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Labour of Love

Nurturing Birth Book Review: Labour of Love: The Ultimate Guide to being a Birth Partner

October 25, 2021

Book Review by Rahima Ahmed

Front cover of Labour of Love: The Ultimate Guide to being a Birth Partner shows a photo of a white woman's chest and bump. She has long brown hair and is wearing a white strappy top, and blue jeans. The background is light blue with the book's title printed on the background.

The Labour of Love: The ultimate guide to being a birth partner by Sallyann Beresford is published by Dandelion Publishing and is available from good book outlets.

With over twenty years’ worth of experience supporting pregnancies in a variety of capacities including working as Doula, Antenatal Yoga Teacher, Sleep Consultant and a Hypnobirthing teacher; Sallyann Beresford has created an ultimate guide essentially written by an experienced birth partner for birth partners to be. Whether you’re supporting a birth for the very first time or you’re an experienced Doula you will benefit from taking some time out to read this book.

From my experience, I’ve found that electronic libraries and bookshop shelves seem to be flooded with resources dedicated to expectant mothers, but there is limited material in comparison for birth partners. Sallyann’s aim behind this guide was to create a resource that supported couples in the labour room.

By providing birth partners with the right preparation and knowledge, Sallyann noticed that the support she offered resulted in more positive pregnancy, birth and post natal experiences. Sallyann effortlessly breaks down the journey of birth, covering topics such as birth locations, hormones, safety words, dilations, positions, birth plans, birth management and preparing for the postnatal period. The book provides expectant parents and partners with the confidence and up to date knowledge needed to achieve a positive birth, not only for the mother or birth parent but for everyone involved.

Sallyann manages to inform her readers of all the options available to them, whilst covering multiple scenarios and how to handle changes that may arise. Her ability to pair each chapter with real-life personal experiences and stories bring the chapters to life, as well as supplying very useful bite sized recap points which are great for birth partners to easily access.

As a Doula, reading this book made me reflect on the ways in which I currently support my clients and how I can improve on this to ensure that they feel as safe and as comfortable as can be. Sallyann developed an acronym ‘P.R.O.T.E.C.T.S’ which stands for Positions, Refreshments, Oxytocin, Timing, Environment, Calm, Touch and SIlence. Each word highlighted in this acronym is a quick way to somewhat checklist that you’ve covered every aspect of your role as a birth partner and it remains relevant in all types of birth.

Sally Ann dedicated an entire chapter to ‘The Birth Partner’. Whilst specifically reading through this chapter I was reminded of the power of just being present which can be so easily overlooked; sometimes words are not needed, just simply being present is enough. I find myself encouraging my clients to believe in themselves and believe in their bodies. As birth partners we need to remind them of this, whether that’s in the language that we use, or by confidently encouraging them to allow their bodies to naturally go with the flow.  Sallyann also reminded me of the importance of trusting a mother or pregnant person’s instinct as it’s very rarely wrong.

Overall, I would highly recommend The Labour of Love. It’s an easy read that I didn’t want to put down. The book itself has the perfect balance of antenatal education combined with birthing reality. The mixture of diagrams, acronyms and charts were very informative too.  By truly understanding the needs of a woman or birthing person, whether those needs are emotional or physical, we can all work together to create the most beautiful and positive birthing experience possible. By reading this book I believe this even more.


Book Review by Rahima Ahmed (Riri The Doula) www.ririthedoula.com

Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: Birth partner, books for birth partners, Books for dads to be, Books for fathers, Books for parents to be, Labour of Love, Rahima Ahmed, Sallyann Beresford

Read a (birth) book day!

September 2, 2021

Enjoy some of Nurturing Birth’s top doula book recommendations!

Fancy settling yourself down with a good read? Wanting to know what pregnancy or birth book to treat yourself with? Thinking of expanding your doula library? Look no further – Nurturing Birth has gathered a list of some utterly gorgeous books that every doula and doula client deserves to enjoy.

Illustrated books

Loads of people find wordy books hard to access, so having some fun and informative illustrative options in your collection can be a brilliant way to help to share those vital birth messages.

The Food of Love and Bump

Front covers and The Food of Love, Bump and an inside page.

Cartoonist and author Kate Evans has created two wonderful books, “Bump”, about pregnancy and birth, and “The Food of Love”, a book about breastfeeding. Both are delightfully drawn and packed with excellent, high quality and detailed information. Kate Evans manages to really delve into the physiology of birth and breastfeeding, explaining how we can best support our bodies, and how birth and breastfeeding really work, while remaining judgement-free and supportive of everyone’s individual decisions.

“Bump” and “The Food of Love” are books for adults, but they’re also a lovely way to teach children and teenagers about birth and breastfeeding. Plus they make amazing coffee table books to just casually leave there when someone who needs to know more pops round!

Kate’s books are available from her website, cartoonkate.co.uk.

The Princess and the Poo

Princess and the Poo front cover and inside image.

We also love the delightful cartoon book, “The Princess and the Poo” by Lara FairyLove, and published by AIMS. This attractive little book is written for children, helping them to understand the normality of birth and the importance of undisturbed birth. If every boy and girl read “The Princess and the Poo” in their childhood, they’d be introduced to the understanding that birth is a process that they don’t need to be afraid of. Perhaps it would start to counter some of the negative media images that they’re all exposed to as they grow.

Birth In Focus

Three-photo montage from Birth IN Focus. First photo, woman in homebirth pool having a back massage from a girl of around 10 years. Second photo, baby's head just emerging. Third photo, new parents look at their newborn baby.

During Becky Reed’s lifetime as a midwife she collected hundreds of inspiring photographs, some of which (with permission!) she has collated into her book, “Birth in Focus”.  The book illustrates many different types of birth, home, caesarean, water, twin, breech. As well as the beautiful photos, “Birth in Focus” shares the birth story that went with the picture, from the perspective of the mother and the midwife. “Birth in Focus” can be purchased from Pinter and Martin or you can contact Becky directly on 07843282951 for a signed copy.

Books about birth

Labour of Love

We particularly love “Labour of Love – The ultimate guide to being a birth partner” by Sallyann Beresford. This is a wonderful book to share with the birth partners of doula clients, as well as being invaluable for all doulas, too. Sallyann’s unique and wonderful angle is to help birth partners to understand what they need to know. There really isn’t another book like this!

Parenting books

Kiss Me and My Child Won’t Eat

Two books by the same author, Carlos Gonzalez, are spectacularly helpful parenting books. “Kiss Me” is a book that honours the child, supporting parents to move away from the authoritarian styles that they’re likely to have been raised with themselves, and shares vital tools to successfully break the mould.

His other book, “My Child Won’t Eat” is the book every parent of a picky toddler or child needs to read. He points out that the health benefits of eating broccoli through one’s life is well proven, so our job as a parent is to ensure that our children are not put off eating broccoli, rather than forcing them to eat it and ensuring they won’t touch it in adulthood!

“My Child Won’t Eat” provides helpful tools and ideas to help parents to feel confident in their children’s diet, and can be a wonderful book for doulas to share with clients who are starting to prepare for weaning.

Books for delving deeper

The Politics of Breastfeeding and Complimentary Feeding

“The Politics of Breastfeeding” by Gabrielle Palmer is one of those life-changing books that you can’t un-see. If you have any inclination to better understand the history, politics and current reality of how businesses undermine breastfeeding, “The Politics of Breastfeeding” is the book for you. Gabrielle also wrote the must-read book, “Complimentary Feeding: Nutrition, Culture and Politics”, which extends the discussion past breastfeeding and into the ways that the manufacturers of baby foods and foods marketed at young children have influenced our understanding of the needs of this group – in ways which are far more beneficial to their pockets than our babies.

Why Human Rights in Childbirth Matter

“Why Human Rights in Childbirth Matter” by Rebecca Schiller is another must-read for those wishing to understand who is running this most intimate part of our lives, and why. This small book, from the “Why it Matters” range by Pinter and Martin, helps us to understand why our rights in pregnancy and birth may be taken from us if we don’t know we have them, and what still needs to be done to make birth better.

Have you read any of these books? What did you think? Do let us know how you enjoyed them, and what you love that’s on your bookshelf on our social media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nurturingbirthdoulas

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nurturing_birth/

Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: Birth in Focus, Bump, Complimentary Feeding, Kiss Me, Labour of Love, My Child Won't Eat, The Food of Love, The Politics of Breastfeeding, The Princess and the Poo, Why Human Rights in Childbirth Matter

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