Heather Armstrong (self-described as "the woman who was all EPIDURAL ON THE ROCKS, PLEASE!") has me doing a happy dance this morning with her
latest post on
Dooce, wherein she describes how reading Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein's
Your Best Birth revolutionized her perceptions about natural birth leading up to the recent birth of her daughter, Marlo:
And then, oh God, the worst thing happened. And I didn't even see it coming, but I'm sitting there reading that book, gritting my teeth, shaking my head when all of a sudden it started to make sense. I started to see just how medicalized labor and birth have become in America AND THERE GOES MY WORLD VIEW.
I'm not going to get into the specifics and the really convincing and at times jaw-dropping statistics of it here, there are so many other places and people who can write about it better than I can, but I will say this: if you are pregnant or are planning to become pregnant, GO READ THAT BOOK. From now on when someone asks me what is the one piece of advice I would give to a pregnant woman, it will be: GO BUY A COPY OF THAT BOOK. Listen, I am not affiliated with that book in any way, I do not know Ricki Lake, she and I do not vacation in St. Tropez together (although if she'd like to come ride four-wheelers at my Mom's cabin in Duchesne, Utah, THE OFFER STANDS), I do not owe that publisher any favors. But IT CHANGED MY LIFE. I'm not even kidding, I'll say it again: IT CHANGED MY LIFE.
Considering that only, like, 100 billion people read Dooce, it is really really exciting to see Heather evolving on this issue and speaking out about it so strongly. I have loved her blog for years, but this really makes it dear to my heart. I only read a few of the 505 comments on her latest post, but it is so moving and cool to see how many people have already been positively influenced to start educating themselves about their birthing options just from that one post. And she hasn't even gotten to her actual birth story yet.
Go.
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