The Official Lamaze Guide

This book is blowing my mind. I am so glad I got it. 

When I first started reading it I was very annoyed. It's first like 3 or 4 chapters are basically trying to convince you to chose a natural birth. I even found it to be somewhat ridiculous in terms of what it deems 'dangerous' and 'excessive' concerning medical intervention. It repeated over and over the same statistics and advice. I almost stopped reading it. I looked at the table of contents though and saw that if you can just get through the first part the rest seemed like very useful information, and had the information I was looking for when I bought the book in the first place. 

So I decided just to keep reading and I am very glad I did. 

First of all, most of what it has to say makes me feel very affirmed in my beliefs. It affirms the fact that I CAN get through a natural birth. After reading this book I feel much more confident about my innate ability to get through childbirth. It affirms the fact that women's bodies were designed to give birth--without intervention/drugs. It offers many suggestions and advice on how to cope with the pain, and it even describes why the pain is necessary for the birthing process in the first place. I am now aware of exactly what my body will be doing at certain points in the birth process and how that helps myself and the baby. I've also read about many birth stories of natural child birth and have a better understanding of what it takes to get through it. Not only that but a better understanding of the sense of empowerment and confidence one can gain through natural child birth. It also describes the benefits the baby receives by choosing to go natural. That excites me as well.

 I am only about halfway through the book and already I am sort of excited about the birth. Not to say that I don't still have certain fears, but I feel much more confident about the fact that I really can do it (barring any major complications of course). 

So I will continue reading this book. I have suggestions for other books as well and I will forge through those. I have come up with tons of questions for my midwife about how the birth will take place and what my birthing options are in the specific hospital I will be at. 

Stay tuned.