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REVIEW
Get a plan: Birth book educates and inspires Having birthed three children of my own, I figured everyone approached childbirth the same way. You hang around the house until things feel urgent, go to the hospital, and tough it out as long as you possibly can. And if you can’t, you ask the nurse to either roll you through a laundry press until a baby pops out or give you something for the pain. It never occurred to me that women might have definite choices about their birth plans. Heck, it never occurred to me that women had birth plans. My plan? To have a baby. Twice I toughed it out until someone in the room other than me was crying (and it sounded an awful lot like a baby). Once (oddly, with my middle child) I caved about twenty minutes before “go time” and informed the nurse that she had roughly six seconds to get an epidural in me or I would give the room a makeover. It was as if I were flying by the seat of my pants on the three biggest days of my life! It never occurred to me before that I was probably one of those natural childbirth moms. Had I known that before I stepped through the door of my OB’s office and taken that life-changing urine test, I might have had more commitment to my plan. Heck, I might have had a plan! I’ll admit that when I picked up Marisa Cohen’s “Deliver This!” I did have a plan. I planned to skim the things I already knew, which I assumed would be most of it. After all – three kids! What could I possibly learn from a childbirth book? Plenty. Suffice it to say I never skimmed. Cohen’s clever, conversational (and occasionally hilarious) style of writing kept me interested. Her command of the subject matter kept me intrigued. And I learned tons. I learned that I didn’t know squat (pun intended) about home births. Had never heard of a birthing center. Didn’t know midwives still exist. I never knew that women planned C-sections for non-emergency situations. And had no clue what a doula was. “Deliver This!” is the kind of book that’s designed to open your mind through education, and allow you to not only make the most rational and best choice for yourself, but stop judging other women whose rational, best choices are radically different from yours. And I must say that Cohen succeeds. I came away amazed at how little I knew about our options, ashamed by my own gut reactions to birthing choices that didn’t match mine, and oddly excited that so many possibilities exist out there for moms-to-be. “Deliver This!” is heavily sprinkled with birth stories from moms the world over, who chose about every method on the spectrum. And what woman (pregnant or not) doesn’t like a good birth story? But unlike the horror stories that seem to come flooding at you from every direction when you’re pregnant, most of the stories in Cohen’s book were uplifting, exciting. Most of them were about moms telling, cogently, why they chose the sometimes radical ways of delivering their babies. The honesty of the women who chose to share with Cohen is commendable, and the fact that Cohen shared the honest opinions of women from every viewpoint, rather than just the mainstream viewpoint is what makes the book so effective in opening the eyes of the reader. Cohen’s research is exhaustive, and she covers every topic from all sides, many times over. You get a feeling, after reading the book, of having left no stone unturned. You come away with a sense of direction. If I were to be preparing for another birth right now, I would definitely be feeling armed with knowledge and aware of where to get more. I recommend this book not only to pregnant moms who want to make informed decisions about their bodies and their babies when it comes down to separating the two, but also to their mothers, their sisters, their husbands and friends, who might be having a difficult time accepting a “different” choice. I’d like to see this book read in women’s issues classes on campuses, in churches where issues of tolerance are discussed, and in pregnancy support groups. I’d almost like to see this book sitting in every gynecologist’s, midwife’s, and hospital maternity ward’s waiting room, telling moms-to-be, “Here. You need to read this so you can get a plan of your own.” Yes, it’s great to see a birthing mom feeling great about her choice, her plan. It’s even better to see others respect her for her decision.
Jennifer Brown writes and moms from her home in Liberty, Missouri. Two-time winner of the Erma Bombeck global humor award, her humor column regularly appears in The Kansas City Star. Catch her humor-writing classes, Funny One and Funny, Too!, at LssWritingSchool.com. You may contact Jennifer at zoise30@gmail.com. And if you don’t mind the smell of maple syrup, she just might write back!
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