Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)After having a traumatic birth with my first daughter I was in search of resources that would help me heal. Unfortunately, this book is not one of those resources.
Yes, the author supports holistic birth, and looks to the current setup of the medical establishment as problematic in supporting women and children during birth. But the book is overly couched in intimidating psychiatric language; and in some places she even points fingers at women themselves. For instance, one troubling chapter bluntly states that women who struggle with depression or feelings of non-acceptance during their pregnancies are causing their children to experience everything from colic and food intolerances to lifelong emotional problems. As a non-depressed mother of a very wanted child who suffers severe food intolerance, I found this quite offensive.
She also focuses almost single-mindedly on forceps births as the source of trauma, neglecting to mention the many other ways in which birth can be traumatic. This got annoying quite quickly and I found myself wondering if she even realized other types of birth could cause maternal or infant trauma.
If you're looking to heal from a traumatic birth, I recommend instead "An Easier Childbirth" by Gayle Peterson. It provides concrete paths to recovery without placing undue blame on mothers, and an accompanying workbook is available to help you sort through your feelings.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Reclaiming the Spirituality of Birth: Healing for Mothers and Babies
A therapist and childbirth educator shows how connection to nature and the spiritual world can heal birth trauma and preserve the health and well-being of mothers and babies.
' Encourages mothers to reconnect with nature and spirit to heal old wounds and have deeply satisfying birth experiences.
' Provides convincing evidence that prenatal and birth experiences have a lifelong effect on emotional health.
' Fosters a close and abiding bond between mother and child.
Have you had a birthing experience that fell short of your expectations? What was your mother's experience when she had you? Do you long for a deeper bond with your loved ones? In Reclaiming the Spirituality of Birth, Benig Mauger suggests that our prenatal and birth experiences affect us for the rest of our lives. And because our modern approach to birth separates mothers from their primordial knowledge of natural delivery, many people suffer from lifelong birth wounds. Mauger invites women to reclaim the connection to their own instinctive, intuitive, and inherently spiritual creative powers.
The West's rational, mechanistic worldview wreaks havoc with the birth experience as it leads to ever increasing levels of high-tech medical intervention. Induced labor, fetal monitors, and pain-killing drugs alter the natural rhythms of delivery. This scientific approach puts medical personnel in control of the birth process, leaving mothers and their babies with a profound sense of loss. Drawing on her experience as a birth teacher, therapist, and mother, Benig Mauger suggests that by reconnecting with the natural and spiritual world an expectant mother can make the birth experience her own, thereby healing old wounds and allowing herself both a deeply satisfying delivery and an abiding spiritual connection to her child.
