Our Bodies, Ourselves: Pregnancy and Birth - eBook

The Boston Women's Health Book Collective (now known as Our Bodies Ourselves) is a non-profit organization founded in 1969 whose board members include Teresa Heinz Kerry, Susan Love, and Gloria Steinem. Their mission is to empower women by providing information about health, sexuality, and reproduction. Our Bodies, Ourselves is the organization's core vehicle for driving their mission. While OBOS is famous for its voice in policy, advocacy, and educational efforts related to women's health, they see their role as a global content provider as paramount. Judy Norsigian is the Executive Director of Our Bodies Ourselves. The Boston Women's Health Book Collective (now known as Our Bodies Ourselves) is a non-profit organization founded in 1969 whose board members include Teresa Heinz Kerry, Susan Love, and Gloria Steinem. Their mission is to empower women by providing information about health, sexuality, and reproduction. Our Bodies, Ourselves is the organization's core vehicle for driving their mission. While OBOS is famous for its voice in policy, advocacy, and educational efforts related to women's health, they see their role as a global content provider as paramount. Judy Norsigian is the Executive Director of Our Bodies Ourselves.

The Boston Women’s Health Book Collective. Touchstone, $15 paper (384p) ISBN 9780743274869 In this third spin-off of Our Bodies, Ourselves, the self-described women’s health “bible” first published in the 1970s, the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective focuses on pregnancy, birth and recovery. This book will help women make confident and informed choices about the birth process as they negotiate the healthcare system and balance their options. The chapters are arranged chronologically along the journey into motherhood, with useful sections on the physical and emotional changes of each trimester, fetal development and prenatal testing. Other topics include choosing a healthcare provider, prenatal testing, labor, pain management, recovery, breastfeeding, emotional ups and downs and many other issues. The text is interspersed with pertinent personal narratives, as well as with more than 70 black and white photos and illustrations; the emphasis is on up-to-date information, probing the use—and overuse—of various practices and medical interventions. “Informing yourself about these practices and their alternatives,” the editors write, “is an essential step toward creating a better birth experience for yourself and your baby.” This comprehensive guide is sure to take its rightful place among its sister titles, empowering a new generation of expectant mothers. (Mar.)Copyright 2008 Reed Business

"The trusted Boston Women's Health Book Collective has written a comprehensive, accessible, and up-to-date book for expectant mothers. It balances important facts, scientific data, and evidence with the voice of the 'wise woman,' and it provides questions to ask, issues to think about, and options to consider and discuss. This is the #1 book I am going to recommend to my patients."

-- Timothy R. B. Johnson, MD, FACOG, Bates Professor and Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Professor ofWomen's Studies, University of Michigan