Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering

Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering is a very important book by Dr. Sarah J Buckley that every pregnant woman and birth professional should read. As an Australian general practitioner trained in obstetrics and a homebirth mother of four, her last unassisted and breech, Dr. Sarah Buckley is well qualified to write and teach on the science and art of peaceful and cooperative birth and parenting.

I have found this book to be enormously helpful in discussing prenatal testing, ultrasounds, epidurals, gentle third stage, and the hormones of labor with doula clients and birth colleagues, as each chapter comes with oodles of references to back-up the traditions of gentle parenting with medical and anthropological research. Each chapter in this book has been published elsewhere in the world, and together the compiled articles make an excellent comprehensive resource on natural pregnancy, birth, and parenting.  A few of the articles are available online at www.sarahjbuckley.com.

I had the joy of meeting Sarah and hearing her speak at the APPPAH Congress in 2007, where she spoke on Ecstatic Birth. A powerful speaker, as well as writer, it is evident that she truly lives and breathes a deep love of gentle birthing and parenting practice. When she spoke of the ecstatic hormones of love, bliss, excitement, and nurturing (oxytocin,  beta-endorphin, nor-adrenaline, and prolactin) present during an undisturbed normal labor and birth, you could hear in her voice the remembrance of how she felt experiencing these hormones first-hand through her ecstatic unassisted homebirth of her last child.

Through this book numerous choices and options that parents must face along the continuum of pregnancy, birth, and parenting are thoroughly addressed including: Women's Rights, Ecstatic Birth, Waterbirth, Homebirth, Unassisted Birth, Lotus Birth, Prenatal Diagnosis, Ultrasound, Undisturbed Birth, Epidurals, Natural Third Stage, Ceseareans, Breech Birth, Extended Breastfeeding, Co-Sleeping, Elimination Communication, Yoga and Mothering, Self-Care, and Gentle Discipline.  This book is a must-have for any doula, midwife, childbirth educator, birth professional, and expectant mother!