This book gave me so much confidence in my abilities to give birth naturally! I was a nervous first-time mother-to-be, but wanted to make a serious attempt at natural childbirth due to all the complications associated with epidurals and the like. I read my mother's copy from cover to cover and filed all the wonderful details away for use during my own labor. I was born in the 70's, and found the hippy langauge a little amusing, but brightly descriptive and calming. I like being talked to as a person who has a mind of her own, not someone who cannot make decisions of her own free will, as some other birthing books tend to do. I recommend this book highly to all new mothers that I meet. The message that you are completely capable of giving birth to the child living inside you with little or no intervention, aside from real emergencies, is an invaluable one, and all the actual recounts put you in this frame of mind. Ina May and the midwives in this book create a loving voice in your head that stays with you when you need it the most. With no fear tactics, either! What a novel idea... And I also have to add that I used tons of the information given to aid my labor, and it all worked, at various levels. It gave me the confidence to labor at home for the majority of the first day, and by the time I went into the hospital I was already 7 centimeters dialated, much to my surprise. I gave natural birth to a healthy baby boy the next day. Everyone's labor experience is different- I just wanted to share my real-life labor that was made significantly better by this book.

I have to say that I am very thankful for this book. I have a nine month old and gained weight with my pregnancy, as lots of women do, and was having a hard time with the old non-fat starvation routine, especially since I breast-feed.(They really push 'eating right'. I don't think that being thirty pounds overweight is healthy or neccessary, though. My little boy has had no problems.) The weight was excruciatingly slow in coming off, but I had resigned myself to just wait it out. Then my father and mother tried the New Diet Revolution and had very good results. It took this convincing before I would try it, so terrified was I of "fattening" foods. I have lost 13lbs in five weeks, and am so completely excited about losing the rest, I just had to write this review. At the beginning, I also experienced some weakness, but after I started back on my pre-natal iron supplements, felt much better, and by the beginning of the third week felt very much normal, except that I was shrinking! The sugar was much harder to do without, probably due to the fact that I was so addicted to it- it is in EVERYTHING,it seems, especially "low fat" proccessed foods. I believe that that may be part of the reason for so many people having such ill effects at the onset. May I suggest that you ease into the diet a little bit, by just first cutting down on bread, rice, pasta and sugar. You will see the weight come off slowly, despite what you think will happen. I also feel that it is important to get a HIGH QUALITY vitamin complex, not just any old thing off the shelves. Get some recommendations from your doctor. I have tried Shaklee and was very impressed, but they are difficult to find. Vitamins have to actually be absorbed to do the body any good, and alot of the cheaper ones come right back out in the urine. As for the onslaught of opinions geared toward this food being "unhealthy", first of all, tell that to the homo-sapiens that lived on this planet millions of years before us. What do we believe cavemen ate, anyway? Frosted Flakes? Little Debbie Cakes after a long hard day of hunting? I used to think so, but Dr. Atkins reminded me of where we came from, and I am thankful for his voice, especially against the roar of the "Fat Free Industry" and refined sugar corporations. Secondly, you eat salad every single day, and today I had a tomato and onion and cheese omelet, and for lunch I had leftover chicken from last night, along with strawberries and whipped cream. Yumm! Unhealthy? I think not! I don't even think I'll be eating dinner, I feel so full. Maybe an unhealthy salad... Read the book, skip over the stuff about how great it is and get on with finding it out for yourself. It reads incredibly easy and he is quite thorough with his explanations on how this is working in your body. What an education! Thanks again Dr. Atkins. And mom and dad for trying it first!