FAMILY / CHILDBIRTH "Should I give birth at home, in a birth center, or in a hospital? Should I see a midwife or an obstetrician for prenatal care? What approach to pain relief should I use during labor? How does a waterbirth work?" Expectant parents are faced with a daunting array of choices to make about prenatal care, labor, and birth. In Gentle Birth Choices Barbara Harper, renowned childbirth advocate, nurse, midwife, and mother of three, explains all the available choices and shows how to plan a truly meaningful, family-centered birth experience. She dispels the medical myths that so often shift control of birth away from women and reimagines birth without fear or violence and with minimal pain. Harper reveals the abundant range of gentle birth approaches, including: - giving birth in an independent birth center, at home, or in a hospital birthing room - finding a primary caregiver who shares your philosophy of birth - deciding how to best use current technologies She also provides practical advice for couples wishing to explore options such as hiring a doula or laboring in water to avoid the unwanted effects of drugs and epidurals. "Exactly the sort of guide that pregnant women have been needing to help them sort through the myriad choices and options that confront them today." --Robbie Davis-Floyd, author of Birth As an American Rite of Passage "Gentle Birth Choices provides a new model of maternity care that reduces the need for high-tech crisis intervention and focuses instead on preparation and health." --Healthworld "A must-have for expectant mothers and their loved ones. . . . Gentle Birth Choices is an intelligent and sympathetic guide to birthing options that explores nontraditional ways that put women and their babies first." --New Age Retailer The author's accompanying 60-minute Gentle Birth Choices DVD blends interviews of midwives and physicians with footage of six different birth experiences--including a home birth, waterbirths, vaginal birth after a prior Cesarean section, and birth with other children present. The DVD vividly demonstrates the strength of women during childbirth and the healthy and happy outcome of women exercising gentle birth choices. It is a moving and powerful instructional tool, not only for expectant parents, but also for midwives, hospitals, birth centers, and doctors. "Brace yourself for a powerful experience. This remarkable production combines art, education, and politics. Highly recommended." --Mothering Magazine BARBARA HARPER's passion for natural birth led to the founding in 1988 of Global Maternal/Child Health Association, a nonprofit organization dedicated to education and research about natural childbirth. She lectures worldwide on maternity care reform and waterbirth. She lives outside of Portland, Oregon.