Book reviews

Our latest featured book reviews.

• The VBAC Companion: The Expectant Mother's Guide to Vaginal Birth After Cesarean
  
• The Essential C-Section Guide: Pain Control, Healing at Home, Getting Your Body Back, and Everything Else You Need to Know About a Cesarean Birth  
  
• Cesarean Recovery
  

You might also want to review our recommended reading list, or check out our recently reviewed books.

The VBAC Companion: The Expectant Mother's Guide to Vaginal Birth After Cesarean

by Diana Korte

According to medical journalist Diana Korte, vaginal births after cesarean, or VBACs (pronounced vee-backs), are occurring at a rate six times greater in the 1990s than they were in the previous decade, and with more support from those in the medical profession. This is good news for the many pregnant women who want a vaginal delivery after previously delivering babies by cesarean section. Also good news is The VBAC Companion, a clearly written and thorough guide to lead women step-by-step through the process of planning for a VBAC.

Korte, author of Every Woman's Body, gives firm reasons for VBACs--they are safer for both mother and baby--and backs them up with medical facts. Strong chapters on overcoming fear, planning your VBAC, finding VBAC-friendly doctors and hospitals, and experiencing a VBAC make this book invaluable. The appendices provide fascinating statistics about infant mortality rates and cesarean and VBAC rates around the world, as well as extensive listings of resources.

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The Essential C-Section Guide: Pain Control, Healing at Home, Getting Your Body Back, and Everything Else You Need to Know About a Cesarean Birth

by Maureen Connolly and Dana Sullivan

The rate of c-section births has risen dramatically in the United States, accounting for more than twenty-four percent of deliveries in 2001. Yet there is no up-to-date book on the market dedicated to undergoing and recovering from the most commonly performed surgery in the U.S. Now two veteran journalists in health, parenting, and fitness have teamed up to create a candid and carefully researched guide for the nearly one million mothers facing or recovering from a cesarean.

Covering both the physical and emotional aspects of this surgery, The Essential C-Section Guide offers frank discussions of the special circumstances a C-section delivery presents. Readers will discover a host of important facts, ranging from the effects of a C-section on future deliveries to the risks of anesthesia. The authors also share comforting wisdom about the feelings of inadequacy a C-section can cause and tips on caring for an infant while healing from this major procedure. The latest recommendations regarding exercise, pain, and nursing are addressed in-depth as well.

Written by authors who have firsthand knowledge of C-section delivery, The Essential C-Section Guide provides thorough answers to the many overwhelming questions associated with cesareans. Informative and supportive, this is reassuring reading for every expectant mother.

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Cesarean Recovery

by Chrissie Gallagher-Mundy

The complete guide to a healthy recovery from the effects of C-section birthing.

Almost 1 out of 4 deliveries is by cesarean section. Whether or not the procedure is planned, cesarean section must be considered major abdominal surgery and surgical recovery is a necessary process towards complete healing.

Cesarean Recovery guides new mothers through the healing process in conjunction with her medical care. The new mother will discover when and how to start her recovery -- from her first attempts at sitting up in the hospital bed, through to standing and on to mastering her first exercises.

This special guide includes straightforward and detailed information on:

• Safe and effective exercises for regaining pre-pregnancy shape
• Regaining vitality and strength with daily and weekly exercise routines
• Fun-to-do and effective routines that include mother and baby
• Diet, breastfeeding and postpartum problems
• Incision care and advice for repeat cesarean sections
  

Written in an accessible style and illustrated with color photography throughout, Cesarean Recovery shows mothers, step-by-step, how to recover from the surgery as they care for their newborn.

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