Product Description

The Doula Advantage
Your Complete Guide to Having an Empowered and Positive Birth with the Help of a Professional Childbirth Assistant
by Rachel Gurevich

Take Control of Your Childbirth Experience
New moms are spreading the word to pregnant women just like you: Doulas make pregnancy and childbirth the celebratory experience it is meant to be! Doulas are professionally trained women who provide support before, during, and after delivery. Research has shown that doulas help women have positive birth experiences, decrease the need for pain medication, improve breastfeeding success, and reduce the need for cesarean sections and other invasive procedures. Author Rachel Gurevich interviewed more than 235 women and birth professionals to bring you this best-kept pregnancy secret. Inside, you'll find real mothers' stories and discover how doulas make a joyful difference in childbirth. You'll learn:
·The many ways doulas provide labor support, whether you plan a "natural" or medicated birth
·How to find, hire, and choose the right doula
·How specialized doulas can help you before or after the baby's birth
·How doulas help the dad-to-be
·And more!
Foreword by Mayer Eisenstein, M.D., medical director, Homefirst Health Services
Praise for The Doula Advantage :
"Doulas really do make a difference in having a safe and satisfying birth, as you will learn in this book." — William Sears, M.D., coauthor, The Baby Book
"Comprehensive, thought-provoking, and highly moving. . . . A must read for any woman thinking of using the services of a doula." — Ann Douglas, author, The Mother of All Pregnancy Books and The Mother of All Baby Books

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #115252 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03-25
• Released on: 2003-03-25
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

From the Inside Flap
The Doula Advantage
Your Complete Guide to Having an Empowered and Positive Birth with the Help of a Professional Childbirth Assistant
by Rachel Gurevich

Take Control of Your Childbirth Experience
New moms are spreading the word to pregnant women just like you: Doulas make pregnancy and childbirth the celebratory experience it is meant to be! Doulas are professionally trained women who provide support before, during, and after delivery. Research has shown that doulas help women have positive birth experiences, decrease the need for pain medication, improve breastfeeding success, and reduce the need for cesarean sections and other invasive procedures. Author Rachel Gurevich interviewed more than 235 women and birth professionals to bring you this best-kept pregnancy secret. Inside, you'll find real mothers' stories and discover how doulas make a joyful difference in childbirth. You'll learn:
·The many ways doulas provide labor support, whether you plan a "natural" or medicated birth
·How to find, hire, and choose the right doula
·How specialized doulas can help you before or after the baby's birth
·How doulas help the dad-to-be
·And more!
Foreword by Mayer Eisenstein, M.D., medical director, Homefirst Health Services
Praise for The Doula Advantage :
"Doulas really do make a difference in having a safe and satisfying birth, as you will learn in this book." — William Sears, M.D., coauthor, The Baby Book
"Comprehensive, thought-provoking, and highly moving. . . . A must read for any woman thinking of using the services of a doula." — Ann Douglas, author, The Mother of All Pregnancy Books and The Mother of All Baby Books

About the Author
Rachel Gurevich is the assistant editor for Myria Media Inc., an award-winning Web site for moms. The author of fabjob.com's Guide to Become a Doula, she writes for ePregnancy magazine and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Customer Reviews

should be required reading for doulas and clients!
This book is awesome! It is written for the layperson or the doula herself to aid her in assiting her clients. It helps explain the doula role to everyone from the client to her mother and beyond. It has great advice on how to help the father/partner in coaching mom through labor. It just really gives a good overview on how a doula can help from pregnancy to postpartum and beyond. I think it should be required reading for all doulas and their clients as well as anyone considering hiring a doula or becoming one!

Highly informitive
This book offers personal insight from couples who used doulas. How their first and second births were different experiences, being the second one more positive, because they chose a doula to help. The various explianations on what types of doulas are available and what their roles are was very helpful in my preparation for finding the right doula for my needs. We haven't given birth yet but are looking for a birthing doula and will be seeking and "postpartum" doula as well. This book was a real find, it opened my husbands eyes because he wasn't willing to be there for the birth but now is more than willing knowing that he doesn't have to be anywhere below my shoulders. He hasn't even met the doula yet and the book alone gave him confidence enough to make that decision. Get this book.

Doula Advantage - a balanced view
This book was informative and easy to use (you do not need to read it cover to cover, only the sections that apply to you). It comes with good questions for interviewing Doulas for prenatal, labor, or post-natal care. It is not preachy or overly anti-medical establishment, so it comes across in a caring, unbiased manner. It helped me explain to my husband how a Doula could benefit him as well as me during labor, for which he was relieved and grateful! It also gave me some statistics (about shorter labors, less intervention, etc.) to support my decision and justify the out-of-pocket expense of a Doula.