According to Wikipedia, a misconception “happens when a person believes in a concept that is objectively false”. This is the premise of Naomi Wolf’s Misconceptions: Truth, Lies and the Unexpected on the Journey to Motherhood. Wolf brings to the surface many relevant points about how “backwards” we are here in America when it comes to birthing and raising our children.

From the motive of hospitals to the “unbalanced parternships” we face as couples when the baby arrives, Wolf challenges many common misconceptions. However, Wolf also chooses to include her own personal journey through birth and early motherhood in her book. The disparity occurs when she presents all the statistical information, which is well-supported, in conjunction with her own, seemingly narrow-minded view about these issues. Her personal experience, in my opinion, does not fall under the category of “misconceptions” but perhaps one that stems from a lack of trust in birth and mothering.

For the newly pregnant mama and her partner, who are just entering the arena of birth choices, this book presents some helpful information. Specifically, Misconceptions sheds light on hospital interventions during a birth by highlighting how these interventions are not only protective, but profitable for the hospital. For example, she focuses in on one of the surest interventions during a hospital birth, the electronic fetal monitor (EFM). The description and stories that surround this expose is shocking even for me. Something I didn’t know: Even ACOG (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) recommends that routine, continuous EFM be “dropped” from the care of low-risk women in labor. This is a conservative group of doctors, and even they agree that the EFM can be more harmful than helpful. However, hospitals continue to use the EFM continuously, even on low-risk women. Why?? Because the “tape” the EFM produces as it graphs contractions and fetal heart rate is a legal protection tool for the OB and for the hospital. A legal protection tool that is much too valuable to be dismissed.

Wolf takes a look at some other interventions and how they contribute to the hospital’s financial bottom line. She claims that hospitals must maintain, on average, an 80% epidural rate to be able to provide full-time employment to an anesthesiologist. Another point that she makes, which I had not thought of directly, is that epidurals decrease the need for staff and nurses during labor. A woman with an epidural is likely to just lay there in bed, not even knowing when it is time to push. Contrast this picture with the woman who wants a natural birth, who sits on a birth ball, needing to be supported and who moans through her contractions. This birth is more time-consuming and costly for the hospital staff, not to mention more of a “nuisance”.

One of my favorite part of Wolf’s book is the many comparisons between what birth and birth choices really are and what we think they are. A humorous, sarcastic way of driving this point home is in her referrals to advice given in the well-known mainstream pregnancy “bible”, “What to Expect When You’re Expecting”. Her critiques of this book are right on, well-said and actually very insightful. It becomes very clear where many “misconceptions” originate and are perpetuated in our culture.

The information provided by Wolf in her book is informative and interesting. However, I was left baffled by her own personal lack of understanding and her overriding negativity towards natural birth. Had she not chosen to include her personal experience, it would not be an issue, as many writers may not have wanted to include their personal stories. But Wolf chooses to include her own experience with not one, but 2 medical, c-section births (which from her description were not “emergencies”). After all this research, one wonders how she could be surprised with her outcomes based on what she basically went looking for in prenatal care.

My personal take on it is that she knows the facts, but for better or worse, does not have any deep-seated trust in her body or the process of birth. Even after writing this book, she refuses to take her own advice ,yet wants the best of the “2 worlds” (natural and medical birth). Wolf challenges misconceptions but then ultimately seems to accept them as her foundation of beliefs. Her tone, especially when talking about her personal experience, is whiny and very reactive. There is nothing pro-active or empowered about it, and throughout the book she mentions several times what she “doesn’t want”. Every time I came across a segment like this, I wanted to shout at her to go after what she does want. I was floored that Wolf didn’t seem to get that the perfect birth experience wasn’t going to be handed to her on a platter, much less when she chose to order it up at a hospital.

Besides Wolf’s lack of trust in her ability to birth, I was frustrated with her supposed lack of real understanding about midwifery care. She compares what is behind the “2 doors” (again, natural birth vs. medical birth) but describes natural birth with a midwife as devoid of technology. She seems to not know that although midwives cannot perform c-sections at home, there is a wide range of monitoring and/or intervention that a midwife is capable of. In most cases, the midwife chooses to remain non-interventive because she can see that there is no need for gadgets and gizmos.

Wolf describes what she thinks would be the ideal care for women—midwifery support in labor (which is essentially the role of a doula) merged with the smart, protective care of a doctor overseeing everything in the background. She misses that this is what gets many women into the cascade of interventions that she found herself in. And as what I see is an insult to midwives everywhere, Wolf dreams of midwifery care that “..follows ACOG standards”. Here is an intelligent, well-spoken woman that does not understand that midwives (and the women they serve) don’t want mini-doctors, they want midwives. Her lack of understanding of this issue and of the truly unique care that midwives provide is a true disservice to this book and to women investigating their options.

All in all, I’d recommend Wolf’s book, both for the helpful tidbits and insights as well as the thought-provoking look at birth and motherhood in the culture.

From the motive of hospitals to the “unbalanced parternships” we face as couples when the baby arrives, Wolf challenges many common misconceptions. However, Wolf also chooses to include her own personal journey through birth and early motherhood in her book. The disparity occurs when she presents all the statistical information, which is well-supported, in conjunction with her own, seemingly narrow-minded view about these issues. Her personal experience, in my opinion, does not fall under the category of “misconceptions” but perhaps one that stems from a lack of trust in birth and mothering.

For the newly pregnant mama and her partner, who are just entering the arena of birth choices, this book presents some helpful information. Specifically, Misconceptions sheds light on hospital interventions during a birth by highlighting how these interventions are not only protective, but profitable for the hospital. For example, she focuses in on one of the surest interventions during a hospital birth, the electronic fetal monitor (EFM). The description and stories that surround this expose is shocking even for me. Something I didn’t know: Even ACOG (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) recommends that routine, continuous EFM be “dropped” from the care of low-risk women in labor. This is a conservative group of doctors, and even they agree that the EFM can be more harmful than helpful. However, hospitals continue to use the EFM continuously, even on low-risk women. Why?? Because the “tape” the EFM produces as it graphs contractions and fetal heart rate is a legal protection tool for the OB and for the hospital. A legal protection tool that is much too valuable to be dismissed.

Wolf takes a look at some other interventions and how they contribute to the hospital’s financial bottom line. She claims that hospitals must maintain, on average, an 80% epidural rate to be able to provide full-time employment to an anesthesiologist. Another point that she makes, which I had not thought of directly, is that epidurals decrease the need for staff and nurses during labor. A woman with an epidural is likely to just lay there in bed, not even knowing when it is time to push. Contrast this picture with the woman who wants a natural birth, who sits on a birth ball, needing to be supported and who moans through her contractions. This birth is more time-consuming and costly for the hospital staff, not to mention more of a “nuisance”.

One of my favorite part of Wolf’s book is the many comparisons between what birth and birth choices really are and what we think they are. A humorous, sarcastic way of driving this point home is in her referrals to advice given in the well-known mainstream pregnancy “bible”, “What to Expect When You’re Expecting”. Her critiques of this book are right on, well-said and actually very insightful. It becomes very clear where many “misconceptions” originate and are perpetuated in our culture.

The information provided by Wolf in her book is informative and interesting. However, I was left baffled by her own personal lack of understanding and her overriding negativity towards natural birth. Had she not chosen to include her personal experience, it would not be an issue, as many writers may not have wanted to include their personal stories. But Wolf chooses to include her own experience with not one, but 2 medical, c-section births (which from her description were not “emergencies”). After all this research, one wonders how she could be surprised with her outcomes based on what she basically went looking for in prenatal care.

My personal take on it is that she knows the facts, but for better or worse, does not have any deep-seated trust in her body or the process of birth. Even after writing this book, she refuses to take her own advice ,yet wants the best of the “2 worlds” (natural and medical birth). Wolf challenges misconceptions but then ultimately seems to accept them as her foundation of beliefs. Her tone, especially when talking about her personal experience, is whiny and very reactive. There is nothing pro-active or empowered about it, and throughout the book she mentions several times what she “doesn’t want”. Every time I came across a segment like this, I wanted to shout at her to go after what she does want. I was floored that Wolf didn’t seem to get that the perfect birth experience wasn’t going to be handed to her on a platter, much less when she chose to order it up at a hospital.

Besides Wolf’s lack of trust in her ability to birth, I was frustrated with her supposed lack of real understanding about midwifery care. She compares what is behind the “2 doors” (again, natural birth vs. medical birth) but describes natural birth with a midwife as devoid of technology. She seems to not know that although midwives cannot perform c-sections at home, there is a wide range of monitoring and/or intervention that a midwife is capable of. In most cases, the midwife chooses to remain non-interventive because she can see that there is no need for gadgets and gizmos.

Wolf describes what she thinks would be the ideal care for women—midwifery support in labor (which is essentially the role of a doula) merged with the smart, protective care of a doctor overseeing everything in the background. She misses that this is what gets many women into the cascade of interventions that she found herself in. And as what I see is an insult to midwives everywhere, Wolf dreams of midwifery care that “..follows ACOG standards”. Here is an intelligent, well-spoken woman that does not understand that midwives (and the women they serve) don’t want mini-doctors, they want midwives. Her lack of understanding of this issue and of the truly unique care that midwives provide is a true disservice to this book and to women investigating their options.

All in all, I’d recommend Wolf’s book, both for the helpful tidbits and insights as well as the thought-provoking look at birth and motherhood in the culture.

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2. The Truth About Birth in the U.S.
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About 7 months ago, I was wandering through a used bookstore when a book literally jumped off the shelf at me: Primal Mothering In a Modern World, by Hygeia Halfmoon. The front cover has a picture of a beautiful family. The mother is topless and breastfeeding her youngest child. I knew that the book was made for me. I bought it without even reading the back cover.

When I got the book home, I was delighted to find that the book was written by a raw foodist, a fruitarian to be exact. Being a raw foodist myself, I was expecting to read a book about raising a raw family. Little did I know I was in for so much more.

The common thread throughout this book is not a raw food lifestyle, but women’s empowerment. Empowerment in the choices we make in our mates, in birth, education, where we live, and yes, the food we eat. Ms. Halfmoon uses her life as an example throughout the book to illustrate how women often get caught in the trap of societal and/or cultural norms without even realizing it. She begins her “counter-culture” choices toward empowerment when she decides to leave her abusive husband and live in a shelter just after her first daughter is born. Her choices continue as she turns down public assistance because she would have to stop breastfeeding her daughter to go to work, because the government would not support her. With many other twists and turns along the way, this courageous woman earns her Master’s Degree while living in a tent in Oklahoma, somehow finds enough money to move her whole family to Hawaii, and has an unassisted homebirth. She raises her 3 children and runs her own home business making baby slings as well as authors many empowering books. The story of this part of her life ends here, leaving you wishing to hear more.

After a quick Google search it is not hard to find the rest of the story and, unfortunately, it is not all good. Ms. Halfmoon ends up loosing her daughter to Florida State Child Protective Services, looses her standing in the raw community, and returns to alcoholism. It is unclear how this part of her life ends. I did find out that she is living right here in Northern Arizona as of a month ago, in Williams. It appears her sling business is still active and that she may have had more children. She is also now a grandmother.

Despite her recent misgivings, Primal Mothering is no less inspiring and empowering than before finding out about Ms. Halfmoon’s fall from grace. I feel so strongly about this book.

Related Articles:

1. Zaida Baby- What Pregnancy is Really About
2. What the Medical World Hopes You Won’t Read About Premature Birth
3. The Best Book About Birth and Spirit That You Need to Read

What is pregnancy and birth really about?

The answer depends on what culture one is in, what the circumstances are, and who you ask.

Today, in the U.S., I am not quite sure we have kept our connection to the sacred, primal, usually simple process that is being pregnant and giving birth. Mainstream America doesn’t value a mom’s intuition in the process, encourage her to relish each and every moment of her empowerment as a (pregnant) woman. “Rite of passage” is an un-politically correct concept, because women should be able to come by a baby by many means, and pregnancy is no longer considered a special and exalted space.

Pregnancy and birth are only the beginning in creating a family, a community, a connection to our lineage. A wonderful pregnancy means not only health, but growth for the woman and baby and family on a spiritual and emotional level, as well as the physical. Pregnancy, labor and birth gives a woman one of the most unique ways to connect with her soul- by connecting with the spirit of another who lives inside of her. It is her chance to imagine and create a piece of the world.

Sandy Jamieson’s creation, Zaida Baby-My First Keepsake is the reminder we need to connect again with what pregnancy really means. Sandy’s album of black-and-white photographs of pregnant mamas and their families are truly stunning. More than being beautiful to look at, they resonate at a deep level with the essence of what it means to be full of life. There is a simple, unspoken spiritual reaction I have to paging through her book. The photos and the words connect in a way to remind me that pregnancy is uncomplicated yet miraculous. The babies and families remind me that pregnancy is a journey for all involved, and that it is just a moment in time that should be relished and cherished.

Sandy’s book will help remind any pregnant woman, no matter where she comes from, that it is okay to love her body and to love the process and that there is value in connecting with her baby way before birth. And that she, as well as her baby, is truly fortunate (the meaning of “zaida”). Beyond inspiring, the book also includes a section that is for personal memories and photographs. In my opinion, the message is that pregnancy is a different experience for all women, from literal “belly measurements” to personal letters written from mom to baby. The final section of the book is from the baby’s perspective at birth and in the year afterwards. It is the nicest of “baby books”, and ends with several pages for family photographs.

I am grateful for the messages that Sandy sends with her Zaida Baby- in a time and culture where nothing about women’s bodies (or birth) is viewed as sacred, this book is so meaningful. When words and stories don’t remind us where we all came from, pictures sometimes do.

Thank you, Sandy, for reminding us what pregnancy and birth are really about.

Sandy Jamieson can be reached via her website, www.zaidababy.com. You can also view a preview of the keepsake book, purchase a copy online, read press reviews and visit Sandy’s blog.

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Never have I read a book about birth with which I so closely identify. I need to tell every woman I meet about this book, and I am already considering making it a “required read” for my homebirth clients.

The reason is simple: Birth is spiritual. No matter what your religion, giving birth is a mystery, a gift to women, and as Marcie says, “a leap of faith.”

Birth is spirit, and our society has forgotten this.

Spirit is what is essential, and what is missing in “medicalized” birth today. Marcie’s book is unabashedly bold, so honest and raw and emotional, and makes no apologies about this fact. That is what I absolutely love about it. I love that although some women may be offended by this boldness at first, everything she says can be identified by every and any woman if she just digs deep enough.

Her idea of spirit in birth is the obvious reason women have become so irresponsible in birth. Epidurals, scheduled c-sections- it all comes down to the fact that birth can just be this thing that happens to women that haven’t found their strength, those that haven’t been informed of “the Truth.”

And “the Truth,” in Marcie’s words, is this: “You are capable. Your muscles, bones, ligaments and skin were made to birth. Your soul, your heart and your Spirit were created to support you in this task, and your intellect was designed to support your confidence, not undermine it.”

There is something for every woman in this book. For the passionate homebirther like me, there is a feeling of sisterhood and delight about seeing these words on the page for everyone to read. For someone who has had an undesirable birth experience, there is compassion, healing and hope for better. And for women that have never given birth before, there is unbelievable optimism and promise and truth about what birth really is.

This wonderful book is almost a personal dialogue with the reader, one where you feel connected to the author. Interspersed are provoking questions, workbook-like sections encouraging the reader to get down on paper her own emotions and beliefs. Whether you have birthed before or not, these journaling questions are invaluable and something I would like every pregnant woman to have. The quotes and meditations (written by Marcie) on birth are so beautiful and thoughtful.

Read this book to empower yourself, read it to nurture yourself and to help stir up the power that is inside of you that is your birthright as a woman.

Perhaps my favorite idea presented in this book, and the one I believe to the absolute core of my body and soul is this:

In my own words, this comes down to respecting birth, my cardinal belief. We cannot control birth any better than we can control other natural processes, like death. We can only go into our experience without fear and with trust and with faith. This book exemplifies that principle like no other and will make every woman want to find this trust and faith within herself.

Marcie writes that birth is “powerful, beautiful, instinctive.” Prepare with this book, and experience birth as spirit for yourself.

Marcie Macari is an author, speaker and workshop facilitator. She can be reached at: 1-888-432-7171, or by visiting her site: www.shebirths.com

Related Articles:

1. Zaida Baby- What Pregnancy is Really About
2. What the Medical World Hopes You Won’t Read About Premature Birth
3. Do You “Trust Birth?”