nursing3's Full Review: Henci Goer - Obstetric Myths Versus Research Reali...
This is an excellent book, which organizes a lot of research studies around birth and pregnancy. It will give you a lot of facts at your finger tips, to help you make decisions for your own birth, or if you just want to learn more about the medical issues surrounding birth.
The book is divided in three parts, The Cesarean Epidemic, Pregnancy and Labor Management and The Case for an Alternative System. I will tell more about every of those parts.
The Cesarean Epidemic
This starts with a chapter on the current cesarean rates and the history of cesarean sections. It shows among other things, how C-sections are not responsible for improved perinatal outcomes and goes into the non-medical factors influencing cesarean rates. The next chapter organizes lots of studies about VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean). If you are considering a VBAC, this is a must read chapter, both for educating yourself and to help you convince your ob if he just wants to do a repeat cesarean. Although changing to a different ob might be an even better option!
The next chapters go into labor dystocia, failure to progress, cephalopelvic disproportion, active management of labor, breech presentations, fetal distress and electronic fetal monitoring. They are very thorough, citing a lot of research studies. The breech chapter for example, will help you to understand why doctors want to deliver breech by c-section and might help you to go the vaginal route for your breech baby if you so desire.
Pregnancy and Labor Management
This part of the book goes into gestational diabetes, postdates pregnancy, premature rupture of membrames at term, IVs versus eating and drinking, amniotomy, epidural anesthesia and episiotomy. Because a lot of pregnant women will encounter at least one of those issues, this is a good part of the book to read when you are pregnant, so that you are prepared for the things that can happen and are educated about them, so that you can refuse unneeded interventions.
The Case for an Alternative System
This shows the other side of the birthing movement, it studies midwives, freestanding birthing centers, and home birth. This is an excellent read for anybody who is pregnant and isn't sure whether to use an ob or a midwife, or a hospital or a birthing center. It shows the research comparing the different outcomes in different settings.
This part also has a chapter on the nature of evidence and why there is such a gap between popular obstetric beliefs and the research reality.
Conclusion
This book is a great resource for everybody who wants to be knowledgeable about birth or works with birthing women. It also is an good reference book if you want to look up whether you want an intervention they are proposing for yourself or not. I remember really studying this book when I thought I would go overdue again and looking into the reasons for either waiting it out of inducing the baby.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.