Orgasmic Birth

Based on the hit documentary that inspired a vibrant online community, this innovative approach to birthing shows women how to maximize childbirth's emotional and physical rewards. With more than 4 million babies born in the United States each year, too many women experience birth as nothing more than a routine or painful event. In her much-praised film Orgasmic Birth, acclaimed filmmaker Debra Pascali-Bonaro showed that in fact childbirth is a natural process to be enjoyed and cherished. Now she joins forces with renowned author and activist Elizabeth Davis to offer an enlightening program to help women attain the most empowering and satisfying birth experience possible. While an orgasmic birth can, for some, induce feelings of intense, ecstatic pleasure, it is ultimately about taking control of one's own body and making the most informed decisions to have a safe, memorable, and joyful birth day. Whether women choose to give birth at home, in a hospital, or in a birthing center, Orgasmic Birth provides all the necessary tools and guidance to design the birth plan that's best for them. Featuring inspiring stories from mothers and their partners and filled with practical advice and solutions, this one-of-a-kind resource is the next frontier of natural, intimate childbirth.

Nurturing Beginnings takes you through a new mother's journey and into your own as you explore what it means to be "in service of a postpartum woman and her family." It is a step by step instruction manual for postpartum doulas in their work with new families. Nurturing Beginnings was one of the first comprehensive postpartum training manuals and is on the current DONA International Reading List for Postpartum Doulas. Chapters include: The Role of The Doula, Home Visiting, Providing Care with Caution: Protecting Health & Safety in The Home & Car, Honoring Postpartum Women and Teaching Self-Care, Easing Postpartum Adjustment, Appreciating Your Clients' Cultural Diversity by Karen Salt, Supporting The Breastfeeding Mother (Donna Williams & Opal Horvat Advisors) Newborn Basics: Appearance, Behavior, and Care, Offering Support to Partners and Siblings, Unexpected Outcomes: Caring for The Family at a Time of Loss, Nurturing Yourself by Carlita Reyes, Pursuing Professional Development and Building Your Practice plus poems by Maureen Cannon and "A Doula Speaks" writings from the authors adding insights to the chapters. Revisions and contributions to the updated version were made by Leah DeCesare and contributions by leaders in the field who permitted us to reprint their previously published work include Penny Simkin, Marshall Klaus, John H. Kennell, Cathy Romeo, and William Sears. Nurturing Beginnings has a tremendous amount of links and resources valuable to birthworkers of varying levels of experience. We hope you enjoy reading Nurturing Beginnings and making it a valuable tool amongst your birth resources.

The classic book on home birth. Stories of the experiences of parents and midwives during the birth process plus a technical manual for midwives, nurses, and doctors. Includes information on prenatal care and nutrition, labor, delivery techniques, care of the new baby, and breast-feeding.

The authors bring pregnant women and their partners this potent brew of tips and techniques for intimacy and great sex.

An authoritative guide to natural childbirth and postpartum parenting options from an MD who home-birthed her own four children. Sarah Buckley might be called a third-wave natural birth advocate. A doctor and a mother, she approaches the question of how a woman and baby might have the most fulfilling birth experience with respect for the wisdom of both medical science and the human body. Using current medical and epidemiological research plus women's experiences (including her own), she demonstrates that what she calls "undisturbed birth" is almost always healthier and safer than high-technology approaches to birth. Her wise counsel on issues like breastfeeding and sleeping during postpartum helps extend the gentle birth experience into a gentle parenting relationship.

Experienced doula, Linsey Bliss, shows you how to prepare physically and mentally for every element of having a child, from pregnancy to fourth trimester in The Doula's Guide to Empowering Your Birth. Lindsey Bliss, who has assisted as a doula at hundreds of births and is herself a mother of seven, reveals here all the wisdom and advice that doulas share with the new mothers who hire them. The Doula's Guide to Empowering Your Birth covers the period from pregnancy through labor and birth to fourth trimester healing. The focus, however, is on preparing for birth--including topics like how to pick the right childbirth class and the right birthing method. You’ll also see how to assemble the team of professionals, family members, and friends who will support you through labor and birth, and how to approach last-minute decisions about pain medications and cesarean sections. Bliss's tone throughout is at once authoritative and confident as well as warm and encouraging. Her concern in her practice as well as in these pages is to listen to and help secure each new mom's own personal vision of a birthing experience that is safe, fulfilling, and meaningful.

It's obvious why only men develop prostate cancer and why only women get ovarian cancer. But it is not obvious why women are more likely to recover language ability after a stroke than men or why women are more apt to develop autoimmune diseases such as lupus. Sex differences in health throughout the lifespan have been documented. Exploring the Biological Contributions to Human Health begins to snap the pieces of the puzzle into place so that this knowledge can be used to improve health for both sexes. From behavior and cognition to metabolism and response to chemicals and infectious organisms, this book explores the health impact of sex (being male or female, according to reproductive organs and chromosomes) and gender (one's sense of self as male or female in society). Exploring the Biological Contributions to Human Health discusses basic biochemical differences in the cells of males and females and health variability between the sexes from conception throughout life. The book identifies key research needs and opportunities and addresses barriers to research. Exploring the Biological Contributions to Human Health will be important to health policy makers, basic, applied, and clinical researchers, educators, providers, and journalists-while being very accessible to interested lay readers.

The creator of the comics, Hathor the Cowgoddess and Mama Is..., has collected 30+ of her favorite birth stories and wants to share them with you.

'Fetus ejection reflex, 'milk ejection reflex, 'Sperm ejection reflex, 'Orgasmogenic cocktail'... These are examples of terms used by Michel Odent in his study of the ecstatic/orgasmic states associated with different episodes of human sexual life.

Birth and sex are often talked about as if they were contrasting experiences. In fact, they each involve the same rush of hormones in an action drama in which mind and body work in harmony. When a woman is free to follow her instincts and give birth naturally, waves of endorphins surge in the bloodstream with the same energy as in ecstatic lovemaking. Birth and sex mingle to become one in the thrilling, sweet, intense and overwhelming experience of creation. Yet in the Western high-tech birth culture the environment often inhibits the spontaneity of birth, resulting in pain and distress. Pr.