Understanding Birth: 2nd Edition, A Comprehensive Guide

Designed for childbirth educators, Understanding Birth provides practical information, tips, and advice for new moms and their partners, covering the physical and emotional aspects of late pregnancy, labor, and birth, as well as the first weeks at home with a newborn. The information is primarily presented through a female narrator over live footage, onscreen lists, and animations (showing, for example, what happens inside a woman's body during labor and either vaginal or cesarean delivery), supplemented by interviews with parents undergoing the birthing experience. The program seems slightly biased toward non-medicated childbirth: labor is described as “intense” rather than painful, viewers are reminded that an epidural limits the choice of positions for labor and delivery (and encouraged to learn natural methods for coping with pain), and a young mom who chose natural childbirth is the subject of an entire chapter, while others delivering through C-sections or with pain medications receive less screen time. However, Understanding Birth does provide information about medications commonly used during labor and explains why cesarean deliveries may be necessary (while reassuring mothers of C-section babies). Chapter selections are subdivided to allow viewing of, for instance, only the animation of a cervix during labor, or a description of medical checks performed on newborns. A second disc provides a condensed 48-minute “express” version of the same program. Recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (M. Puffer-Rothenberg)