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The Birth Called Death
by Kathie JordanFrom the age of 7 to the age of 22, Kathie Jordan's deceased brother came to her at nighttime, pulled her from her body, and guided her to Heaven. In these nighttime journeys, she was taught about the purpose of life in the body, the meaning of death, and about the soul's progress in the afterlife. In these moments out of her body, Kathie is taken to higher and higher levels of Heaven, where she meets a few great spiritual teachers, including Jesus.
The Birth Called Death
by Kathie JordanFrom the age of 7 to the age of 22, Kathie Jordan's deceased brother came to her at nighttime, pulled her from her body, and guided her to Heaven. In these nighttime journeys, she was taught about the purpose of life in the body, the meaning of death, and about the soul's progress in the afterlife. In these moments out of her body, Kathie is taken to higher and higher levels of Heaven, where she meets a few great spiritual teachers, including Jesus.
The Birth Called Death
by Kathie JordanFrom the age of 7 to the age of 22, Kathie Jordan's deceased brother came to her at nighttime, pulled her from her body, and guided her to Heaven. In these nighttime journeys, she was taught about the purpose of life in the body, the meaning of death, and about the soul's progress in the afterlife. In these moments out of her body, Kathie is taken to higher and higher levels of Heaven, where she meets a few great spiritual teachers, including Jesus.
Birth Chairs, Midwives, and Medicine
by Amanda Carson BanksThere was a time when birth was treated as a natural process rather than a medical condition. Before 1800, women gave birth seated in birth chairs or on stools and were helped along by midwives. Then societal changes in attitudes toward women and the practice of medicine made birthing a province of the male-dominated medical profession. In Birth Chairs, Midwives, and Medicine, Amanda Carson Banks examines the history of the birth chair and tells how this birthing device changed over time. Through photographs, artists' renditions of births, interviews, and texts from midwives and early obstetricians, she creates an evolutionary picture of birthing practices and highlights the radical redefinition of birth that has occurred in the last two centuries. During the 1800s the change from a natural philosophy of birth to a medical one was partly a result of heightened understandings of anatomy and physiology. The medical profession was growing, and with it grew the awareness of the economic rewards of making delivery a specialized practice. In the background of the medical profession's rise was the prevailing perception of women as fragile invalids. Gradually, midwives and birth chairs were relegated to rural and isolated settings. The popularity of birth chairs has seen a revival in the late twentieth century as the struggle between medical obstetrics and the alternative birth movement has grown. As Banks shows through her careful examination of the chairs themselves, these questions have been answered and reconsidered many times in human history. Using the artifacts from the home and medical office, Banks traces sweeping societal changes in the philosophy of how to bring life into the world.
Birth Control: The Insidious Power of Men Over Motherhood
by Allison Yarrow"Supported by ample data and suffused with anger,&” an award-winning journalist &“convincingly recasts this country&’s maternal health care system as needlessly dehumanizing&” (New York Times Book Review). Modern medicine should make pregnancy and childbirth safer for all. But in Birth Control, award-winning journalist Allison Yarrow reveals how women are controlled, traumatized, injured, and even killed because of the traditionalist practices of medical professionals and hospitals. Ever since doctors stole control of birth from midwives in the 19th century, women have been steamrolled by a male-dominated medical establishment that has everyone convinced that birthing bodies are inherently flawed and that every pregnancy is a crisis that it alone can &“solve.&” Common medical practices and procedures violate human rights and the law, yet take place daily. Misogyny and racism, not scientific evidence and support, shape the overwhelming majority of America&’s four million annual births. Drawing on extensive reporting, expert interviews, an original survey of 1,300 mothers, and her own personal experiences, Yarrow documents how modern maternal health care is insidiously, purposefully designed to take power from women to the detriment of their physical and mental health—not just during labor, but for years after. She then shows a better way, exploring solutions both cutting-edge and ancient to—finally—return power and control to birthing people. Full of urgent insights and heartfelt emotion, Birth Control is an explosive call to action.
Birth Control on Main Street: Organizing Clinics in the United States, 1916-1939
by Cathy Moran HajoUnearthing individual stories and statistical records from previously overlooked birth control clinics, Cathy Moran Hajo looks past the rhetoric of the birth control movement to show the relationships, politics, and issues that defined the movement in neighborhoods and cities across the United States. Whereas previous histories have emphasized national trends and glossed over the majority of clinics, Birth Control on Main Street contextualizes individual case studies to add powerful new layers to the existing narratives on abortion, racism, eugenics, and sterilization. Hajo draws on an original database of more than 600 clinics run by birth control leagues, hospitals, settlement houses, and public health groups to isolate the birth control clinic from the larger narrative of the moment. By revealing how clinics tested, treated, and educated women regarding contraceptives, she shows how clinic operation differed according to the needs and concerns of the districts it served. Moving thematically through the politicized issues of the birth control movement, Hajo infuses her analysis of the practical and medical issues of the clinics with unique stories of activists who negotiated with community groups to obey local laws and navigated the swirling debates about how birth control centers should be controlled, who should receive care, and how patients should be treated.
Birth Day: A Pediatrician Explores the Science, the History, and the Wonder of Childbirth
by Mark SloanA seasoned pediatrician explores why, in the 21st century, having a baby is still so hard. He looks at other delivery room events, from the intense moments immediately preceding and following birth to an eye-popping history of painkillers, birthing methods, and infant resuscitation.
Birth in the Age of AIDS: Women, Reproduction, and HIV/AIDS in India
by Cecilia Van HollenBirth in the Age of AIDSis a vivid and poignant portrayal of the experiences of HIV-positive women in India during pregnancy, birth, and motherhood at the beginning of the 21st century. The government of India, together with global health organizations, established an important public health initiative to prevent HIV transmission from mother to child. While this program, which targets poor women attending public maternity hospitals, has improved health outcomes for infants, it has resulted in sometimes devastatingly negative consequences for poor, young mothers because these women are being tested for HIV in far greater numbers than their male spouses and are often blamed for bringing this highly stigmatized disease into the family. Based on research conducted by the author in India, this book chronicles the experiences of women from the point of their decisions about whether to accept HIV testing, through their decisions about whether or not to continue with the birth if they test HIV-positive, their birthing experiences in hospitals, decisions and practices surrounding breast-feeding vs. bottle-feeding, and their hopes and fears for the future of their children.
Birth in Times of Despair: Reproductive Violence on the US-Mexico Border (Anthropologies of American Medicine: Culture, Power, and Practice #18)
by Carina HeckertExplores forms of maternal harm stemming from US policies on the US-Mexico borderIn El Paso, Texas, the racist undertones of anti-immigrant sentiment have contributed to various forms of violence in the region, including the 2019 mass shooting that was the deadliest attack on Latinos in US history. As the community continued to mourn this tragedy, the COVID-19 pandemic unleashed yet another set of economic, social, and public health catastrophes that were disproportionately felt within the border region.In Birth in Times of Despair, Carina Heckert traces women’s emotional experiences of pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period in the midst of a series of longstanding and ongoing crises in the US-Mexico border region. Drawing from interviews, surveys, and medical records of women who gave birth during an intense period of sociopolitical crisis, she examines how limited access to health care, inhumane immigration policies, and exposure to an array of harmful social environmental circumstances serve as sources of intense harm for pregnant and recently pregnant women. In so doing, Heckert reveals how these experiences serve as a profound critique of policies that continue to fail to protect women and their families. She concludes with suggestions for practical, humane, and urgent policy changes to alleviate the needless suffering of this vulnerable group.With its comprehensive portrait of the abysmal physical and mental health outcomes pregnant women face within the border region, Birth in Times of Despair expands our understanding of how obstetric violence is enhanced by the structural violence of the state, and unveils the urgency to ameliorate the harm caused by current immigration policies.
Birth Matters
by Ina May Gaskin Ani DifrancoRenowned for her practice's exemplary results and low intervention rates, Ina May Gaskin has gained international notoriety for promoting natural birth. She is a much-beloved leader of a movement that seeks to stop the hyper-medicalization of birth--which has lead to nearly a third of hospital births in America to be cesarean sections--and renew confidence in a woman's natural ability to birth.Upbeat and informative, Gaskin asserts that the way in which women become mothers is a women's rights issue, and it is perhaps the act that most powerfully exhibits what it is to be instinctually human. Birth Matters is a spirited manifesta showing us how to trust women, value birth, and reconcile modern life with a process as old as our species.
Birth Notes: A Memoir of Recovery
by Jessica Cornwell'I SAVOURED EVERY WORD' ABI DARÉ A REDEMPTIVE TALE OF THE POWER AND WISOM OF WOMEN'S BODIES' LEAH HAZARD'MAGNIFICENT: A WORK OF TRUTH' SUSIE ORBACH'FILLED ME WITH HOPE' DR ELINOR CLEGHORN'SO MANY WOMEN WILL FEEL LESS ALONE AFTER READING THIS BOOK' KATIE WARD Following the birth of her first children, twin boys, Jessica Cornwell collapsed in a fever. Rushed back to hospital, she was initially dismissed, before a life-threatening infection was diagnosed. Alone, recovering, watching her body bruise and break, a curious thing happened: she stopped feeling.At home, the numbness remained. Nursing her boys through jaundice, learning to breastfeed, slowly re-emerging into a world where other mothers seemed to cope, Jessica hid her secret - she felt no love, only fear. Worse, vivid memories began to surface, of moments in her past she thought buried.Jessica began to name, one by one, the shadows that returned to haunt her first year as a mother. And in claiming back the words, she fought to claim back her life and the love she bore her young family.Birth Notes is the story - luminous, breathtaking and courageous - of forging a self from fragments. With eloquent rage and searing honesty, it speaks for the unvoiced and shines a light on maternal mental health. It is the love story of a mother for her children and a woman for herself.
Birth Notes: A Memoir of Recovery
by Jessica Cornwell'I SAVOURED EVERY WORD' ABI DARÉ A REDEMPTIVE TALE OF THE POWER AND WISOM OF WOMEN'S BODIES' LEAH HAZARD'MAGNIFICENT: A WORK OF TRUTH' SUSIE ORBACH'FILLED ME WITH HOPE' DR ELINOR CLEGHORN'SO MANY WOMEN WILL FEEL LESS ALONE AFTER READING THIS BOOK' KATIE WARD Following the birth of her first children, twin boys, Jessica Cornwell collapsed in a fever. Rushed back to hospital, she was initially dismissed, before a life-threatening infection was diagnosed. Alone, recovering, watching her body bruise and break, a curious thing happened: she stopped feeling.At home, the numbness remained. Nursing her boys through jaundice, learning to breastfeed, slowly re-emerging into a world where other mothers seemed to cope, Jessica hid her secret - she felt no love, only fear. Worse, vivid memories began to surface, of moments in her past she thought buried.Jessica began to name, one by one, the shadows that returned to haunt her first year as a mother. And in claiming back the words, she fought to claim back her life and the love she bore her young family.Birth Notes is the story - luminous, breathtaking and courageous - of forging a self from fragments. With eloquent rage and searing honesty, it speaks for the unvoiced and shines a light on maternal mental health. It is the love story of a mother for her children and a woman for herself.
The Birth of Insight: Meditation, Modern Buddhism, and the Burmese Monk Ledi Sayadaw (Buddhism and Modernity)
by Erik BraunInsight meditation, which claims to offer practitioners a chance to escape all suffering by perceiving the true nature of reality, is one of the most popular forms of meditation today. The Theravada Buddhist cultures of South and Southeast Asia often see it as the BuddhaOCOs most important gift to humanity. In the first book to examine how this practice came to play such a dominantOCoand relatively recentOCorole in Buddhism, Erik Braun takes readers to Burma, revealing that Burmese Buddhists in the colonial period were pioneers in making insight meditation indispensable to modern Buddhism. aBraun focuses on the Burmese monk Ledi Sayadaw, a pivotal architect of modern insight meditation, and explores LediOCOs popularization of the study of crucial Buddhist philosophical texts in the early twentieth century. By promoting the study of such abstruse texts, Braun shows, Ledi was able to standardize and simplify meditation methods and make them widely accessibleOCoin part to protect Buddhism in Burma after the British takeover in 1885. Braun also addresses the question of what really constitutes the OC modernOCO in colonial and postcolonial forms of Buddhism, arguing that the emergence of this type of meditation was caused by precolonial factors in Burmese culture as well as the disruptive forces of the colonial era. Offering a readable narrative of the life and legacy of one of modern BuddhismOCOs most important figures, "The Birth of Insight" provides an original account of the development of mass meditation. "
The Birth of the Clinic: Archaeology of Medical Perception
by Michel Foucault A. M. Sheridan SmithIn the eighteenth century, medicine underwent a mutation. For the first time, medical knowledge took on a precision that had formerly belonged only to mathematics. The body became something that could be mapped. Disease became subject to new rules of classification. And doctors begin to describe phenomena that for centuries had remained below the threshold of the visible and expressible. In The Birth of the Clinic the philosopher and intellectual historian who may be the true heir to Nietzsche charts this dramatic transformation of medical knowledge. As in his classic Madness and Civilization, Michel Foucault shows how much what we think of as pure science owes to social and cultural attitudes -- in this case, to the climate of the French Revolution. Brilliant, provocative, and omnivorously learned, his book sheds new light on the origins of our current notions of health and sickness, life and death.
Birth on the Threshold: Childbirth and Modernity in South India
by Cecilia Van HollenThrough vivid description and animated dialogue, this book conveys the birth stories of the women of Tamil Nadu in their own voices, emphasizing their critiques of and aspirations for modern births today.
Birth over 35 (Overcoming Common Problems Ser.)
by Sheila KitzingerBirth statistics from the Office for National Statistics show that more women than ever before become mothers later in life. The trend is also backed up by figures from other countries around the world. In developed countries there is an upsurge in the age of mothers giving birth for the first time, and in the UK alone there are now more first-time mothers giving birth in the 30-34 age group than in the 25-29 age group. There is also a 50% increase from 10 years ago in the number of women aged 40 - 44 who are having a baby. Women over 35 (or even younger) expecting a first baby are automatically assigned to a "high risk" category, at risk for problems such as hypertension, pre-eclampsia, diabetes, difficult labour, and caesarean section. Research, however, suggests that the mother's overall health is more important than age per se. This updated version of Birth Over 35 (Sheldon Press 1994, Birth Over 30, Sheldon Press 1982) provides the specialist information needed by 'older' mothers.
Birth over 35
by Sheila KitzingerBirth statistics from the Office for National Statistics show that more women than ever before become mothers later in life. The trend is also backed up by figures from other countries around the world. In developed countries there is an upsurge in the age of mothers giving birth for the first time, and in the UK alone there are now more first-time mothers giving birth in the 30-34 age group than in the 25-29 age group. There is also a 50% increase from 10 years ago in the number of women aged 40 - 44 who are having a baby. Women over 35 (or even younger) expecting a first baby are automatically assigned to a "high risk" category, at risk for problems such as hypertension, pre-eclampsia, diabetes, difficult labour, and caesarean section. Research, however, suggests that the mother's overall health is more important than age per se. This updated version of Birth Over 35 (Sheldon Press 1994, Birth Over 30, Sheldon Press 1982) provides the specialist information needed by 'older' mothers.
The Birth Partner Handbook
by Carl JonesThe Birth Parter Handbook is a concise, contemporary guide for today's birth partners, showing them exactly what they can do to help create a positive birth experience, whether the mother gives birth naturally or with medication, at home, in a childbearing center, or in a hospital.With a special emphasis on the psychological changes of labor, this guide also introduces a new approach to understanding labor made popular through the author's nationwide childbirth workshops, called the "laboring mind response." Birth partners will gain new insight into the mother's altered state of mind and altered behavior during labor, and be given an easy-to-follow, eight-step method that teaches the mind to cooperate with the body and will help make childbirth less stressful and more natural for the mother.
Birth Partner Handbook
by Carl JonesThe Birth Parter Handbook is a concise, contemporary guide for today's birth partners, showing them exactly what they can do to help create a positive birth experience, whether the mother gives birth naturally or with medication, at home, in a childbearing center, or in a hospital. With a special emphasis on the psychological changes of labor, this guide also introduces a new approach to understanding labor made popular through the author's nationwide childbirth workshops, called the "laboring mind response." Birth partners will gain new insight into the mother's altered state of mind and altered behavior during labor, and be given an easy-to-follow, eight-step method that teaches the mind to cooperate with the body and will help make childbirth less stressful and more natural for the mother.
The Birth Partner - Revised 3rd Edition
by Penny SimkinSince the original publication of The Birth Partner in 1989, new mothers' mates, friends, and relatives and doulas (professional birth assistants) have relied on Penny Simkin's guidance in caring for the new mother from the last few weeks of pregnancy through the early postpartum period. Fully revised in its third edition, The Birth Partner remains the definitive guide for preparing to help a woman through childbirth and the essential manual to have at hand during the event. This completely updated edition includes thorough information on: Preparing for labor and knowing when it has begun;Normal labor and how to help the woman every step of the way;Epidurals and other medications for labor;Non-drug techniques for easing labor pain;Cesarean birth and complications that may require it;Breastfeeding and newborn care;And much more. For the partner who wishes to be truly helpful in the birthing room, this book is indispensable.
The Birth Partner - Revised 4th Edition
by Penny SimkinSince the original publication of The Birth Partner, new mothers' mates, friends, and relatives and doulas (professional birth assistants) have relied on Penny Simkin's guidance in caring for the new mother from the last few weeks of pregnancy through the early postpartum period. Fully revised in its fourth edition, The Birth Partner remains the definitive guide for preparing to help a woman through childbirth and the essential manual to have at hand during the event. This completely updated edition includes thorough information on: Preparing for labor and knowing when it has begun;Normal labor and how to help the woman every step of the way;Epidurals and other medications for labor;Non-drug techniques for easing labor pain;Cesarean birth and complications that may require it;Breastfeeding and newborn care;And much more. For the partner who wishes to be truly helpful in the birthing room, this book is indispensable.
Birth Plans For Dummies
by Rachel Gurevich Sharon Perkins RnThe easy, trusted way to develop a birth planAs an expectant mother and parent, navigating all of the information and options for labor and delivery can be cumbersome and confusing. Birth Plans For Dummies, is the ultimate resource guide to help you understand, develop, and implement a plan for the birth of your baby.A birth plan is a communication tool for expectant mothers and those involved in the delivery of a child. The plan explains the mother's preferences for labor and delivery and eliminates any confusion. There are a wide variety of methods, strategies, and techniques available to pregnant women preparing for delivery--and this hands-on, friendly guide covers them all.Covers choosing the setting and method that best fits the mothers needs and wishesInforms expectant parents about the numerous pain management and labor intervention optionsProvides instruction on developing and writing a birth plan and putting it into actionIf you are an expectant mother or parent looking for a guide to help develop a plan for the birth of your child, then Birth Plans For Dummies is the perfect book for you.
Birth Space, Safe Place
by Adela StocktonFocusing on the wide spectrum of feelings that may arise when with child, this companion to the emotional journey caused by pregnancy, birth, and early parenting offers informative resources and homeopathic remedies for both parents-to-be and childbirth practitioners. With advice about laying fears to rest, keeping birth gentle, and protecting the baby-moon, this hand-held doula helps couples face the choices on their journey to parenthood as well as adjust to their new roles as parents, all the while emphasizing the spiritual journey of birth by putting the mother's emotional and spiritual needs before her physical requirements. Proposing that the experience of childbirth has the capacity to nourish rather than replete the soul, the book encourages women to take responsibility for their own birthing process and to surrender to their own instinctive powers rather than to those of medical intervention.
Birth Without Fear: The Judgment-Free Guide to Taking Charge of Your Pregnancy, Birth, and Postpartum
by January HarsheAn inclusive, non-judgmental, and empowering guide to pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum life that puts mothers first, offering straightforward guidance on all the options and issues that matter most to them (and their partners) when preparing for a baby. In Birth Without Fear, January Harshe--founder of the global online community Birth Without Fear--delivers an honest, positive, and passionate message of empowerment surrounding everything that involves having a baby. It's a guide that fills in the considerable cracks in the information available to women and families when they're preparing to welcome a child--covering care provider choices, medical freedom, birth options, breastfeeding, intimacy, postpartum depression, and much more. Birth Without Fear shows moms, dads, partners, and families how to choose the best provider for them, how to trust in themselves and the birth process, and how to seek the necessary help after the baby has arrived. In addition, it will educate them about their rights--and how to use their voice to exercise them--as well as how to cope with the messy postpartum feelings many people aren't willing to talk about. Unlike other pregnancy books, Birth Without Fear will also help partners understand what mothers are going through, as well as discuss the challenges that they, too, will face--and how they can navigate them. Shattering long-held myths and beliefs surrounding pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum experience, Birth Without Fear is an accessible, reassuring, and ultimately inspiring guide to taking charge of pregnancy, childbirth, and beyond.
BirthCONTROL: A Husband's Honest Account of Pregnancy
by James VavasourIn this heartfelt and hilarious memoir, a father recounts his many trials and occasional triumphs during he and his wife’s first pregnancy, week by week. More than four million blissfully ignorant American men are thrust into fatherhood every year, yet these men rarely know what to expect in those crucial first nine months. In BirthCONTROL, author and father James Vavasour offers a real-time, week-by-week account of his journey from pursuing the perfect pregnancy to learning to let go of control. James documented his experiences as they happened in order to capture them in all their wonder, neuroses, and panic. This rare, honest, and unmoderated male perspective on pregnancy will be educational for any couple thinking of starting a family. For those already pregnant, it is a funny, relatable, and often neurotic vision of the day-to-day struggles encountered during this profoundly hormonal time in a couple’s life. If you’ve ever had to settle on a baby’s name or the color of a nursery, be publicly humiliated during birthing classes, or run the obstacle course otherwise known as a grocery store with someone days away from delivery, you’ll understand.