bwf@ihldt.UUCP (Bill Fecht) (10/30/84)
Help. I'm two months from becoming a father for the first time and I am way behind in my reading. If anyone has any favorite books on the subjects: - birthing - child development - child raising please send them to me. I will build a bibliography from them and send it to anyone interested. Also, we're "doing" LaMaze in the birthing center of an Illinois hospital. Any useful info pertaining to LaMaze, birthing in a hospital - especially specific to Illinois and Illinois State Requirements, would be appreciated. I'll gather these also and distribute. Thanks, bill fecht ihnp4!(ihldt | ihtnt)!bwf
dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman) (11/01/84)
Books:
Pregnancy & Childbirth, by Tracy Hotchner
A New Life, by Dr. Queenan
...are both excellent.
A word about LaMaze: it's good preparation (we took both a Lamaze
and another prenatal class), but don't go overboard on the "no epidural"
planning. Believe me, if your wife has a long and hard labour, an
epidural is worth it, and there's nothing significant lost. (It's
not the same as in the old days, when they'd put the woman out and
she'd wake up next day to find she'd had a baby - with an epidural
she's still part of it all.) Simone's labour was 25 hours, and the
last 7 were pretty hard. She got an epidural about 5 hours before
Ariela was born. Even then it wasn't easy going (she had back labour),
but the epidural made it bearable. It's not worth a great amount of
suffering just to be able to say "I went natural".
Another recommendation: be there with a camera, if your doctor
doesn't mind. You'll treasure the pictures later. (I got so caught
up in the delivery the doctor had to remind me to start taking
pictures as Ariela was being born!)
Dave Sherman
Toronto
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