Home Birth: A Practical Guide

by Nicky Wesson

A perfect balance of practical information, compelling personal stories and research evidence, "Home Birth" is essential reading for all couples considering the alternative to a hospital birth. Leading childbirth educator Nicky Wesson dispels many common myths about home birth and shows how giving birth to your baby in your own home can be the most exciting and fulfilling thing you'll ever do.

Genres: Parenting

256 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 2006

Reviews

[Mollie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked how the author clearly laid out many of the risks that are used as deterrents for giving mothers a home birth (shoulder dystocia, postpartum hemorrhage, etc.), and showed how many of those complications occur more often in the hospital. It was also nice to read a realistic and respectful account of stillbirth and the discussion of taking responsibility for injury or death was not frightening or intimidating (as it often is on the web or in magazine articles about home birth).

As I am not from, nor do I currently live in the UK, I found much of the book unhelpful. The discussion of midwife community dispatchers and "GP"s, "bookings", along with the use the European versions of drugs and procedures was confusing and not as "practical" as I hoped when reading the title. I also found the author's citations inconsistent -- sometimes a claim would be listed with a endnote, and other times a statement like "mothers who have home births suffer less from PPD" was not cited at all. I find this lack of "proof" makes it difficult to make a convincing argument with those who are fighting against a home birth.

[Ella · Rating 2 out of 5]

Found this book in the public library. I am planning a home birth and so expected to find some useful information, but was a bit disappointed. This book does not provide enough information I was interested in and is barely scratching the surface of home birth. I have found a lot more useful information in blogs and on various websites.
The style of writing is very dry and not as encouraging as it should be. It does, however, have a lot of references to other resources.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite out of date now, my hospital is actively encouraging people to have a home birth and it paints an overly negative picture of medical professionals given how much things seem to have changed since the disempowering experiences referred to in the book. I still took away a lot of useful information from the book though and it gave me some ideas of what to google to find the latest research.

She does have a tendency to make statements around what is safe / risky without backing it up with a reference, and given she also frequently mentions homeopathy which isn’t evidence-based, it’s hard to know which parts can be relied upon.

[Robyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

For anyone contemplating a homebirth, this is a comprehensive guide. The only thing is that it was written and published in the UK, and therefore the information about how the system works was very helpful to me, but might not be very useful for those in the states. It addressed all the possible complications and problems that might arise, and well as the benefits. There were loads of personal experiences, (not all good). I enjoyed reading this book, and found it very helpful.

[Reba Hamilton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is British, so expect that all the stats and info on how to obtain a home birth are not the same as in the U.S. I still found the information interesting and learned things I never realized about social medicine. Birth stories are always good.

[Reem · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of birth stories to back up each chapter's topic. Lots of focus on what can go wrong, that was a bit sucky reading about all of that in my condition, but its also necessary I guess.

[Racheblue Love · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heaps of useful advice