Better Birth - Lareen Newman, Heather Hancock new softcover book Definitive Guide to Childbirth

BETTER BIRTH

The Definitive Guide to Childbirth

by LAREEN NEWMAN and HEATHER HANCOCK

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New softcover book, 190 pages, published 2006.

Many women believe that birth is painful and something you have to endure to have a baby. They tell you horror stories of fear when the hospital took control and they were left out of the cycle of drugs and last-minute surgical intervention.

This book explains how you can go about preparing for a better birth. Written by two experienced midwives, it doesn’t promise a magical remedy. And it doesn’t treat all birth options and all women as if they are the same. But with the right information and an appropriate choice of place and caregiver, pregnancy and birth can be a truly momentous event. A better birth can be an event every mother can look back on with satisfaction.

The book contains a wealth of information about how you can help yourself have a better birth. It also has a section of 12 birth stories where women talk about what made their births better by comparing their experiences, in public and private hospitals, birth centres and home; with midwives and obstetricians; and with natural birth, epidural, caesarean, VBAC and stillbirth.

I recommend this well researched, clearly written and easy to follow book to you if you are contemplating pregnancy, or are already pregnant, as a guide to help get the answers you seek about pregnancy, birth and the early post birth period. I also recommend this book to all midwives and midwifery students for an important insight into and understanding
into birth from women’s perspectives.

Marg Phelan, FACM
National President of the Australian College of Midwives

About the authors

Dr Lareen Newman has a broad interest in population and public health, including social and physical access to services and primary health care. She also holds an interest in reproductive politics and is particularly focussed on how these issues impact on fertility behaviour and fertility rates. She is also interested in the social determinants of health related to parenthood, including levels of social support and services, as well as wider cultural and workplace attitudes and arrangements which may affect perceptions of the desirability and achievability of parenting one or more children. Associated with this is a general interest in the biological, evolutionary and cultural basis of human behaviour.

Lareen completed her PhD at the University of Adelaide, which focused on how men's and women's experiences of childbearing and childrearing affect Australia's birth rate. The research included both quantitative and qualitative research methods (analysis of Census data and in-depth interviews) to examine differences in fertility rates and subjective perceptions of influences on fertility behaviour and likely future family size. It explored the impact of embodied experiences of conception, pregnancy, birth and early parenthood as well as work-related and financial issues. The research was conducted across four different socio-economic areas of Adelaide. Dr Newman has recently taken up a position at Flinders University's Department of Public Health where she is working on the multi-disciplinary Australian Health Inequities Program.

Dr Heather Hancock is a Senior Lecturer in Midwifery in the School of Nursing & Midwifery at the University of South Australia. Her areas of expertise and interest include Midwifery, Midwifery Education, Midwifery theory and practice, models of care, Infant Health and Maternity Care and Services including strategic planning, policy development and change management, Perinatal Indigenous health and wellbeing, Primary Health Care, complementary therapies, creativity and innovation, Women's Health, Women's Issues.

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Better Birth - The Definitive Guide to Childbirth by Lareen Newman and Heather Hancock