Product Description

This text is the first of three volumes (two of which have been published) covering all aspects of midwifery care during pregnancy and childbirth and of the mother and baby after birth.
This volume discusses care from conception until the onset of labor. Topics include basic female anatomy and physiology, midwifery practice issues, cultural considerations, hands-on skills, care through each trimester, problems that may occur in any trimester, and preexisting medical conditions.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #80760 in Books
• Published on: 1998-03-24
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 1184 pages

Review
All of use have had the experience of having a back-up physician reply to a question with, what does Williams' say? Now, we can all ask, what does Frye say? Anne Frye has gifted us with an absolutely priceless MIDWIFERY text. Anne is uniquely qualified to write such a book. I don't know a more conscientious researcher or educator. This work will have a profound effect on midwifery . . . and obstetrics . . . and obstetric nursing. The midwifery community has waited a long time for a definitive textbook, but Frye's cyclopedic Holistic Midwifery text was worth waiting for! It (along with Anne's other books), is now a primary, required textbook for The Apprentice Academics Midwifery Home Study Course. --Carla Hartley, Director, Ancient Art Midwifery Institute

As an experienced nurse-midwife and educator, I am delighted to find a text that covers such an extensive range of material in such a straightforward way. Holistic Midwifery articulates the biophysical and clinical details needed by aspiring midwives in their scramble for skills, covers a broad range of holistic and alternative health care modalities, and provides the educator with a wonderful teaching resource. The information is both sensible and well researched. It has enlightened me on issues I thought I understood, clarified issues that were hazy, and caused me to question beliefs and methods I had felt to be true. This text will be an excellent resource for the beginning midwife, advanced practitioner, and educator. --Polly Malby, CNM, Retired Professor, Oregon Health Sci. University

In presenting a midwifery standard of care that is valid in its own right, Holistic Midwifery makes an invaluable contribution to the world, to birthing women, and to the health care community. . . . It documents that midwives, educated through a variety of routes, can and do offer excellent, skilled, and knowledgeable care; a quality of care so high, in fact, that it constitutes a challenge to technomedical practitioners to see if they can match the standards set by independent midwives. --Robbie Davis Floyd, PhD anthropology, from her Forward

About the Author
Anne Frye earned a BA in Holistic Midwifery in 1979. She has taught, written, and provided consultation services for midwives for the past 28 years. She has authored four textbooks written from the perspective of a midwife in homebirth practice. Her other titles include Understanding Diagnostic Tests in the Childbearing Year: A Holistic Approach, Holistic Midwifery: Vol. II: Care during Labor and Birth, and Healing Passage: A Midwife's Guide to the Care and Repair of the Tissues Involved in Birth (currently out of print and being revised).

Customer Reviews

A review for those who aren't midwifes...
This is a wonderful text. Unfortunately it is in a soft cover, unlike vol. 2 which is hard cover, but that aside, it is wonderful.

I am a first-time mom who is planning an unattended home birth. Because of various problems I've also ended up without prenatal care so this volume has proven invaluable to me!! It is clear and exhaustive. This volume has a lot of information directed exclusively for midwives (philosophy of midwivery, how to set up a practice, how to work with different kinds of women, initiating contact and establishing care, etc.), but there is plenty of information useful to "do-it-yourself" prenatal care. It covers what to do during a prenatal exam during each trimester, special circumstances, problems that can occur during pregnancy and information on conditions that might preexist pregnancy.

There is a good section that explains anatomy and physiology that you need to know and I found it easy for me, as a non-medical/non-scientific person, to understand. The index is very thorough.

If you are buying the second volume and aren't sure you should get this one I would recommend that you do get this one because the second volume says that you should review the anatomy and physiology covered in the first volume since it doesn't repeat it and the foundation is essential to understanding the information in the second volume. (If you have medical/midwivery training it may not be so necessary, but then you might appreciate the text for other reasons).

Overall I'd say that if you plan an unattended birth and want to be as informed and safe as possible it is very worthwhile to purchase this volume as well as the second volume and invaluable if you are doing your own prenatal care. If nothing else it can give guidance on when you need to seek a healthcare professional. If you have an attendant then it may only be useful to you if you like to know everything and are willing to pay this much. Otherwise I wouldn't recommend it to the non-midwife.

Oh, don't let the term "Holistic" throw you. It gives in-depth medical information as well as giving some alternative medicine information. My husband is a bio-chemist researcher and has worked as a nurse; he is very pleased with the scientific information in this volume and the next.

Holistic Midwifery : Care During Pregnancy Vol. 1
This book is an invaluable resource for midwives. Without this book there would be huge gaps in my available information. Anne Frye is thorough, compassionate and comprehensive.

The best of the best
If I had to choose one book on pregnancy and birth from my bookshelf (a very hard pick!), this would be the one. Although not aimed at the general public, women planning a natural birth would find authoritative and invaluable information in this book. Midwife Anne Frye uses her own experience and midwifery wisdom as well as a thorough but critical look at the medical research in the subjects that she addresses. She brings, to my mind, the best of medical research with a holistic and gentle approach. I'm looking forward to Volume 2!