Creating Your Birth Plan: The Definitive Guide to a Safe and Empowering Birth

I read this book and instantly had the facts that I needed to talk to my OBGYN and family members about the risks of medical births. It was great! I have since loaned it to many other women you can finally make an informed decision about their birth preferences. p.s. my totally natural birth was amazing even though I was in a horrible hospital.

This book lays out all your options for whichever type of birth you choose. It explains all of the options that you will have available if you have a hospital birth and gives you the information you need to make an informed decision about what you would or would not like to have and a guide to let your care takers know.

Great book. Clear and informative.

While this book did have a lot of valuable information, especially for women who want a birth with as little intervention as possible (myself included) there was way too much bashing of hospitals and OB's. Sure, if you want an all natural birth a hospital may not be the best setting, but for those of us who are not comfortable with a home birth and who don't have access to a birthing center we don't have much choice. I was hoping this book would make me feel informed and empowered. Instead, it just made me feel informed and terrified. With all the books available there must be a better choice than this.

I thought this book was very judgemental and it seemed like the writer was presenting their feelings as fact. I found that a simple conversation with my husband beforehand and another with my nurse (face it, it's the nurse that's with you most of the time!) when we got to the hospital was all I needed.

This is the best book on birth I have read so far, and I have done plenty of reading. ;-) I hadn't heard of it -- it is not on a lot of the Listmania lists here, nor does it have many reviews. My husband selected it because it seemed authoritative, with an author who is an OB and the former head of the Maternal Health section of the World Health Organization. Unlike some of the slow-going tomes out there, this packs a lot of information into digestible chunks. It is definitely "biased" in favor of a midwife-attending, out-of-hospital birth and natural alternatives to drugs, technology, and surgery. Most persuasive were the statistics comparing practices and outcomes in various developed countries -- what we take for granted as necessary in the U.S. is not the norm, and European babies thrive just fine.Even (especially!) if you are planning a hospital birth, as I am, it is worth reading because it goes through each medical procedure ("intervention") and its benefits and risks. This made clear how one intervention can "cascade" to more, but also made clear the circumstances in which I might want certain interventions. It highlighted certain danger areas where an overly cautious caregiver might hook you up with more interventions than you want, but it didn't have a full rebuttal to how to deal with that (perhaps there is none). I thought that demanding a second opinion was not very useful because wouldn't someone else with rights at the same institution just back up the original opinion?It also has thorough lists of questions to ask a potential provider (OB or midwife or doula) or location (hospital or birth center). The one caveat I would add is that most hospitals in the U.S., at least not where I live, will give the "right" answers to all of Dr. Wagner's questions, such as no time limits on labor, freedom to eat, etc. So don't get your heart set on WHO's ideal model, or you will be :-(.What was unpleasant, but useful, about the book is that it forces you to think about every contingency and plan to make the worst case scenario as much in line with your wishes as possible. Not something I would have dwelt on but for this book, and probably useful preparation.This book teaches you that you deserve the best maternal/infant care and what that care should look like (probably not what you think!) and formulate your wishes for to cover every possible complication. It also emphasizes that birth is a dynamic process and doesn't always happen in accordance with our paper plans.

With the prevalent public and medical attitude that promotes epidurals, hospital births, and interventions, I was looking for something that offered another perspective without sounding like it came from a "quack" or extremist. This was it. Although Dr. Wagner is definitely biased, I did not find large flaws in his logic or research. He's just opinionated, but that's with reason and not a bad thing.I wanted the knowledge and understanding that would allow us to make informed, empowered decisions about giving birth based around our needs. I wanted to be able to think about giving birth, the steps, any issues, or emergencies that may arise, and then figure out what I personally want our birth experience to be like. This book has definitely helped me do that. I actually found the book reassuring. I felt reassured about what I am capable of doing as a woman and I felt reassured that my husband and I will be better able to navigate the health care setting because we better understand what's happening and what's best for me and our baby and how to convey that information to our caregivers.This book isn't really for everyone. If you're happy with what you know and what you're expecting from your doctor and labor, then stay happy. My sister never read it, has a completely different philosophy, and had a very successful pregnancy. There are also books with opposite perspectives that are worth reading.

I purchased this book after seeing Marsden Wagner in the documentary "The Business of Being Born" (another eye-opener, let me tell you). I found this book to be perfect as I plan to attempt natural childbirth for my first child. It is logically organized to take you through every step of the birth process---where to deliver, with whom, and with what interventions. He covers everything from induction to epidurals to c-sections, and for each item really spell out when they are medically necessary and when they are just....not. He does so in a way that is not preachy or judgemental if you do decide to have interventions, but gives you all the facts. Obviously the author favors less intervention, but acknowledges that there are times and places for all of them. After reading this I feel like I can walk into my birth prepared to ask the right questions before blindly accepting an intervention I hoped to avoid. Great book, not just for natural childbirth types, but for anyone wanting to be informed.

Good product, fast delivery.

Thanks for the quick shipping, product arrived as expected :)

This is an excellent resource bookworm becoming a doula or couples wanting to create a birth plan.