Empowering Women - Andrea Robertson

Here is the book to either help you get started as a childbirth educator, or provide that stimulus to try something different in your established routine. The first part of the books explains the basics of working with adults and offers hints on making your teaching style and presentation methods more effective. Designing your program and experimenting with different formats is covered, and the basics of writing a lesson plan, to help you feel confident in what you are doing, are also explained. Next comes the best descriptions of the physiology of birth and labour pain that you are likely to find.

This information is basic to the whole "active birth" philosophy of supporting and protecting the normal birth process, rather than disturbing and hindering it, as so often happens in our hospitals. How the teach about these important facts occupies the second half of the book.

There are 53 ideas here for class presentations, centring around ways of building women's confidence in birth, and helping her to discover her own innate abilities. This section contains illustrations of the exercises, and even "scripts" to demonstrate how to get the message across. A woman who truly understands and trusts her body to give birth has the insight and courage to work with her own strengths during labour, and this book tells you how you can help her develop this essential self-awareness.

It's a different approach: not based on teaching "methods" (breathing and conscious relaxation, for example) but rather on increased knowledge of the natural process of birth, instinct and potential responses. Well referenced and based on the scientific evidence, there is plenty of solid research here to support this approach, and to encourage you to try it!