This book has detailed information regarding the entire birth process. It has a very balanced approach regarding birthing naturally and medical intervention. I found it to be extremely helpful as I was getting ready to have a baby for the first time.

I bought this book thinking my husband would read, but I ended up doing the reading. This book is incredibly thorough and covered everything I felt I needed to know about the birthing process, labor, possible complications, the choice to involve drugs, the types of tests performed on the baby, and so much more. It supports natural birth, but not overly so and gives you good information from which to make informed decisions. Despite my intentions to have a natural birth, it just didn't work out. But I felt I had the information I needed when things didn't go as planned and I had to change course. I wasn't too into the parts that were addressed specifically to the partner, and what the partner could do, so I just skipped over those. But if you actually were the partner reading the book, I can see how they might be helpful.

I borrowed this, along with several similar books from the library to prepare for giving birth in about two months. I found this one to be the most comprehensive and easiest to understand (for both myself and my husband). The book is well organized and is sectioned in such a way that you (or better yet, your partner who is NOT in labor),can quickly turn to pain relieving techniques or other important info when the need arises. The illustrations are clear and relevant, as are the explanations. One of the things I really appreciated about this book was the description of the stages of labor/birth, so that you can understand how and why your laboring body is doing what it is doing at a particular time, and what you can expect as a result of your body's actions. It also provides detailed descriptions of pain relief, from natural measures to drugs offered by hospitals. More importantly, it describes the positive and negative effects of the use of said techniques and drugs, and advises at which stage of labor they are most effective. Even though this is not a book that will be useful to me after my pregnancy, I think it will be invaluable to us leading up to and during labor.

I appreciated this book and all of the information it contained. It was extremely easy to read - even my husband read some of it with me.

I actually read this book before my husband did and I found it extremely helpful. I like Simkin's very practical approach to birth very much and was particularly impressed by her differentiation between "pain" and "suffering." Too often, the natural childbirth books that I've read try to convince you that birth isn't actually painful. Simkin acknowledges that there is pain associated with birth but stresses that pain does not have to be accompanied by suffering. Suffering comes about when your needs are not met or you are unable to cope with the pain. Childbirth can absolutely be free of suffering and I took great confidence in her emphasis on this distinction.

Overall, the book is a great resource. Excellent step-by-step overview of the stages of labor and comfort measures to go with each. Highly recommended!

Very good and very informative book. This book goes into all the possible problems that can arise during childbirth and explains how the birth partner can help the mother as well as themselves. I think it definitely will prepare a first-time husband for what to expect during childbirth and how to handle certain situations. I love that it was written not to the mother, but to the partner and the entire book continues that way. Good book. I definitely recommend.

I bought this book for my husband and ended up reading it myself. It was my favorite pregnancy/birth book! It has a *slight* lean towards natural childbirth (it is NOT preachy at all) but fairly covers drugs in depth and even includes a chart with the drug name and it's side effects. It's the only book I have found that does that. It also shows techniques for coping with pain and relaxation techniques...which is what I was looking for my husband and I to both learn. I think this book really prepares you what to expect on the big day. I will recommend this book to all my pregnant friends from now on. If you are a logical, practical person who is looking for tangible techniques and information then this book is for you.

This book is long, but I think of it as a "Bible" for childbirth. As a new birth doula, I depend on this book. During recent births, I've referenced the book so that I can better educate my clients, and myself! I use it to "study up" before births. It is well written and so informative.

There are sections of the book that are darkened on the edges for quick reference.

Before the upcoming birth of my next child, I will be having my husband read parts of the book to help his confidence and knowledge during the labor process.

Can't go wrong with reading this book!!!

...this is the one to get. We were preparing for the drug & intervention free birth of our first child when our doula recommended this book for my husband. Our goal was to labor at home for as long as possible and Penny Simkin's clear, detailed information gave him the confidence to support me both alone (to 6+cm!) at home & alongside our 'team' at the hospital.

I liked this book...it had a lot of useful information about labor positions, techniques for relaxations, and good points for those people who are going to be in the L&D room with me during my delivery. I highlighted certain portions to show to my mom and mother-in-law so they'd be on the same track as my husband and I.

The only thing that I really didn't like about the book was the "anti-medical" aspect. I am going to try natural childbirth, and I think that you should use as little intervention as possible, but I also don't believe that medicine is bad. Sometimes books like these tend to make it sound like OBs only want to cut you up and hospitals only care to get you in and out quickly, not that you have a satisfying birth experience. This book wasn't very bad about slamming the medical industry, but it did have enough of a slant to make me roll my eyes a few times.

Overall a good book...it's coming with us to the hospital as reference material. If you'd like to try natural childbirth or just want some more things to try to make labor more comfortable, buy this book.

For first-time parents, giving birth to your little bundle of joy can be nerve-wracking. There is so much you don't know! And not-knowing can be a nasty breeding ground for fear. My wife and I are first-time parents, and while we weren't scared to death, we certainly wanted to know what we were headed towards. Knowing is half the battle, right? Because of how much there is to know, we even thought about hiring a doula (birth coach). Luckily, we found this book...373 pages of confidence-building.

THE BIRTH PARTNER is broken into 4 parts:

1) Before the Birth

This section is largely just introduction to the concept of pregnancy. It contains some good lists to remind you what to prepare to take to the hospital. Probably the most important stuff was on Kegel exercises and the Perineal massage. Oh yeah, and make sure to compile a list of friends and family to call or have someone call.

2) Labor and Birth

This section has crucial information about the pre-labor process, the signs of labor, the "bag of waters" breaking, false vs. true labor, timing contractions (there's a great chart to make copies of), and breeched babies. Her breakdown of the 3 stages of labor is especially helpful.

For those parents attempting a natural birth, she details the 5-1-1 rule for contractions, so you know when to head to the hospital. She walks you through a ton of strategic labor positions to use to relieve pain and allow gravity to do its work toward birthing the baby (these assume you haven't had an epidural...there's a whole section on epidurals and anesthesia).

She gives advice for the birth partner's role -- from leading her through breathing routines and rituals to knowing how to work with and sometimes against the doctors, depending on what they're saying. Fast labors, slow labors, irregular labors...they're all in here.

3) The Medical Side of Childbirth

Medicine, drugs, shots, tests, interventions and all that good stuff. To epidural or not to epidural? And what about Cesarean sections? It's all in here. Helpful information to keep you sane and in the loop. It's amazing what the doctors won't tell you unless you ask. Remember, it's a business.

4) After the Birth

Cleaning the baby, shots, warming, breastfeeding, postpartum depression and how to deal with it...what happens after the birth is almost nearly as important as the before and the during.

THE FINAL TAKE

This book is a mental lifesaver. Whether you're heading into the birth with complete trust of the doctors and the medical system or with a healthy (or unhealthy) bit of logical skepticism, there is a wealth of essential knowledge in here about what to look for, what to know, and what to ask about. You won't regret reading this book. It's concise and detailed in the all the right places and is clear enough that you know exactly what she's talking about. I'm a first-time, thinking-man's father-to-be, and I sure feel more prepared after reading it. After all, it's just my baby we're talking about here.

--- Reviewed by Jonathan Stephens

This is THE best I have read on the subject. A must for every expecting family.

After getting bogged down in several reference-style books about birth, this was exactly what I needed. The book takes you step by step through the birthing process in an accessible and encouraging way, telling specifically you how to help the mother. The fact that the authors base their recommendations not only on physical, but also on emotional needs the partner and the mother is very helpful.

This book is far from complete, so a separate pregnancy reference will probably be useful. Also, as reasonable and reassuring as the advice sounds, I have not yet tested it in practice.

If you or someone you know is planning to have a baby, and you plan to be there, read this book. It will help you have a birth that is less painful, stressful, and physician-directed than you will have if you do not read it. It covers the normal course of labor and birth, complications in labor, comfort measures for the woman and the role of the birth partner and/or doula, explanations of the many possible interventions and drugs available during labor/birth/postpartum, breastfeeding basics, and care of the mother when she returns home. If you are the partner, this will help you feel that you know what's going on during birth, especially if complications arise, and it will give you lots of ideas for how to help your partner during labor and afterwards.

This book is pretty objective and not biased far towards the "no intervention for any reason/trust birth" camp, nor towards the "birth is a emergency, and babies can DIE!!!!" camp. It will help you clarify YOUR personal preferences and needs for your birth by providing you with knowledge needed to make informed choices based on your medical particulars, pain tolerance, philosophy about childbirth, attitude towards medications and interventions, and your birth setting.

There is a great questionnaire in the book about pain and medication preferences that will really help you decide what medications you might or might not want and at what point in labor you will want them, and a comprehensive list of all the medications, their effects and side-effects on mother and baby, when in the course of labor it is appropriate to receive them, and how they might interact with other drugs offered during labor.

This book is an excellent resource for first-time moms and for their support person (doula, husband, otherwise). My husband has said it's easy to read and offers great information. We are going to implement many of the strategies for natural child birth!

The biggest fear about being pregnant is the fear of giving birth, I think. So, when I was looking for a book to read on this, I wanted something that would include all elements of the delivery room process. This book does that and more! It was great for my husband, who now knows what to expect and to do. A high recommend, along with You Know You're Pregnant When. Reflections on the Longest Nine Months of My Life.

Penny Simkin's first edition of this book was really helpful to me in my last pregnancy, and this edition is even better. Updated with modern information, my husband is finding it a great tool as I prepare for my third birth and he gets ready for his first homebirth... his daughter was born in a horrible hospital birth so he's really having to adjust his thinking.

He was worried that this book was going to be dry and boring but he hasn't put it down yet. :-) It has enough technical information to keep his "science mind" occupied, and the writing tone is friendly and accessible. He is realizing with the help of this book that he can be an active participant in this birth and that he can really help me by protecting me and making conditions ideal for me to do the work of birthing... this is in stark contrast to the very passive role that he was encouraged to take last time, and how helpless he felt in terms of being able to help his ex-wife as she struggled to birth despite lots of hospital-staff-ordered interventions.

We are also using the book together to identify the things I'd like to have for our birth in terms of people who are there, the atmosphere of the room, and procedures we want/don't want our midwife to do.

We're going through the interventions chapter together and identifying the things that would be 100% fine with us if the midwife thought them necessary, the things we'd tolerate after a risk/benefit discussion, and the things I'd never consent to unless my midwife (who I do trust with my life, and who attended my last birth too) says I'll die or the baby will die without.

We'll certainly have this book around with some tape flags in it during our birth.