Customer Reviews
some good tips but approach with caution - By: mcpound, 06 Oct 2008 
I bought this book looking for advice on how to make the birth of my first child as healthy & an empowering experience as possible.I planned to have a home water birth. I did not follow the diet advice too closley as I found it far too restrictive however I did follow all the exercise, reflexology & hypnotherapy suggestions. This is where I give warning. I listened to the birth rehersal cd every day for 6 months which is designed to condition your mind into enabling the body to have the gentle birth you wanted. To some degree I would say this positve thinking enhanced my pregnancy & the first part of my labour, however things did go very wrong dispite my very best efforts. I am blessed with a healthy baby boy but the fact I convinced myself I would have my empowering, straight forward birth has made it so much harder accepting what happened & I would say even contributed to me blaming myself. No matter how much effort & money you put into your pregnancy a smooth labour cannot be guarenteed & that is not me just being negative, it is a realistic view.The book is littered by mothers declaring how fabulous their birth was. What about all the women that follow the plan & do not have the great birth experience? How do they feel after investing all that time & effort? That is what is required to follow this plan not to mention lots of money. The book briefly brushes over the possible medical conditions or interventions that may be required during the labour.Surely these matters should be addressedin more depth to give a more balanced view of labour.
The fact the book presumes all mothers will breast feed also promotes guilt if you cannot for some reason -in my case a medical one.
Another negative point is this plan is very expensive to follow with all the holistic treatments recommended & half of them are not even available outside London. Buy this book by all means as it does have some helpful advice but please take with a pinch of salt.
Great book, great tips - By: P. T. Wahlberg, 04 Apr 2008 
Great book.
I wish I had itin my other pregnancies.
Great tips like avoiding wheat for easier delivery.
Some good advice, beware if you have a posterior baby! - By: Gabry, 28 Jan 2008 
I have bought this book (after some careful thought) at about 25 wks. I was already eating sensibly & planning reflexology, perineal massage etc.
I had a posterior birth before & my labour was long & traumatising (despite people telling me "how neat" I looked!). I definetely did not want the same experience this time. One day, out of curiosity, as I suspected I might be carrying the baby the same way (again I carried a neat bump),I searched on how to avoid a posterior birth & found out that it depended also on the position of the placenta. Apparently, if you had an anterior placenta, the baby would be more likely to face towards it, making you more at risk for a posterior birth. Checking my notes, I discovered that I had an anterior placenta! My reluctant midwife(she had not heard of this theory before) confirmed also that I was right, I was indeed carrying my babyin a posterior position, to her surprise.
I made more research & found out a groundbreaking book from Jean Sutton on optimal foetal positioning. Why does The Gentle Birth NOT talk about these things? All the programme is futile if you have a posterior baby as it takes weeks of beingin specific positions to turn it (despite her describing a successful story of the baby turningin labour)!!
The programme is also very expensive. I would only stick to the labour & post-natal homeopathic remedies, reflexologyin the last month at least & perineal massage.
The rest of the complementary therapies is likely to be vastly unnecessary.
It is a good book overall, but lacking the vital info on how to get your babyin the right position before birth, I can only give it 3 stars.
Completely amazing experience - By: C. HURST, 17 Jul 2007 Hi
Im 30 weeks pregnant & have been following this book since 6 weeks. Yes the book would benefit from an index but other than that i find the information clear & concise with relevant evidence supporting each recomendation.
Im the only one of my pregnant friends that has followed this book (despite me asking them to at least read about it) & so far so good, Ive had no ailments, no stretch marks no swollen joints. my baby is currently measuring perfectly on the fundal height chart. I am nearly half the size of a friend at a similar pointin her pregnancy & have suffered no nausea or sickness at all
This book has really made me feelin control of my pregnany, & taken away any ignorance or preconceptions I may have had about the whole experience, Im weirdly actually looking forward to giving birth & meeting my child
So far i havent had any of the treatments, my husband does give me a few tummy massages a week. I do recommend the teas & the salt programme tho, & i think every mum should take MorDHA there are so many benefits to your child!
Great as long as everything is going ok.. - By: LJ, 12 Jul 2007 I thought that this was a great book & tried to follow as much as possible (not easy livingin Italy). I was exercising & at 20 weeks had only put on about 3 kilos. However half way through month 6 I was taken into hospital with contractions, put on a drip & advocated strict bed rest for nearly 3 weeks. Needless to say I cannot now follow her guidelines & I feel that while her advice is great if everything is going to plan, she doesn't offer much support if (and who knows why?) your pregnancy doesn't follow her ideal. Given her clear indication that big babies are all the fault of the mother's diet, I feel terribly at fault & anxious that I am now carrying a baby that is 2 weeks ahead of schedule. I am trying to eat sensibly & not (everytime I look at her book) put myself on a ridiculous eating regime nor add to my own anxiety about my weight. So I would advocate caution about this book. Great when all going well but stores up a whole string of extra worries if things go off the rails.
