Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering: A Doctor's Guide to Natural Childbirth and Gentle Early Parenting Choices

This is the most research based birth nerd book I’ve ever read. It is required reading for my midwifery class and the depth of information is not lost on the average person. It’s essentially a research paper with some of the authors own experiences added in. It presents evidence to support “undisturbed birth”, and shows how current modern obstetrical care does not typically support this model. It is meant to present evidence and make you think. Highly recommend!

I really love this book. It is written for people who are already spiritually minded and wish to move outside of the mainstream medical conglomerate. I feel like a lot of the reviews saying the author is condescending are from people who are still programmed through this medical establishment and the book triggers a lot of defensiveness within them over their choices. The book is written from the heart and doesn’t beat around the bush or sugar coat things. Lots of valuable information and truly inpowers you to take back your body autonomy and sovereignty in regards to your birth journey. At the same time, the author does not shame the choices the mother makes, only offers varying information rather than fear mongering a woman into a certain pattern or birth story. This book is not going to praise ultrasounds or unnecessary technological interventions so if that is the route you are set on taking just bypass this book and find one that is more closely aligning to your wants and needs.

This book is a must read for the pregnancy/parenting novice or anyone seeking good information on pregnancy birth and parenting. It summarizes and corroborates a lot of well-referenced information, that I as a student midwife and mother of 2 have found from other reputable sources, in a very palatable way; intermixed with beautiful personal birth and parenting stories. Highly recommended.

Dr. Sarah Buckley provides a comprehensive research based look at hospital birth vs home birth. I wish I had this information years ago as I would definitely have made better choices during pregnancy and birth. She is able to explain clearly some of the more clinical information without losing the reader and the more personal stories of her own births were a lovely addition. She’s a little more “woo woo” than most I think, but her personal birth stories are shared in good faith. Some women are still very fearful of their spiritual force and will not relate but for those women who know there is more to this life than what our physical senses tell us and are aware of their own intuition, this is the book for you. If you are looking to educate yourself on the often unnecessary interventions in a hospital setting, who better than an MD to explain it? Sarah’s approach to breastfeeding, co sleeping and mother- infant bonding are very helpful as well. I would recommend this to my midwifery clients.

I will always and forever recommend this book. I’m a doula and this has been su ch a great resource to pull out. Even in my own life this has helped me feel empowered to make the decisions I want as a mother.

This is a good book to read before your first child (or any child,) especially if you are concerned about the current hospital situation in the United States. It sheds light on many procedures that are done simply because they are standard practice, not necessarily because they are important. If you're trying to decide what's best for you & your baby, this is a great book to read. As with all books, read with an open mind—take what works for you and leave the rest. I appreciated the insights from a medical doctor & mother, on ultrasounds, home birth, medical procedures, and more.

This was a required reading for a doula certification I’m pursuing. It’s an okay read with good studies/information listed throughout. However, the author’s general bias was too strong for my liking. I’m personally looking into a rounded (balance of understanding in both holistic and theocratic) approach to birth, where this book pushes for all natural (no medicine, intervention, etc) birth with a small pinch of exceptions. She does still have good information and seeing her perspective was interesting. Over all, I’d only recommend certain chapters rather than the whole book if you’re looking into a similar approach like me.

This book helped me get through labour and reaffirmed my parenting decisions. The first section Gentle Birth gave a whole lot of information about the negatives of interventions that I'd thought were pretty much harmless and I was glad to be more informed. These include: ultrasound (!), IV analgesia, epidurals, IV antibiotics, caesareans. My favourite part of the book was the natural hormonal physiology of childbirth - a perfect orchestration for a safe, healthy and satisfying experience. The most useful piece of information for me was the idea that the same energy that got the baby in there can help get it out and recommending sexual expression during labour. I found that making sexual noises helped me get through the peaks of contractions - I recommend any labouring woman try it! The author also shares her own 4 birth stories. Section two, Gentle Mothering, highlights the benefits of skin-to-skin, co-sleeping, and breast feeding, and presents what research has been done around these topics. Following her recommendations has helped to make the early weeks with my second baby very manageable.