Acknowledgments
Introduction

 

SECTION I: BEGINNING YOUR JOURNEY
1. Finding Your Question
2. Emptying Your Mind
3. Worry is the Work of Pregnancy
4. Connecting With Other Women
5. Eating in Awareness

 

SECTION II: THE ART OF BIRTHING
6. Black Cloud Over Birth
7. Birth Art Teaches
8. Taking The Plunge
9. Discovery Through Drawing and Painting
10. How Birth Art Helped Donna Become a Mother
11. Revelations Through Clay
12. Preserving Your Shape Shift: Making a Belly Cast
13. Birth Art and Insights from Professional Artists

 

SECTION III: PREPARING YOUR BIRTH PLACE
14. Ask Questions Before Your Chile is Roasted
15. Where Mothers Build Their Nests
16. Childbirth as a Rite of Passage
17. The Birth Plan Trap
18. Birthing With Wolves
19. Home Birth

 

SECTION IV: BEING POWERFUL IN BIRTH
20. Even Paper Tigers Can Bite
21. Labor Means Hard Work
22. Out of Control: How to "Lose It" In Labor
23. These Bones Were Made for Birthin'
24. Stand and Deliver
25. How to Give Birth if You Need a Cesarean
26. Being at a Birth Doesn't Make a Man a Father

 

SECTION V: FATHERS AND BIRTH COMPANIONS
27. Getting Dads Involved
28. Pitfalls of Labor Coaching
29. What's a Father To Do?
30. The First Moments
31. Laborland Etiquette
32. Gathering Information: Guidelines for Making Decisions and Giving Informed Consent

 

SECTION VI: BIRTHING THROUGH PAIN
Introduction
33. Looking for a Way Out
34. Exploring Beliefs and Attitudes About Pain
35. Endorphins
36. The Ecology of Pain
37. Don't Give Birth Without a Doula
38. Proven Pain Techniques
39. The Compassionate Use of Drugs and Epidurals

 

SECTION VII: GESTATING PARENTHOOD
40. Gestating Motherhood
41. Baby-proofing Your Marriage
42. Swaddling the New Parents
43. Preserving Your Birth Memories

 

AFTERWORD: Birth as an Adventure
APPENDIX A: Special Diets for Special Situations
APPENDIX B: Breech Tilt
APPENDIX C: Worksheets for Learning the Pain Techniques
APPENDIX D: Reminder Cards
APPENDIX E: Circumcision

 

Notes
Index