Birth With Confidence: Savvy choices for normal birth

Australia’s 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.

Birth With Confidence will:

• Outline the benefits for mothers and babies of a normal physiological birth
• Help you understand how our current birth culture can undermine your attempts at normal birth and the steps you can take to make sure it doesn’t
• Explain how the various ‘circles of influence’ around you — from your friends and family to the wider culture — can support or sabotage your birthing potential
• Help you identify your own attitude to pain — your ‘pain type’ — and what it will mean for your birth
• Provide practical and emotional steps you can take to raise your pain tolerance level
• Give you a framework for deciding on the best caregivers and support people to help you work through any ‘crisis of confidence’ during labour