Bestselling author Sheila Kitzinger, the world's foremost birth educator and activist, explores the universal experience of pregnancy and childbirth in this splendid book, beautifully illustrated with hundreds of photographs. With an intimate, informative style that both enlightens and engages her readers, Kitzinger looks closely at feelings and emotions in pregnancy, the physical and spiritual experience of giving birth, and the bonds that are traditionally formed between mothers and midwives.

As research discloses the risks of intensively managed hospital birth, increasing numbers of women are considering alternatives. This new updated edition of Sheila Kitzinger's pioneering work gives them the facts. Highly informative yet sensitively written, and supported by firsthand accounts of women's personal experiences of birth, this is the essential guide for every woman considering her options.