Journey into Motherhood: Inspirational Stories of Natural Birth

By Sheri L. Menelli

Providing both inspiration and education, this guide to natural childbirth offers 48 personal accounts of labor and delivery without medication. Revealing the many options women have beyond birthing location, the testimonials offer insight into the joys, concerns, and realities of natural birth. From delivering at home with a midwife and hearing the right words from a hospital nurse at just the right moment to describing a combination of the Bradley method and acupuncture at a birthing center and discussing a child's birth at home in warm water, this resource combines personal insight with referential information. A glossary of terms and a resource guide to books, magazines, websites, videos, and CDs, and listings of childbirth classes and instructors nationwide are also included.

Laboring On: Birth in Transition in the United States

By Barbara Katz Rothman, Wendy Simonds, Barbara Katz Rothman, Bari Meltzer-Norman

Laboring On tells the compelling story of birth in America -- an epic portrait of change and how birth has been performed now and how it is likely to be performed in the future. Birth may be a universal experience, but how births are attended to is by no means universal. The authors, all leaders in the field, examine all of the contemporary debates over midwifery, Cesarean births, obstetricians, women's healthcare reform and new technologies and practices to present a provocative understanding of childbirth as well as a prescription for the future.

Mindful Birthing: Training the Mind, Body, and Heart for Childbirth and Beyond

by Nancy Bardacke, HarperOne Publishers, July 10, 2012.

With Mindful Birthing, Nancy Bardacke, nurse-midwife and mindfulness teacher, lays out her innovative program for pregnancy, childbirth, and beyond. Drawing on groundbreaking research in neuroscience, mindfulness meditation, and mind/body medicine, Bardacke offers practices that will help you find calm and ease during this life-changing time, providing lifelong skills for healthy living and wise parenting.

SOME OF THE BENEFITS OF MINDFUL BIRTHING:

Increases confidence and decreases fear of childbirth
Taps into deep inner resources for working with pain
Improves couple communication, connection, and cooperation
Provides stress-reducing skills for greater joy and wellbeing

Natural Pregnancy

Create an extraordinary pregnancy and birth. Learn how to make the most of your health in pregnancy. The book guides you through the choices you have to prepare your body, mind and spirit for a natural birth.

The DVD includes an introduction to:
Yoga for pregnancy
Pilates and keeping fit
Meditation, relaxation and emotions

Natural birth choices such as active and water birth are explained, including the use of a birth ball.

New Pregnancy Week-by-Week: Understand the Changes and Chart the Progress of You and Your Baby

by Jane MacDougall, William Morrow Paperbacks, December 27, 2005.

Be in the know about your baby's progress — from conception through to birth — and what you need to do to ensure a healthy and problem-free pregnancy

Parenting for Peace: Raising the Next Generation of Peacemakers

by Marcy Axness, PhD, Sentient Publications, January 30, 2012.

If we really want to change the world, let's raise a generation "built for peace"... from the very beginning. Parenting for Peace is a user-friendly scientific roadmap for how to do exactly that... while bringing more joy into family life!

Parenting for Peace details a unique seven-step, seven-principle matrix for hardwiring our babies and children with the brain circuitry for such essential peacemaker capacities as self-regulation, empathy, intelligence, trust and imagination. The win-win is that a child wired in this vibrantly healthy way is a joy to parent, and as an adult has the heart to embrace and exemplify peace, the mind to innovate solutions to social and ecological challenges, and the will to enact them. To be successful in a changing world.

Parenting for Peace offers readers a user-friendly shortcut around today's information overload, because it gives them the most important research from dozens of leading experts woven together with its own empowering perspectives on bringing more joy into family life.

Placenta: The Forgotten Chakra

by Robin Lim, Half Angel Press, 2010.

“Placenta: The Forgotten Chakra is a book that truly focuses on the placenta and gives an amazing and magical description of the union of mother, baby and placenta. It should be on every midwifery students reading list, especially those training in the Western world. Lim gives readers a modern insight into the spiritual connection this magnificent organ has to the beginning of life itself. From historical traditions to urban myths and tantalising stories and accounts of how placenta has been worshiped in the past, Lim explains the placenta holds a true place in the birthing history of our ancestors. Lim describes the reasons why and how placental traditions lost their value with modern medicine and in hospitals. Readers are then met with an account of the sacred placenta and the birth trauma caused by placentas mistreated and discarded after birth and the implications this can cause to the mother/baby bond. But without leaving readers in mourning Lim provides many types of ceremonial and burial traditions which breathes new light into the sorrow of years of mistreatment to this most delicate attachment which is too commonly cut short just seconds after birth. Lotus birth stories followed by numerous recipes show there are many ways to honour the placenta for its unique role in the creation of a baby. For those who are hoping to fall pregnant, those who are expecting a baby and for birth professionals around the world, Robin Lim’s book is simply a must read and brings new meaning into the birthing process and the third stage. I am honoured to be allowed to provide this book to the public and offer one of the first of hopefully many books that give spiritual meaning to the art of the placenta, reawakening birthing communities to the delicate union that is: mother-baby-placenta”

Prenatal Parenting: The Complete Psychological and Spiritual Guide to Loving Your Unborn Child

By Frederick Wirth

Every year an increasing number of babies are born prematurely or with behavioral disorders? Learn how thinking positively and communicating with your partner and/or medical staff can help prevent a preterm birth and aid in the positive development of your unborn child's personality.

A baby's in utero experience builds the brain architecture that will determine behavior throughout life? Discover exercises that will help you control stress, fear, guilt, and anger and change unwanted behaviors during pregnancy.

Your unborn child has more nerve cells and many more connections among them than an adult? Learn how a fetal love break can help calm your baby and lead to proper nerve and brain development.

Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care

By Jennifer A. Block

A journalist reports on her investigation to understand why maternity care in the United States is poorly suited to needs of most mothers and babies. Birth Crisis draws on mothers' voices and real-life experiences to explore the suffering after childbirth which has, until now, been brushed under the carpet. It is a fascinating and useful resource for student and practicing midwives, all health professionals, and women and their families who want to learn how to overcome a traumatic birth. Includes voices of mothers, health professionals, researchers and advocates.

Sacred Pregnancy: A Loving Guide and Journal for Expectant Moms

by Anni Daulter, North Atlantic Books Publisher, May 1, 2012.

In today's western cultures, the typical pregnancy focuses on the baby to the exclusion of the woman herself, so that the entire experience has become more about preparing for the baby's arrival than looking closely at oneself to prepare emotionally for all of the changes that creating a new life brings. Sacred Pregnancy was written to help the pregnant woman journey within herself to prepare for the birth of her baby.

Sacred Pregnancy is a gorgeous four-color book especially created for mothers-to-be to reflect on the many personal milestones of the full gestation period of a pregnancy. With beautiful professional photos that correspond to each topic, Sacred Pregnancy also features a journal space for the pregnant woman to record her thoughts and feelings. Each week the mother-to-be is given information on her baby, her body, and her spirit and is asked to reflect on these via the topic of the week, which touches on a variety of issues such as sexuality, fears about labor, becoming a mother, courage, rite of passage, adornment, body image, meditation, and sisterhood to name a few. Mothers-to-be are invited to look deeply at the issues unique to their journey and find a centered, peaceful place to live their pregnancy fully. Lastly, Sacred Pregnancy includes place for the new mother to record her birth story and a large resource section on various birthing options and supports for pregnant women.