Recommended Reading

Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care
by Jennifer Block
This provocative, highly readable expose raises questions of great consequence for anyone planning to have a baby in U.S., as well as those interested or involved in women’s health care.

Creating Your Birth Plan: The Definitive Guide to a Safe and Empowering Birth
by Marsden Wagner, M.D., M.S.
Creating Your Birth Plan helps expectant mothers make informed decisions about the assistance they’ll require for childbirth. It is designed to encourage collaboration between pregnant women and their caregivers.

Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering: A Doctor’s Guide to Natural Childbirth and Gentle Early Parenting Choices
by Dr. Sarah Buckley
An authoritative guide to natural childbirth and postpartum parenting options from an MD who home-birthed her own four children.

Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Newborn: The Complete Guide
by Penny Simkin
With over one million copies in print, this is one of the best-selling books about pregnancy on the market. More complete and up-to-date than any other pregnancy guide, this remarkable book is the “bible” for childbirth educators.

Gentle Birth Choices
by Barbara Harper, R.N.
Harper explains why birthing centers and home births, along with other “gentle birth choices,” are beneficial to both mother and baby.

Bountiful, Beautiful, Blissful: Experience the Natural Power of Pregnancy and Birth with Kundalini Yoga and Meditation
by Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa
This book provides a wealth of knowledge and insight into the choices that pregnant women and their loved ones face; specifically, subjects like breastfeeding, labor, diet, exercise, the decision of where to birth, and mothering.

The Thinking Woman’s Guide to a Better Birth
by Henci Goer
“The Thinking Woman’s Guide to a Better Birth puts the power of the latest scientific research into the hands of women to help them discern the facts from the myths and make informed decisions about their maternity care.” — Maureen P. Corry, M.P.H. Executive Director, Maternity Center Association

The Birth Of A Mother: How The Motherhood Experience Changes You Forever
by Daniel Stern M.D. and Nadia Bruschweiler-Stern M.D.
The world-renowned psychiatrist and author of “Diary of a Baby” examines the psychological shift in becoming a mother.

Adventures in Natural Childbirth: Tales from Women on the Joys, Fears, Pleasures, and Pains of Giving Birth Naturally
by Janet Schwegel
A fascinating collection of personal, engaging, and revealing stories from thirty-nine women on their journey through pregnancy, labor, and natural childbirth. Includes stories of home births and hospital births.

Spiritual Midwifery
by Ina May Gaskin
The world’s most well-known midwife’s classic tales of birthing naturally in a hippie commune. Beautiful birth stories filled with passion and insight. “Spiritual Midwifery” has been translated into 5 languages and remains in print after 30 years.

The Spirit of Pregnancy : An Interactive Anthology for Your Journey to Motherhood
by Bonni Goldberg
This collection of funny, insightful and thoughtful essays on the journey to motherhood is a great way to prepare your spirit for transitioning from Independent Woman to MOTHER.

Misconceptions: Truth, Lies, and the Unexpected on the Journey to Motherhood
by Naomi Wolfe
In her latest work, the author of the bestselling “The Beauty Myth” employs her fiercely confident and uncompromising, rip-the-lid-off style to tell the painful truth of motherhood in contemporary America.

Journey into Motherhood: Inspirational Stories of Natural Birth
by Sheri Menelli
This heartwarming collection offers 48 true stories of natural birth, told in the mothers’ own voices. As diverse as the women who wrote them, the stories include hospital births, home births, unassisted births, emergency deliveries, births attended by young siblings, outdoor births and more.

Husband-Coached Childbirth (Fifth Edition): The Bradley Method of Natural Childbirth
by Robert A. Bradley, M.D.
The book that started a revolution in the birthing experience and helped millions of women and their partners to a safe and natural childbirth.

Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife
by Peggy Vincent
In a joyous, often hilarious ode to the Birkenstock-scuffling, tackle box-toting mobile midwives who flourished in the 1980s, Peggy Vincent chronicles her abundant life as a professional Baby Catcher.

Magical Beginnings, Enchanted Lives
by Deepak Chopra, M.D.
Chopra (Peace Is the Way; The Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga; etc.) and his colleagues at the Chopra Center for Well Being offer pregnant women, their partners and healthcare providers a practical, thought-provoking framework in which to experience pregnancy and childbirth.