Book Report: "Easy Labor: Every Woman's Guide to Choosing Less Pain And More Joy During Childbirth"

William Camann and Kathryn Alexander, 2006

Overall I found this book to be interesting and useful. It describes each of the major pain management options available to women giving birth. It did strike me as being biased towards pain medications, but was still very informative on other options. I do wish they had provided more concrete information on some of the non-medicated methods rather than simply referring to various classes. Perhaps that would be too much to cover in one book. It was good to at least get an idea of what else I should be looking into. I just wish I had read it sooner because many of the non-medication methods requires months of preparation.

There is an interesting piece at the back that discusses the history of pain management, or lack thereof, which I thought would be great to have at the beginning of the book. In its current state, it just jumps right into the discussion of pain and kind of stressed me out at first. I just about broke into a sweat thinking about having to have an IV along with the epidural, but it’s not the author’s fault that I can’t stand needles.

I think the best advice this book gives is to be educated about your options and stay flexible.

Report by Stefanie