Obstetric Myths Versus Research Realities A Guide to the Medical Literature

Subjects:

• Family Resources » Pregnancy & Birthing
• Health/Medicine » Medical Specialties

Related Web Pages:

• Henci Goer's Home Page

Reviews:

• What an outstanding book -- long awaited! Her book is outstanding in achievement: providing research to either substantiate or, more often, disprove the handling of birth in America. This book is written for every birth provider, doula, labor coach, childbirth teacher, parent, and physician who wants a clearer picture of reality versus myth in obstetrics. I highly recommend that everyone even remotely involved in birth read this book. It is the most useful, readable, current book on traditions in obstetrics and why we should question routine rather than simply go along with the norm. This book gives us the backbone to stand up for what is right: to birth our babies in our own time, without interventions.
  —
  Patty Sherman, midwife
• ...a good source of information on current issues of controversy and some of the pertinent literature.
  —Modern Midwife
• I would certainly recommend this book to all students of midwifery especially those following academic courses. I believe it is also essential reading for all those midwives who are engaged in ongoing debates with their medical colleagues over appropriate styles of maternity care - are there any midwives out there who are not?
  —MIDIRS Midwifery Digest
• Goer's new book is a gold mine of documented scholarly support for reducing or eliminating routine medical interventions in childbirth.
  —Birth-Oriented Resource Network Magazine
• [T]his would serve as a scientific obstetric 'Bible' to keep at hand, to dip into when help is needed on a particular subject. It will provide chapter and verse to support midwifery solutions to obstetric problems, it will comfort in times of despair, and it will help keep one's heart and soul in the right place.
  —Midwifery Matters

• Endorsement From Marshall H. Klaus, M.D.
  
  Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics
  
  
  University of California, San Francisco
  
  
  and author of Mothering the Mother: An extremely scholarly and detailed evaluation of the many controversial interventions and issues involved in obstetrical care.
• Endorsement From Roberta M. Scaer, M.S.S.
  
  
  Co-author, A Good Birth, A Safe Birth
  : Maternity care as we know it is based on myths that are hammered home as truths. This book offers the chance to break free from that pessimistic model and embrace one of genuine health care. Ms. Goer teaches you how to understand the medical/obstetric literature . . . She also shows through the literature how midwifery and out-of-hospital birth are scientifically valid and more likely to result in a healthy mother and baby.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction
• The Nature of Evidence: How to Read the Medical Literature
• The Cesarean Epidemic
• The Cesarean Rate
• Vaginal Birth After Cesarean
• Cephalopelvic Disproportion, Failure to Progress, Labor Dystocia and Active Management
• Breech Presentation
• Fetal Distress and Electronic Fetal Monitoring
• Pregnancy and Labor Management
• Gestational Diabetes
• Postdates Pregnancy: Induction versus Watching and Waiting
• Premature Rupture of Membranes at Term
• IVs versus Eating and Drinking in Labor
• Amniotomy
• Epidural Anesthesia
• Episiotomy
• The Case for an Alternative System
• Midwives
• The Freestanding Birth Center
• Home Birth
• The Nature of Evidence (Reprise): Why the Gap Between Belief and Reality?
• Glossary