Product Description
The national C-section rate is at an all-time high of 31 percent. Are all these C-sections necessary, or are some of them done simply for the sake of convenience? Inductions seem to be the norm, but are they always needed? Today, expectant mothers are often left feeling powerless, as their instincts are replaced by drugs and routine medical procedures.

What you are about to discover is that you have a choice, and you have the power to plan the kind of birth that's right for you-whether it is at a birth center, a hospital, or at home. In YOUR BEST BIRTH, internationally known advocates of informed choice RickiLake and Abby Epstein inspire women to take back the birth experience, with essential advice on:
·Positive and negative effects of epidurals, Pitocin, and other drugs and interventions
·Inducing vs. allowing your labor to progress naturally
·The truth behind our country's staggering C-section rate
·Assembling your birth team and creating your birth plan.

With chapters such as "Obstetricians: Finding Dr. Right,""Epidurals: You Haven't Got Time for the Pain," and "Electronic Monitors: Reading between the Lines,"Lake and Epstein will encourage you to consider whatever your doctor, mother, and best friend may suggest in a new light. The book also includes inspiring birth stories, including those from well-known personalities, such as Laila Ali and Cindy Crawford. Packed with crucial advice from childbirth professionals, and delivered in a down-to-earth, engaging voice, YOUR BEST BIRTH is sure to renew your confidence and put the control back where it belongs: with parents-to-be!

"Abby Epstein and Ricki Lake have taken a wonderful and constructive approach to ensuring an optimal birthing experience. Their language creates a 'climate of confidence' for pregnant women and their families, who must make key decisions about where, how and with whom to give birth in a health care system often unresponsive to our needs. This book is like a good friend giving wise counsel." --Judy Norsigian, co-editor of Our Bodies, Ourselves: Pregnancy and Birth and Executive Director, Our Bodies Ourselves ... Read more

Customer Reviews (23)

good
Very knowledgeable book, I am an ICU nurse and was very dishearten when I did my OB rotation.I knew I wanted something very different than what I witnessed.This book lays out the options, a little bias, easy to over look, a must read for anyone thinking about birth options.

read -- even if you've seen the film!
I checked out "Your Best Birth" after seeing Ricki's documentary "The Business of Being Born."Just like the film, this book reveals what is really going on in modern U.S. birthing practices and aims to inform to-be mothers of their options.I appreciated the book's breakdown of common interventions such as epidurals, inductions, and various drugs and practices and how their use can both help and hinder labor.This helped me understand their (sometimes) medical necessity, and also when it's safe and beneficial to refuse them.

For me, the book's most helpful feature is the lists of questions to ask one's obstetrician, doula, birth center, hospital, or midwife.During my prenatal appointments my doctor would often wrap-up the visit by asking if I had any questions, and while I felt I needed to know more about what to expect from the hospital and my impending delivery, I really didn't know what to ask.Armed with questions from this book I discovered that being personally informed and having my own ideas about my birth plan in no way guaranteed I would or even could get the birth I wanted, and empowered me to seek out and transfer my care to a provider I'm confident is on my side.

If you're wanting an epidural and hospital delivery -- read this book.If you're wanting natural pain management and a midwife -- read this book.There's no condemnation from the authors for either birth plan; only a desire to see women fully informed about their choices.

great info
This is a great book for those that enjoyed the "Business of Being Born" movie. It gives more good personal stories and examples and just gives you something in writing that provides lists, resources and stats so you have it accessible when you are questioned about your choices to go natural. I read this while trying to conceive and I am glad that I was able to start thinking about my plan early.

Should be read!
It is a great book to read if you are pregnant. Regardless of whether or not you are considering natural childbirth, one must read it.

I liked this book.
First of all, let me say that I think Ms. Lake has tackled some very hot button issues and I think she does them with savvy.She has an inherent bias in the sense that she is definitely on the side that is not looking for hospital birth.That being said I think if you are a physician or an individual that delivers in a hospital you might be put off by the tone or angle of the book.The great thing about this country and I think Ms. Lake would agree is that we can have multiple choices and women should have multiple choices when going into a delivery.This book springboards off of her bestselling video about the business of being born and it is indeed a business.I love the natural choices that are provided and while I might not agree with all of them I do like the fact that she is making this a debatable topic because that is how we all learn.I also think that doulas and midwives should have more of a say at the table but the reality is that most doctors are even governed to the point of being told what to do by their own colleges.

This book would go well with a book wirtten by physicians to help dispel any of the other misconceptions about pregnancy.Hands Off My Belly: The Pregnant Woman's Survival Guide to Myths, Mothers, and Moods is a book that talks about the natural birth experience and dispels common myths.Your Best Birth is a great addition to any pregnant woman's library and it is presented in a format that is neither insulting or scary.While the information is slightly biased I think that is what Ms. Lake would like to convey because she is passionate about her cause ... Read more

Product Description
Waldron reveals the true story of Ricki Lake, with details on her debut in John Waters' camp classic Hairspray, other starring roles in film and TV, how she shed 125 pounds to become one of today's hottest celebrities, her whirlwind romance with artist Rob Sussman, their secret Las Vegas wedding, plus the facts behind her arrest with PETA members. Photo insert. ... Read more

Product Description
A profile of popular talk-show host Ricki Lake follows her pre-television film achievements, dramatic weight loss, rise in stardom on The Ricki Lake Show, struggles with self-esteem, and personal romances. ... Read more

Product Description
“Labor of Love…makes me want to stand up and shout, ‘Yes! Right on, sister!’” — Christiane Northrup, MD, author of Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom

“A practicing certified nurse-midwife … [Muhlhahn] has the battle scars to prove it … as well as enough emotional dings to give her plain-speaking single mom’s memoir an edge.” — Booklist

Cara Muhlhahn is force of nature. Single mom, jazz singer, salsa dancer, traveler, and midwife to more than 700 babies, she holds nothing back in her astonishing memoir. As one of today’s most beloved and sought-after midwives, Muhlhahn delivers an engaging story of the choices and sacrifices she has made in order to live a life of passion and devotion. At an early age, Cara wanted to make a difference in people’s lives. She decided she would help women during their most significant experience—giving birth.

Balancing her medical knowledge with intuition, the challenges of single parenthood with work, and personal sacrifices with the joys of birth, Muhlhahn captures what it’s like to know your purpose, and live life to its fullest. Written with searing honesty, Labor of Love will inspire and amaze. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Waste of Money!
I absolutely hated this book! I bought it because I love the idea of non-medical or low medical birth experiences, and because it was an AJN book of the year. It was horrible! The only reason I finished it was because I wanted to write a review and find out if it had any redeeming qualities. Nope! From start to finish, this goes back and forth between singing the praises of the author and defensively discussing her career as a homebirth midwife. The clincher for me, though, was how she went ON AND ON about the parking situations. She kept reiterating that because she does such important work, basic parking laws shouldn't have to apply to her. She's so full of herself. Don't waste your money on this!

Quick absorbing read
To those that say Cara comes across as too smug, self-satisfied, etc etc, I say shoot, of course she's proud of her life choices. She's a homebirthing midwife! That takes some serious guts and hard hard work. I would be very proud too. In this day and age, when midwifery is looked down upon as unsafe and unserious, it's hard enough to be a midwife much less an independent one that is all about homebirths.

The writing isn't the most literary ever, but I didn't care - her voice came through loud and clear, and the story she had to tell was amazing. And, I'm sure I'm not the only one to say this, but I ever do become a midwife, part of the inspiration will come from midwives like you, Cara!

boastful
wow, she's likely an amazing midwife, but you're possibly going to hear about how great she is from herself than from anyone else.I couldn't get past the first two chapters because of the ego stroking.damn.

Great book for midwives and students
I adore this book - it is real, has wonderful birth stories and comes from a place where you feel as if you know Cara, the midwife. Great read for all midwives, CPM and CNM. As a CNM student who previously studied to be a home birth CPM, I appreciated that Cara had her feet in both worlds and was able to collaborate and bridge the world, albeit not all the time, between the medical establishment and midwifery model. I laughed, I cried, I learned. And, I was really sad when I read the last page. Great book!!!

I expected more...
I wish that I could have liked this book. As a homebirth midwife, I really wanted to like it. However, I was bored reading it, found the author's tone very arrogant and the writing style lacking. I liked her in the Business of Being Born, and perhaps with a better editor, this book would have been a better read.

I also didn't like how she made it seem as though midwives who are not Nurse midwives are somehow inferior. That was the vibe I got from this book, she says several times about how she feels that her nursing training was so helpful to her as a midwife. The U.S. is one of very few, if not the only country in the world that has midwives who are also nurses. As a direct entry midwife who also has had experience working in hospitals and in doctor's offices, I can say that my hospital based training was not nearly as helpful as the training I have received under other midwives in out of hospital settings.

A midwife's story, All my Babies, Listen to me Good, or A baby catcher are better choices when reading a midwife's memoir. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from The Advocate (The national gay & lesbian newsmagazine), published by Thomson Gale on November 6, 2007. The length of the article is 669 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Unlikely lesbians.(FILM)(Ricki Lake and Cheri Oteri)(Interview)
Author: Mike Diamond
Publication: The Advocate (The national gay & lesbian newsmagazine) (Magazine/Journal)
Date: November 6, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Issue: 996Page: 53(1)

Article Type: Interview

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 985 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Signed essays ranging from 500 to 2,500 words, written by subject experts and edited to form a consistent, readable, and straightforward reference. Entries include subject-specific bibliographies and textual cross-references to related essays. ... Read more

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112 page magazine featuring Ricki Lake on the cover and in an interview inside, with photographs by Bruce Weber! Also in this issue: large features on Jennifer Tilly, Federico Fellini, Dermot Mulroney, Jena-Paul Gaultier, and the Beatles, plus smaller features on Neil Diamond, Kristin Hersh, Greg Louganis, Robin Quivers, Danny Lyon, fashion, art, music, and much more! ... Read more

Product Description
Chapters: Charm School With Ricki Lake, Rock of Love: Charm School, Vh1 Top 20 Video Countdown, Real Chance of Love, Flavor of Love, Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School, Ego Trip's the Rapper Show, Daisy of Love, Megan Wants a Millionaire, Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew, I Love New York 2, Rock of Love Bus With Bret Michaels, for the Love of Ray J, Supergroup, That Metal Show, Pop-Up Video, Celebrity Fit Club, I Know My Kid's a Star, Hogan Knows Best, Vh1's Top 40 Videos of the Year, Tool Academy, Breaking Bonaduce, Sex Rehab With Dr. Drew, My Antonio, America's Most Smartest Model, Frank the Entertainer in a Basement Affair, Ice-T's Rap School, I Love the '70s: Volume 2, the Pickup Artist, Behind the Music, I Love the '80s, Celebrity Rehab Presents Sober House, Brooke Knows Best, So Notorious, Best Week Ever, I Want to Work for Diddy 2, ¡viva Hollywood!, I Love the '80s Strikes Back, the Surreal Life: Fame Games, Hip Hop Honors, I Love the '90s, Love Monkey, I Love the '90s: Part Deux, the World Series of Pop Culture, Al Tv, the Cho Show, I Love the New Millennium, I Love the '80s 3-D, New York Goes to Work, the Fabulous Life Of..., New York Goes to Hollywood, Vh1 Rock Honors, but Can They Sing?, Bands Reunited, Game Show Moments Gone Bananas, Celebrity Paranormal Project, Celebracadabra, Operation Kitten Calendar, Gone Country, Ego Trip's Miss Rap Supreme, the Salt-N-Pepa Show, the Wendy Williams Experience, I Love Money, Acceptable.tv, Web Junk 20, Free Radio, I Love Toys, Scream Queens, Glam God With Vivica A. Fox, I Hate My 30's, Armed ... Read more

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US Weekly May 21 2007 issue Featuring: Ricki Lake Half my Size, Inside Paris' jail cell, Angelina in Tears over her kids. and much more. Filled with the latest celebrity gossip and photos. ... Read more

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OK Weekly Magazine, October 29, 2007 Issue.The cover is Ricki Lake (4 pages).Also inside:Heidi Klum, Pamela Anderson & Rick Solomons Wedding (4 pages), Prince William & Kate Middleton, Ben Kingsley, Orlando Bloom, Lindsay Lohan, Sarah Jessica Parker & Matthew Broderick, Britney Spears (4 pages), Dave Annable, etc... ... Read more

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VHS Video! 1988 John Waters film starring Divine and Ricki Lake! In John Waters's HAIRSPRAY, teenager Tracy Turnblad has the biggest bouffant on the block. She also has all the right moves to be on the local dance show and win the crown of Miss Auto Show, as well as the ex-steady of the snooty reigning princess, Amber. But Amber isn't too happy about that and has other plans for Tracy. John Waters's first PG-rated film is also his most sweet-natured and accessible. Based on his appreciation of the real-life 1960s Baltimore dance program THE BUDDY DEANE SHOW, Waters's affection for the era and attention to authenticity shines through. Lake, in her first film performance, radiates charm and enthusiasm. Divine, in his last (dual) role, appears as both Tracy's mother, Edna, and dastardly TV station manager Arvin Hodgepile. As if that weren't enough, an inspired cast of cameos (Pia Zadora, Ric Ocasek, Waters himself) and a virtual instruction manual of faddish period dances and their accompanying songs serve only to make the deal even sweeter. ... Read more

Product Description
She's the hippest new talk show host on television today. This calendar features funny and scintillating dialogue based on Ricki Lake's sizzling, fast-paced show. 4 1/2 x 4 1/2. ... Read more