Hi,

I wanted to write the group because of an experience this weekend that confirmed to me why this Lamaze book - Giving Birth with Confidence - is important. I was talking to a woman who has had 2 children (naturally in the hospital) and she said her best friend was pregnant and they were talking about a childbirth education course to take. This woman recommeded Bradley, which is what she took. Her friend then says that she knows she doesn't want to do it naturally, she's probably going to have an epidural so this woman tells me, "So then I said to her, 'Well, then go take a Lamaze class.'" At first I didn't think I heard her correctly, but after she repeated herself I realised I had heard her correctly and she was basically saying "If you don't care much about having an empowering birth experience take a Lamaze class." As most of you know, this is VERY disconcerting to hear. This woman is quite mainstream, but did want and have 2 natural births...but to her Lamaze is an outdated childbirth method that's "just about the breatihng." Okay, deep breath. Of course I told her the opposite was actually true and she was SHOCKED.

Then my colleague at BOLD forwarded some of the stats from the recent Listening to Mothers Survey #2 and one of the statistic is that only 2% of the people survey used Lamaze normal birth practices.

Hmmm...

The question to me is how can we get books like "Giving Birth with Confidence" in the hands of the average pregnant woman? This might not be radical information for the birth community, but it is for mainstream women. Just dispelling the misconception about Lamaze is fuel enough for me to promote this book.

I really loved how this book does not talk down to pregnant mothers. So many books seem to.

Okay, just wanted to vent.

K