Open Season: A Survival Guide for Natural Childbirth and VBAC in the 90s (Critical Studies in Education & Culture

by Nancy Wainer Cohen

For counselor Nancy Wainer Cohen, this book is the sibling to Silent Cesarean Prevention and Vaginal Birth after Cesarean (Bergin & Garvey, 1983) her critically-acclaimed expose on America's growing reliance on cesarean sections. Open Season provides fresh insights and new information on the subject, offering guidance to childbearing couples, educators, health professionals, and scholars who value the natural path of childbirth.

Readers will find this book timely, informative, shocking, irreverent, and extremely readable. Cohen's intimate writing style presents a compendium of knowledge on childbirth in the fashion of a personal letter. Her aim is to lower America's alarming reliance on cesarean section, which is currently at 25 percent of all births, and to return the responsibility for childbirth to women by encouraging them to choose the kind of birthing experience they wish to have. In addition to cesarean section, Cohen discusses many other generally unnecessary interventions performed on women during pregnancy and childbirth--such as fetal monitoring and routinized hospital procedures.

438 pages, Paperback

First published January 25, 1991

Reviews

[missy jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you get to the end of "Silent Knife" and you are wanting more information specific to what you can expect if you want to have a VBAC... then check this book out. Or, if you get to the end of "Silent Knife" and you are craving an even-more-pointed critique of the patriarchal medical establishment in the United States... then this book should fill your craving :)

[Joni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Required reading for anyone who wants to understand the pitfalls to achieving their dream of a respectful natural birth.

[Leslie Sholly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This gave me the courage to VBAC.

[Theresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gave me the courage to vbac, and it solidified my desire to have a homebirth!

[Deena Scintilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another anger inducing but very good book for anyone desiring a VBAC. Altho reading this BEFORE the 1st Cesarean would be ideal.