based on the hit documentary that inspired a vibrant online community, this innovative approach to birthing shows women how to maximize childbirth's emotional and physical rewards. With more than 4 million babies born in the United States each year, too many women experience birth as nothing more than a routine or painful event. In her much-praised film Orgasmic Birth, acclaimed filmmaker Debra Pascali-Bonaro showed that in fact childbirth is a natural process to be enjoyed and cherished. Now she joins forces with renowned author and activist Elizabeth Davis to offer an enlightening program to help women attain the most empowering and satisfying birth experience possible. While an orgasmic birth can, for some, induce feelings of intense, ecstatic pleasure, it is ultimately about taking control of one's own body and making the most informed decisions to have a safe, memorable, and joyful birth day. Whether women choose to give birth at home, in a hospital, or in a birthing center, Orgasmic Birth provides all the necessary tools and guidance to design the birth plan that's best for them. Featuring inspiring stories from mothers and their partners and filled with practical advice and solutions, this one-of-a-kind resource is the next frontier of natural, intimate childbirth.

A guide based on the award-winning coauthor's documentary explains how to render childbirth a natural and enjoyable experience, counseling women on how to take control of their bodies and prepare a birthing plan in accordance with personal needs. Original.

Thankfully, pregnant women no longer have to disguise their condition or confine themselves to the home. They're free to do other things--like enjoy an active sex life. This no-nonsense guide helps mothers-to-be maintain intimacy through all three trimesters and beyond. Using the real-life experience of one author and the professional expertise of the other, it covers a wide range of issues regarding sex and pregnancy, including the unanswered, difficult, and taboo questions and topics most people are afraid to address. It also helps partners develop new ways of communicating that help pregnant women relish life's deepest expression of sexual union. With warmth and encouragement, it prepares women for the sexual challenges and joys of pregnancy and motherhood, giving them confidence and the tools they need to enjoy it all with verve, humor, grace, and joy.

Nurturing Beginnings takes you through a new mother's journey and into your own as you explore what it means to be "in service of a postpartum woman and her family." It is a step by step instruction manual for postpartum doulas in their work with new families. Nurturing Beginnings was one of the first comprehensive postpartum training manuals and is on the current DONA International Reading List for Postpartum Doulas. Chapters include: The Role of The Doula, Home Visiting, Providing Care with Caution: Protecting Health & Safety in The Home & Car, Honoring Postpartum Women and Teaching Self-Care, Easing Postpartum Adjustment, Appreciating Your Clients' Cultural Diversity by Karen Salt, Supporting The Breastfeeding Mother (Donna Williams & Opal Horvat Advisors) Newborn Basics: Appearance, Behavior, and Care, Offering Support to Partners and Siblings, Unexpected Outcomes: Caring for The Family at a Time of Loss, Nurturing Yourself by Carlita Reyes, Pursuing Professional Development and Building Your Practice plus poems by Maureen Cannon and "A Doula Speaks" writings from the authors adding insights to the chapters. Revisions and contributions to the updated version were made by Leah DeCesare and contributions by leaders in the field who permitted us to reprint their previously published work include Penny Simkin, Marshall Klaus, John H. Kennell, Cathy Romeo, and William Sears. Nurturing Beginnings has a tremendous amount of links and resources valuable to birthworkers of varying levels of experience. We hope you enjoy reading Nurturing Beginnings and making it a valuable tool amongst your birth resources.

Drawing on a landmark study involving more than one hundred pregnant women and mothers, a renowned OB/GYN synthesizes the secrets to a good birth—medically and emotionally. Most doctors are trained to think of a “good” birth only in terms of its medical success. But Dr. Anne Lyerly knows firsthand that there are many other important elements that often get overlooked. Her three-year study of a diverse group of over one hundred expectant moms asked what matters most to women during childbirth. The results, presented to the public for the first time in A Good Birth, show what really matters goes beyond the clinical outcome or even the usual questions of hospital versus birthing center, and reveal universal needs of women, like the importance of feeling connected, safe, and respected. Bringing a new perspective to childbirth, the book’s wisdom is drawn from in-depth interviews with women with a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences, and whose birth stories range from quick and simple to complicated and frightening. Describing what went well, what didn’t, and what they’d do differently next time, these mothers give voice to the complete experience of childbirth, helping both women and their healthcare providers develop strategies to address the emotional needs of the mother, going beyond the standard birth plans and conversations. Transcending the “medical” versus “natural” childbirth debate, A Good Birth paves the entryway to motherhood, turning our attention to the deeper and more important question of what truly makes for the best birth possible.

Renowned for her practice's exemplary results and low intervention rates, Ina May Gaskin has gained international notoriety for promoting natural birth. She is a much-beloved leader of a movement that seeks to stop the hyper-medicalization of birth—which has lead to nearly a third of hospital births in America to be cesarean sections—and renew confidence in a woman's natural ability to birth. Upbeat and informative, Gaskin asserts that the way in which women become mothers is a women's rights issue, and it is perhaps the act that most powerfully exhibits what it is to be instinctually human. Birth Matters is a spirited manifesta showing us how to trust women, value birth, and reconcile modern life with a process as old as our species.

The classic book on home birth. Stories of the experiences of parents and midwives during the birth process plus a technical manual for midwives, nurses, and doctors. Includes information on prenatal care and nutrition, labor, delivery techniques, care of the new baby, and breast-feeding.

The Birth Mandalas book includes mandala art, a guided visualization and thought provoking exercises for an empowering childbirth experience. A birth mandala is sacred art for childbirth. The mandala appears from a dark background, like the baby emerging from the darkness of the womb into the light. Enjoy creative processes that access the subconscious. The way childbirth is perceived influences labor and birth. Subconscious beliefs, formed from what youve seen, heard or experienced, can either sabotage or affirm your conscious intentions. Learn how to effortlessly re-write limiting beliefs with ones that assist you during childbirth. Your birth mandala embodies your new beliefs and vision for labor and birth with symbols, images, designs and words. You will find womens mandalas, journals and their after-birth reflections. From Shannons healing of past sexual abuse, Amys strength and courage, to Stacys power of intention, the themes and revelations are as unique as their mandalas. Creating a birth mandala is an invaluable gift you give yourself for childbirth. It is the gift that keeps on giving, exclaims Stacy, a workshop participant.