In Gentle Birth Choices Barbara Harper, renowned childbirth advocate, nurse, former midwife, and mother of three, helps to clarify these choices and shows how to plan a meaningful, family-centered birth experience. She dispels medical myths and reimagines birth without fear, pain, or violence. Harper explains the numerous gentle birth choices available, including giving birth in an independent birth center, at home, or in a hospital birthing room; finding a primary caregiver who shares your philosophy of birth; and deciding how to best use current technologies. She also provides practical advice for couples wishing to explore the option of using a doula or water during labor and birth to avoid the unwanted effects of drugs and epidurals.The Gentle Birth Choices DVD blends interviews with midwives and physicians and six actual births that illustrate the options of water birth, home birth, and vaginal birth after a prior Cesarean section. The DVD clearly reveals the strength of women during childbirth and the healthy and happy outcome of women exercising gentle birth choices. It is a powerful instructional tool, not only for expectant parents, but also for midwives, hospitals, birth centers, and doctors.

    Christiane Northrup. Birthing is a miraculous time when you and your baby will work together to bring about life. As you finally cradle your precious newborn in your arms, you should know deep in your soul that every decision that brought the two of you to this special moment was yours. More families than ever are choosing to birth at home. Midwives Jane E. Drichta and Jodilyn Owen answer questions about the kind of care, support, and information you need as you investigate whether this option is right for you. Birth can be an empowering and positive experience, and this book provides gentle guidance, with high regard for your wisdom and ability to successfully navigate your prenatal care, birth, and early mothering. Enriched with real birth stories from new mothers, The Essential Homebirth Guide offers thoughtful, compassionate advice on a wealth of birthing topics, including: • Building a supportive homebirth community • Caring for yourself and your baby from your pregnancy through the postpartum period • Communicating about your birthing plans with your midwife, your partner, and your family and friends • Deciding whether homebirth is safe for you • Educating yourself about common pregnancy-related issues • Preparing your home and your family for the big day

    In a humorous style, the book begins with that first mind-blowing day and addresses the issues unique to the first-time parent who stares at their newborn and thinks Where are the instructions? Anticipating the questions and concerns of all new mothers—Why does my baby cry so much? Will I ever lose all this weight? Am I a bad parent because. . ., the book provides practical advice and level-headed reassurance. It addresses the needs of the baby and, very importantly, those of the parent during the first year of their baby's life. Contents include: the equipment and kit new parents really need, how to cope with the first few hours, coming home, bonding, how to survive the first few days, and sleeping. New moms and dads will also learn about the baby's crying, feeding their child, the baby's physical and mental development, health considerations for baby and parent, the changing mother-father relationship, and coping with being at home and with going back to work. This guide also includes information on single parenting, and on adopted, multiple and special needs babies.

    The birth process, though supposedly the most painful experience of a woman's life, is seen as a necessary evil to achieve the end goal of children and motherhood.And yet, in the face of a typically masculinized Christianity that nevertheless professes that women are equally created in the image of God, shouldn't childbirth--a uniquely feminine experience--itself shape Christian women's souls and teach them about the heart of the God they love and follow?Drawing on her own experience of giving birth and motherhood--and the conflicting assumptions attached to them, by Christians and the culture at large--Aubry G. Smith presents a richly scriptural exploration of common conceptions about pregnancy and childbirth that will not only help mothers and soon-to-be mothers understand how to think biblically about birth, but also walks them through how to put the ideas into practice in their own lives. Along the way, she shows all readers how to see God's own experience of the birth process--and how childbirth leads to a deeper understanding of the gospel overall.

    Created by two experienced health-care professionals, this unique handbook not only discusses virtually every aspect of preconception that affects a healthy baby, it tells you how to handle each one. The authors spell out what each parent needs to do, starting at least ninety days before conception (the minimum time needed for sperm to mature). The hundreds of topics covered—many for the first time in any book—include• Men’s Health: Building healthy sperm before conception (nutrition, fitness, and medical influences)• Women’s Health: Gynecologic well-being, preexisting medical conditions, genetic legacy, boosting fertility, becoming a mother at an older age • Becoming an Informed Patient: Choosing a doctor, what a complete preconception exam includes, important questions and how to ask them, insurance coverage• Nutrition: Improving the health of future generations, preconception meal makeovers, ethnic Food Guide Pyramids, avoiding food-borne illnesses, vitamin and mineral facts, pre-pregnancy body weight • Fitness: Preconception fitness evaluation and exercise prescription, safety tips and motivational anecdotes, preconception strength and flexibility workout• Medications/Herbs: Baby-friendly ones and ones to avoid • Personal Readiness: Emotional, financial, and environmental issues• Romancing the Egg: Tips for success when ready to “start trying” Plus : Separate questionnaires for the prospective parents to fill out in preparation for their preconception medical visit.This warm, intelligent, and completely informed reference gives aspiring parents exactly the knowledge and support they need to insure the best of everything for their child-to-be.

    Written in a compassionate yet authoritative tone by two moms who are also pediatricians, this guide covers a wealth of topics that often prove daunting in the first eight weeks of a child's life. Starting with "Into the Mouths of Babes" (the trials of breastfeeding) and "What Goes in Must Come Out" (a discussion of "pee and poop") and moving on through "Fever: Trial by Fire" and "Seeing Yellow: Jaundice," this guide offers sound advice that will enable parents to feel confident about their parenting skills. Hints on daily living, sleep patterns, crying, the art and science of diapering, and traveling with a newborn are also provided.

    Spock meets Judge Judy--finally a parenting book that separates fact from fiction. What if you could bottle the wisdom of all those parents who've come before you...and combine them with the sold medical advice from an award-winning pediatrician? Baby 411 is the answer.

    Laura Markham’s approach is as simple as it is effective. Her message: Fostering emotional connection with your child creates real and lasting change. When you have that vital connection, you don’t need to threaten, nag, plead, bribe—or even punish.This remarkable guide will help parents better understand their own emotions—and get them in check—so they can parent with healthy limits, empathy, and clear communication to raise a self-disciplined child. Step-by-step examples give solutions and kid-tested phrasing for parents of toddlers right through the elementary years.If you’re tired of power struggles, tantrums, and searching for the right “consequence,” look no further. You’re about to discover the practical tools you need to transform your parenting in a positive, proven way.

    Iyengar, a book that every mother-to-be and new mom will celebrate!With its superb provenance, encyclopedic coverage, and meticulous allopathic medical vetting, Iyengar Yoga for Motherhood is THE indispensable volume for every woman who wishes to continue her Yoga practice during pregnancy and the first 18 months of motherhood. Lavishly produced, with a fresh, contemporary design and a strong emphasis on safety, it offers guidance, reassurance, and easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions.  More than 350 photographs—using ethnically neutral models—carefully guide readers through every asana, highlighting variations on each for safe practice. Additionally, women will find safety rankings for each trimester of pregnancy, call-outs listing benefits and cautions, and detailed instructions for proper anatomical alignment and Pranayama breathing. Officially sanctioned by B.K.S. Iyengar, who has also written the foreword, the publication of Iyengar Yoga for Motherhood is sure to be an important event in the Yogic community.

    Could there really be social and developmental advantages to this custom? Driven by a journalist’s curiosity and a new mother’s desperation for answers, Hopgood embarked on a journey to learn how other cultures approach the challenges all parents face: bedtimes, potty training, feeding, teaching, and more.Observing parents around the globe and interviewing anthropologists, educators, and child-care experts, she discovered a world of new ideas. The Chinese excel at potty training, teaching their wee ones as young as six months old. Kenyans wear their babies in colorful cloth slings—not only is it part of their cultural heritage, but strollers seem outright silly on Nairobi’s chaotic sidewalks. And the French are experts at turning their babies into healthy, adventurous eaters. Hopgood tested her discoveries on her spirited toddler, Sofia, with some enlightening results.This intimate and surprising look at the ways other cultures raise children offers parents the option of experimenting with tried and true methods from around the world and shows that there are many ways to be a good parent.

    Laura alone delivered the next three children, assisted by her belief that giving birth was a natural process for which a woman's body had been well designed. Therefore, she saw no need to involve the medical establishment. Her personal birth experiences confirmed her belief, and subsequent research has convinced her that with the proper mindset delivering one's own baby is the safest, most fulfilling way to give birth. Tribal women and animals can help show the way, if one is humble enough to learn from them. Shanley gives numerous references, both historical and contemporary, to support her theory. She tells of her own experiences in childbirth as well as those of other women who have given birth without medical assistance. Although many contemporary writers deal with the concept that we create our own reality according to our beliefs, no one has applied this notion to birthing experience to the extent that Laura has.For many generations, society has assumed that childbirth, with its associated fear, pain, and risks, must take place in a hospital setting in the presence of medical professionals who have no relationship to the parents and their baby. Laura Kaplan Shanley rebuffs the context of this assumption, which treats childbirth as a disease rather than as a natural process. In Unassisted Childbirth, she calls upon the thousands of years during which women gave birth without medical intervention--arguing that with the proper beliefs, women are capable of and can opt for delivering their own babies, with or without their partners. Shanley, who had her own four children at home without medical assistance, explains how women's apprehensions contribute to most difficulties encountered in labor. In addition, she points out, only after the practice of placing women in infectious hospital settings began did the risk of hemorrhaging, sickening or even dying in childbirth increase.

    The secret to helping babies to sleep through the night is understanding their sleep cycles and the feeding/sleeping balance. This book provides simple and effective techniques to help parents establish positive sleep habits and tackle sleep problems without feeling under pressure to resort to rigid, inflexible strategies. Lucy Wolfe, the Sleep Fixer and Ireland's best-known sleep consultant, has developed a 'stay and support' approach with an emphasis on a child's emotional well-being, which has helped thousands of parents and babies around the world to achieve better sleep, with most parents reporting improvements within the first seven days of implementing the recommendations. Discover the issues that prevent a child from sleeping through the night. Learn about biological sleep rhythms and how feeding can affect them. Create a customised, step-by-step plan to get your baby to sleep. Use Lucy's unique two-fold sleep strategy which combines biological time keeping and gentle support to develop positive sleeping habits.

    It is easy to become overwhelmed by conflicting advice, myths and exaggerated stories.The Positive Breastfeeding Book cuts through the anecdotes, giving you clear, no-judgement, non-preachy, evidence-based information to help you make the right decisions for you and your baby. It will help you understand how breastfeeding works, and supports you in developing strategies to make sure that whilst you’re looking after the baby, you’re getting taken care of too.Jam-packed with everything you ever wanted to know about breastfeeding (and a whole lot you never knew you did!), it will take you through tips for planning for your baby’s arrival, coping with those early months, and knowing what to do and where to seek help if challenges come up. It will guide you through feeding in public, going back to work, and even rediscovering a glass of wine.You’ll find plenty of real stories and guidance throughout from mothers and experts in supporting breastfeeding. There are handy chapters on formula and mixed feeding, which cut through advertising spiel and give you the facts you need to choose and use formula safely. The Positive Breastfeeding Book doesn’t promise to make it easy, nor will it get up in the middle of the night for you, but it will empower you with the knowledge and encouragement you need to feed your baby with confidence.

    In this simple, straightforward book, Suzy Giordano presents her amazingly effective "Limited- Crying Solution" that will get any baby to sleep for twelve hours at night—and three hours in the day—by the age of twelve weeks old.Giordano is the mother of five children and one of the most sought-after baby sleep specialists in the country. The Washington Post calls her a baby sleep "guru" and "an underground legend in the Washington area for her ability to teach newborns how to achieve that parenting nirvana: sleeping through the night." Her sleep plan has been tested with singletons, twins, triplets, babies with special needs, and colicky babies—and it has never failed.Whether you are pregnant, first-time parents, or parents who seek a different path with your second or third child, anyone can benefit from the Baby Coach’s popular system of regular feeding times, twelve hours of sleep at night and three hours of sleep during the day, and the peace of mind that comes with taking the parent and child out of a sleep- deprived world.

    Wild Things addresses the physical, emotional, and spiritual parts of a boy, written by two therapists who are currently engaged in clinical work with boys and their parents and who are also fathers raising five sons. Contains chapters such as "Sit Still! Pay Attention!" "Deficits and Disappointments," and "Rituals, Ceremonies, and Rites of Passage."