Unassisted Childbirth Back Cover
Laura
and her husband delivered their first child without the aid of a doctor or
midwife. 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.
Shanley's
birth experiences, combined with subsequent research, have confirmed her belief
that with the proper mindset, delivering one's own baby is the safest, most
fulfilling way to give birth.
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, Shanley is the first to fully apply this to the
birthing experience.
Unassisted Childbirth Preface
Someday
women will not give birth in hospitals because they will realize that
childbirth is not a disease. They will not pay physicians thousands of dollars
to probe them and cut them and tell them what to do. They will not submit
themselves to enemas, IVs, fetal monitors, vaginal examinations, or Cesarean
sections. Nor will they take the hospitals into their homes, bringing there the
well-meaning substitute doctors - the midwives - with their sterilized
instruments, rubber gloves, and breathing techniques. For, none of this will be
necessary.
Instead,
like their animal sisters, women will someday deliver their own babies
peacefully and painlessly at home. Women will understand that birth is only
dangerous and painful for those who believe it is.
Someday,
both women and men will understand that childbirth (and every other event in
their lives) is the result of their individual beliefs. They will no longer
listen to the voices of officialdom telling them that their lives are beyond
their self-conscious control. They will listen instead to the inner authroity
saying, "Your life is your own creation. Believe in yourself and you have
nothing to fear."
My goal
in writing this book is to help make that someday today.
What People are Saying about
Unassisted Childbirth
"Unassisted
Childbirth, the Nurturing Magazine Book of the Year in 1998 is sharp,
intelligent, empowering, and boldly truthful. If a woman is going to buy any
book on birth, this is the only one she'll need! Unassisted Childbirth is not
only the best book on this subject, it is a ground-breaking work that will take
its place in history as being the book on birth that can't be matched in its
message, delivery, power and impact. Future books on unassisted childbirth will
try in vain to accomplish what this book has - so effortlessly, so easily, and
with such unwavering belief that women can birth and catch their own babies.
Reading this book is like being struck by the light, receiving the answer to
the meaning of life, and coming back to earth to experience it."
- Marnie Ko
Editor and Publisher of Nurturing Magazine, November 1998
"Shanley's
excellent research on alternatives to hospital births, coupled with her
inspiring personal knowledge, compels me to enthusiastically recommend
Unassisted Childbirth for the mother-to-be looking for alternatives. It should
also be prominently displayed in libraries and healthcare centers."
- Steve Brock, Reviews on the Web
"In my
opinion it is a book that all midwives could benefit from reading. I also feel
all pregnant women, particularly those planning to birth at home could find
this book useful.... The issues of being responsible for creating our own
experience that the author raises are relevant to us all."
- Mary McKenzie-McHarg
Australian Society of Independent Midwives' Communique
"Long
has my vision been that every mother is a midwife - all women giving birth can
do so without medical involvement. Here is a book which not only validates my
life work, but goes deeply into the psychological terrain a mother who gives
unassisted childbirth inevitably journeys. There have been few road maps for
this exploration before Shanley's book."
- Jeannine Parvati Baker
Author of Conscious Conception, and Prenatal Yoga and Natural Birth
"Laura
Shanley has been courageous in her own obstetrical history and stalwart in
presenting her story in such a detailed and honest fashion....My own conclusion
after reading Unassisted Childbirth, is that having a baby at home, in a
natural, loving environment would be ideal....Unassisted Childbirth is often
moving and always provocative."
- Ruth J. Carter, Ph.D.
Editor-in-Chief, Pre- and Perinatal Psychology Journal
"This
book did not threaten me as a midwife. Instead, it opened my eyes to the need
to defend and protect the natural birth process in as noninterventive a way as
is safely possible."
- Jill Cohen
Midwifery Today
"Unassisted
Childbirth is more than a practical guide. It is an inspiration for every
parent regardless of whether they plan to give birth at home, childbearing
center, or in the hospital. It inspires confidence and creates the positive
attitude toward birth that reduces the fear and pain of labor."
- Carl Jones, C.C.E.
Author of Mind Over Labor and The Expectant Parent's Guide to Preventing a
Cesarean Section
"Although
I am personally an advocate of planned, midwife-attended home birth, I also
believe that we must make conceptual and legal room in the technocracy for
those women who choose to fully claim their power as birth-givers by going it
alone. This is a very brave book and Laura Kaplan Shanley is a remarkable and
courageous woman."
- Robbie Davis-Floyd, Ph.D.
author of Birth as an American Rite of Passage
"Every
once in a while, a new book about childbirth comes along that demands our
attention. Unassisted Childbirth, by Boulder's Laura Kaplan Shanley, is one
such book."
- Pamela White
The Colorado Daily
"Most
alarming book title of 1994"
- The Houston Chronicle
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