Home Birth: An Invitation and A Guide

By Alice Gilgoff

Gilgoff's acclaimed book has been completely revised, with the personal stories, historical perspective, practical advice, and warm style of the first edition updated to meet the challenges of the 1990s. Through careful review of current research and personal accounts, this competent and reassuring book covers all the issues: the advantages and disadvantages of home birth and the circumstances that make hospital birth advisable; the most commonly used methods of natural childbirth; the use of drugs, episiotomy, surgical intervention; and how to arrange for a home birth attendant, to name but a few. "This book is a friendly, gently persuasive invitation to look at the benefits of home birth, now seen from Gilgoff's vantage point of a decade-plus of experience." Sue LaLeike, CCE

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0897891783
• ISBN13: 9780897891783
• Release Date: December 1988
• Publisher: Praeger
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 9.0" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

circumcision

I just wanted to comment on what the last reviewer said about circumcision. I am an avid supporter of homebirth; however, I am also a Jew. Knowing several "mohels" personally and having circumcised my two sons, I can tell you that the procedure is very different from the (admitted) mutilation that happens in the hospital-- where babies are strapped down spread-eagle and have painful clamps used on them by someone who is less than ideally skilled. A mohel (a kosher one) does not use such clamps; and the baby is held by a loving person carefully with many prayers goign out to him while the whole thing is done in seconds. I'm not saying it is easy, but it is a right of passage that is absolutely fundamental to our religion, and I believe that it is unfair to equate this ritual with the experience that goes on in the hospital.

Essential and Enjoyable

This is a fascinating and historical book. It is written in a readable narrative fashion, mixing in all relevant data on the subject matter. You hear both the personal story of the author and an even handed analysis of relevant debates. This was one of the first books written on the modern home birth movement over twenty years ago. It was extremely controversial for the time, and is a must read for anyone interested in childbirth.