Rediscovering Birth

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Pinter & Martin Publishers, 2011 - Health & Fitness - 302 pages
Sheila Kitzinger’s understanding of the complex emotions surrounding birth has led to her being thought of as a personal friend by many of her readers, but she also has a formidable reputation among those in the medical profession who are challenged by her writing. For many years she has maintained that when birth is reduced to a medical process the experience is diminished and the mother degraded, and that even when the birth is complicated, human relationships are vitally important.  In this revised edition of Rediscovering Birth, Kitzinger explores the universal experience of pregnancy and childbirth and looks closely at feelings and behaviour in pregnancy, the physical and spiritual experience of giving birth, the role of the midwife, the bonds that are traditionally formed between mother and midwife and ideas about birth in many different cultures, and she asks how we can learn from them.
 

Contents

Foreword
Searching Questions about Birth
A Small Miracle
The Journey to Birth
Birth and Spirit
WomantoWoman Help 5 Midwives
The Birth Dance 7 Birth and Touch 8 Sanctuary andRenewal 9 Can We Learn Anythingfrom Other Cultures? References Index
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About the author (2011)

 Sheila Kitzinger M.B.E, M.Litt is a social anthropologist of birth and author of 24 books published internationally, most on the emotional journey through this major life experience. At Oxford in the 50s she discovered that the social anthropology of that time was almost entirely about men. She decided she would do research to discover what was important in women's lives, and focused on pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding.

Her five children were all born at home. She lectures widely in different countries and has learned from mothers and midwives in the USA and Canada, the Caribbean, Eastern and Western Europe, Israel, Australia and New Zealand, Latin America, South Africa and Japan, and from women in prison and those who have had a traumatic birth experience.

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