The Doula's Guide to Empowering Your Birth: A Complete Labor and Childbirth Companion for Parents to Be

I pre-ordered Lindsey's book and finished it within 3-4 hours of receiving it. I L-O-V-E-D loved it! As a doula, social worker, and maternal-child health professional, I've read a lot of books and research on pregnancy and preparing for birth. Lindsey's book is my new favorite. I want to gift it to all of my expecting friends and clients. (Seriously. Can I buy these in bulk?) It's an incredibly easy read and her doula voice and personality shine through! You won't be bored. She is not heavy on stats and research, she's flexible and non-judgmental about choices, and she discusses the unfortunate barriers and pitfalls of the medical model/hospital system without being preachy. Lindsey covers everything and she's got a great sense of humor! There are so many philosophies and opinions about birth and parenting but Lindsey isn't pushy and doesn't come off biased when she talks about your choices. "You're the consumer." The Doula's Guide is truly a book that ANY expectant parent can feel comfortable reading. Like Lindsey, I work with ALL types of families and I'm excited to have a universal book reference. "When I was on my second pregnancy, which was with twins, I looked like I was smuggling a Twinkie on only one side of my underwear." Hahaha! Maybe my favorite sentence in the entire book. Lindsey shared so much of herself with the world. The Doula's Guide is just that, a guide. So maybe you get a doula, maybe you don't - either way, this book is a winner and will definitely help prepare you (and your partner) for an empowering and informed birth experience.

This book is definitely an empowering guide because it is super informative about all the options you have and choices you will need to make about tests, interventions etc while being very un-biased and passing absolutely no judgment. She takes a holistic and mindful approach to birth and emphasizes that you are best prepared for birth if you explore all the options, even ones you don't think you want, and are open to the fact that things may not go the way you want them to because of the unpredictable nature of birth. She makes it clear that no matter what kind of birth you choose you are no less of a woman and that you can have a beautiful, amazing birth in any setting. She does all this while being truthful and realistic about the lack of evidence-based care in many hospitals, and its potential negative effects on your birth. She informs you about typical hospital policies so you know the questions to ask and the requests to make to empower yourself and ensure the best possible outcome, and reminds us that we are the consumers and have the power to make a change in the system by standing up for ourselves asking for what we want and need.

Very informative.

I work part-time as a doula in East TX. Most of my clients are around my age, slightly curious about birth, and want something educating while not overly technical or overwhelming in content. After having to read many other technical texts for my job, I read this and i'm now recommending it to my clients left and right. The content is PERFECT for people entering the birth world. It's clearly written by a down-to-earth person in our day and age. The book is even beautifully put together. It isn't pointed in one direction of birthing methods such as Lamaze, Hypno, etc, which is what I usually run into. It's got an Ina May Gaskin vibe with the intention to educate and empower. IT'S PERFECTLY WONDERFUL! Top of my bookshelf for clients and friends.

I really appreciated the frank and realistic perspective the author gave. It had lots of personal practical knowledge paired with facts. Includes some recipes & suggestions. & it was a more holistic minded read. Quick read, finished in a couple afternoons - also included good questions to ask perspective doulas and social media connection to the author who has a group that meets on zoom

As a student doula, I’ve been looking for books to add to my collection. This book is a quick read and for the most part - good. I follow Lindsey on social media and really like her! But this book was something I was surprised to read from her. The bits on nutrition came across as judgmental - referring to sugar as “the devil” and statements like “processed food is not good for you or your baby.” Other contents of the book (labor comfort measures, pushing, postpartum) seem to be more of advice based off personal experience rather than scientific study. However, I did learn a few things (helpful items for labor and recipes) and did appreciate the use of gender-neutral terms (laboring person, chestfeeding, etc) All in all, I would recommend this to a pregnant person and/or their family, but I would feel the need to preface with a lot of “eat the meat, spit out the bones.”

I like all of the information in this book. Quick read. I finished it in a day and a half. More information could have been wrote about HG into the morning sickness section because as someone who’s experienced extreme Hypermesis Gravidarum. I don’t feel like it’s as rare as the author wrote but other then that it was a good book. Like any book though about parenting just follow your instincts. Tend to your baby’s cries, nurse your baby on demand, and just do what you can to get through these early days. The days are Long but the years are short.

I recently had my first child and did not invest in a doula but came across this book and thought it was a good read! The author focuses a lot on twins and her experience as a mother and doula. She was lucky enough that her own mother was a midwife. Good tips to think on to ask the hospital and recipes. At the time of my own birth the book and notes taken didn’t matter... fortunately I had a healthy baby girl.

A bit of context: I am a doula myself, and read this in the hope of finding a new book to recommend to clients. First the good bits: this book covers most bases and has contains some solid advice. It's one to consider if you don't have much time to read and want to touch upon everything in one book, or are starting from scratch and wanting to find out what you want to know more about. I particularly like that it addresses the fourth trimester. However, I ended up returning this book and won't be recommending it to my clients. Here's why: - The majority of advice seems to be based on the author's own pregnancy and birth experiences, rather than research, facts and statistics on what applies to the majority of birthing people. As a doula, the support I offer is not about me - it's about you. - There is some very helpful advice in this book, and then some very patronising advice worsened by the author's tone ("Don't Smoke. I mean, really. Do I have to tell you why this harmful to you and your baby? Well, I will.") - Background information, anecdotal stories and recommendations are all presented together without a clear structure, making it difficult to go back and quickly find the information you need. When you are suffering from morning sickness, you probably don't want to plough through a whole paragraph of "I felt like a squirrel getting ready for winter by storing snacks in every pocket / protein seemed to really help / I've also heard that lemon oil can do the trick" etc. etc. - This is just a matter of personal taste, but be warned that the very casual / jovial / American tone (oh poop!) might not be everyone's cup of tea. With doula support becoming increasingly popular, I understand that the title of this book might be appealing - but please don't equate this book to doula support. The unconditional support, deep discussions, explorations of your hopes, wishes and worries and sound knowledge that we offer goes way beyond the advice given in this book.

Excelente información.

I absolutely LOVED this book. I learned so much and was reassured a lot too. There are a ton of great take aways and recipies too. I originally read this on Kindle Unlimited and am now purchasing the physical copy so I have it in my house all the time! My husband is also going to read it. We are 4 months pregnant with our first child currently and this was so helpful. Highly recommend. I also loved that there was a twin chapter! My husband is a twin and although we're having a singleton, we plan on having another so it was very nice to prep for the "just in case" scenario!

I really enjoyed this book as a certifying labour, birth and postpartum doula. There is so much valuable information and feels so authentic. I loved the various recipes throughout and learned a lot about myself as a doula and a first time momma currently pregnant! I no longer use “birth plan” and love the alternative of “birth preferences”. Overall so good and would highly recommend for parents and birth workers alike!

I love this book. The layout of information flows so naturally and honestly. I can’t put it down...except to stop and write a review, it’s great. I’m not even pregnant, but I want to be now haha.