Editor Reviews:

Product Description:
Gives expectant parents an overview of the options available, offering up-to-the-minute advice on such matters as physical and emotional preparation, the father's role, avoiding a cesarean birth, and other information. 35,000 first printing. Tour.

Amazon.com Review:
In The Birth Book: Everything You Need to Know to Have a Safe and Satisfying Birth, William and Martha Sears, authors of The Baby Book and creators of the concept of "attachment parenting," here turn their attention to the birth experience. In this helpful resource guide, the Searses cover the gamut of possibilities, and teach readers what they need to know to take control of their own birthings. The Birth Book is divided into three parts: "Preparing for Birth," "Easing Pain in Labor," and "Experiencing Birth." You'll find details about vaginal births; cesareans; VBACs; water births; home births; best birthing positions; drugs; pain; how to design your own birth plan; the humor, chemistry, and sexuality of birth; and pages and pages of birth stories.

Rating : - Conflicts with Current Research!!!
I bought this book 7 months into my pregnancy, looking for advice as to labor and delivery. Not only is the book out of date (1994) but relies heavily on research that has been proven unreliable or false. In addition, the authors write from their own experience, which sounds like a good idea, but learn this: the wife has unbelievably short labors, and bases her entire idea of labor for the rest of society on the fact that she naturally had her children in a few hours or less (actual length of labor: average is 12-26 hours for a first-time birth).
This book was bought with several others, and I was first struck by how different the opinions expressed herein were. So, I started conducting some PubMed and Elsevier journal searches on the "research" mentioned. In almost every case - from use of Pitocin to home birth to epidural use - I found a striking difference between the current, peer-reviewed recommendations and articles and what the Sears family cited. I was not only disappointed, but rather shocked that such a dated and incorrect book could be sold in popular bookstores as fact.
Frankly, the Sears are welcome to their opinion on childbirth, and I respect that. However, they cite old papers, statistically insignificant findings, and make assumptions that cannot be backed up. To all those other mothers-to-be: please don't disregard what your OB says because of this book! It is highly out of date, and quite irrelevant. The only plus side: some good anatomical illustrations and pain techniques. Other than that, please don't waste your money on this book!