Birth with Confidence

Résumé : International birth intervention rates are well above those recommended by the World Health Organisation and climbing. In Birth with Confidence, one of Australia’s foremost thinkers on the subject of childbirth explains why normal birth is almost impossible in our current birth culture—and what women can do to beat the odds. In this accessible, straightforward book, Rhea Dempsey draws on over thirty years’ experience to show how a woman’s choice of caregivers, support team and birthplace, as well as her life experience and personal attitudes to pain, will affect her birth outcomes. Featuring real-life stories, the latest Australian statistics and opportunities for guided personal reflection, Birth with Confidence provides the knowledge and practical advice that women need for the best chance of normal birth in today’s birth culture. Praise for Birth with Confidence ‘If you are pregnant or considering getting pregnant, this book is a must read’—PINKY MCKAY, author of Parenting by Heart, Sleeping Like a Baby and 100 Ways to Calm the Crying ‘During my twenty years of involvement in childbirth activism and research, many women have asked me ‘how can I have a good birth?’ I have wanted just this book—Rhea’s wise answers—to give them. Now we have it’—DR KEREEN REIGER, School of Social Sciences La Trobe University and author of Our Bodies Our Babies About the author A highly sought after educator, speaker, counsellor and birth attendant with experience at over a thousand births, Rhea Dempsey is respected as one of Australia’s foremost thinkers on the topic of childbirth. With three adult daughters of her own, Rhea’s understanding of birth has been gained during thirty-four years working with pregnant women, their partners, support people, midwives and medical practitioners.