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49 reviews for:
Birth Without Fear: The Judgment-Free Guide to Taking Charge of Your Pregnancy, Birth, and Postpartum
January Harshe
3.71 AVERAGE
49 reviews for:
Birth Without Fear: The Judgment-Free Guide to Taking Charge of Your Pregnancy, Birth, and Postpartum
January Harshe
3.71 AVERAGE
If I read this during my first pregnancy, I don’t think I would’ve enjoyed it. This book isn’t the book for you if you want to learn what happens during pregnancy, labor/birthing techniques, or anything like that. But my first pregnancy was traumatic where I was not treated well and was too scared and confused to advocate for myself. Currently pregnant with my second baby, trying for a VBAC, and this was the perfect book for me to read in my situation.
This book is more about gaining confidence in yourself and realizing you have so many choices and options during your pregnancy and labor. It’s about making space for things to go wrong, for making a plan to advocate for yourself, for realizing that this is YOUR birth and YOUR baby and you have more choices and options than you realize. That while you have no control over many things that will happen, there are more things that you have a say in than you realize. For me, it was the perfect book to read in my situation. I needed to hear that my body is capable of amazing things. I needed someone to talk about working through trauma of previous birth experiences and allowing myself grace to work through those emotions. I needed someone to tell me how I can advocate for myself. Especially when I’m in full on labor. So if that’s your situation too, than this is the book for you!
This book is more about gaining confidence in yourself and realizing you have so many choices and options during your pregnancy and labor. It’s about making space for things to go wrong, for making a plan to advocate for yourself, for realizing that this is YOUR birth and YOUR baby and you have more choices and options than you realize. That while you have no control over many things that will happen, there are more things that you have a say in than you realize. For me, it was the perfect book to read in my situation. I needed to hear that my body is capable of amazing things. I needed someone to talk about working through trauma of previous birth experiences and allowing myself grace to work through those emotions. I needed someone to tell me how I can advocate for myself. Especially when I’m in full on labor. So if that’s your situation too, than this is the book for you!
funny
informative
medium-paced
I really and truly loved this book by January Harshe. I am currently in my 3rd trimester with my 1st child and there are so many unknowns, so many pieces of advice or you HAVE to do this. I love that in Birth Without Fear, January plants the seed of variations of normal. There is no one thing that is normal while pregnant, giving birth or postpartum. It is all variations of normal and that is okay. Making sure mama is healthy is a key point too because if you are not practicing self care, how can you care for your new baby? Thank you for a great read, and great tips. I love that you included a variety of birth plan templates also! Thank you!
This was like, 10% more anti-medical establishment than I wanted it to be. It's nothing outlandish, and the author clearly just wants every pregnant person to have the best birth experience possible, wherever and however it happens. There is a lot of talk about "holding space" for various emotions. It's very much an "I'm okay, you're okay" vibe and I ended up feeling more soothed by that than I expected to be.
There’s an anecdote on page 27 where the author refuses to allow a nurse to weigh her, and it’s presented as some sort of “empowerment” moment. The author says her weight is on a “need-to-know basis.” When you’re pregnant, your care provider will want to track your weight in order to make sure you’re gaining the amount you’re supposed to for how far along you are. So…your doctor does actually need to know your weight. Parts of this felt pretty anti-doctor/hospital, which is not “judgement-free” as the cover posits.
Maybe I’ll come back and try reading this one again at some point, but I think it is not for me.
Maybe I’ll come back and try reading this one again at some point, but I think it is not for me.
medium-paced
i do love january harshe so, so much, & that likely biased me. this book is less about the nuts & bolts of birth than about the headspace for birth & afterward. not a one-stop-shop, but a wonderfully affirming piece of a well-rounded perspective on birth & parent self-care.
This book read like a really long blog post. I like the ideas in here, but I did not need to read a whole book about them.
A really compassionate, holistic look at pregnancy, birth and postpartum. This is the “all-in-one” book I didn’t know I was looking for! Not everything resonated for me in this moment, but it’s one I’m sure I’ll be revisiting as we go through the postpartum process.