Natural Labor and Birth ― An Evidence-based Guide to the Natural Birth Plan

The first evidence-based book covering natural childbirth practices written by an obstetrician – offering a logical, balanced approach to the topic

The goal of Natural Labor and Birth: An Evidence-Based Guide to the Natural Birth Plan is to provide a reliable source of information for healthcare professionals caring for patients seeking a natural birth. Up until now, clinicians who wanted to work with women seeking a natural birth were frustrated by the lack of easily accessible, trustworthy resources on the topic, and most have not been trained on how to utilize methods outside of the traditional framework. Unfortunately, evidence-based natural childbirth is not discussed in any unified fashion in the currently existing obstetrical texts.

Natural Labor and Birth: An Evidence-Based Guide to the Natural Birth Plan seeks to end the friction between natural and traditional obstetrics care. It is unique in that it does not attempt to make a case for natural childbirth, it only seeks to demonstrate how natural birth can exist within the framework of typical antepartum care and hospital deliveries and respond to patient preferences. It teaches the skills necessary to assist a woman through an unmedicated childbirth that are not taught in most obstetrical residencies and nursing programs, and provides a compilation of the medical evidence supporting alternative practices.

Features

•Provides a factual, evidence-based discussion of natural birth plans and gives women and their providers the necessary information to make informed decisions during childbirth

•Offers an integrated model for maternity care that provides women and their babies the best of what medicine has to offer at just the right dose

•Argues against the anti-medical culture promoted by much of the natural medical community, while also calling into question routine practices in the medical community that prevent women from having unmedicated deliveries and further the distrust of healthcare providers

Michelle Aristizabel, MD, FACOG (Montclair, NJ) is President, Owner, and Principle Physician in ObGyn at Wombkeepers Obstetrics and Gynecology and Maternity Wellness Center, Montclair, New Jersey; Attending Physician, St. Barnabas Medical Center and Hackensack University Medical Center.