Calm Birth, Revised: Prenatal Meditation for Conscious Childbirth

Description

For pregnant women and birth workers looking for empowering mind-body practices for a healthier kind of birth The "trauma of childbirth" is a commonly heard phrase, but one that Calm Birth authoritatively counters. Beginning with a history of the repression of women as midwives and healers and a look at the lingering legacy of that time, the book shows how to restore childbirth to its sacred status. Calm Birth combines three proven practices that together create a powerful new approach. These practices-relaxation, meditation, and healing-combine with current scientific knowledge to nurture the expectant mother's natural ability to give birth in true harmony with her body and with her infant. The book contextualizes the multilayered Calm Birth method within the existing literature of mind/body medicine and meditation science, as well as the meditation traditions from which two of the methods originate. The author complements the thoughts of renowned experts including Carlos Castaneda and Carolyn Myss with eight inspiring case studies of women who have experienced calm births. With 25% new material, this revised edition contains an introduction by Sadra Bardsley, updated research in the fields of meditation, birth, and the prenatal period, two new birth stories, three new chapters, and new photo documentation.

After graduating from UC Berkeley, Robert Bruce Newman dedicated himself to advanced studies and training with respected Buddhist teachers. After more than 12 years of training he was authorized to teach a more complete kind of mindfulness meditation, based on complete breathing. His training was such that he was accepted as a teacher of mind-body medicine in hospitals in Oregon, California, and New Jersey. In 1998, he began to present a new childbirth practice, Calm Birth, in Oregon hospitals and has since presented the Calm Birth method four times at world congresses of the Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health (APPAH) and was asked to present the method at the University of Michigan Medical School and at Bastyr University. The program has teachers in 15 countries around the world.