The Basic Needs of a Woman in Labour Paperback – October 11, 2011

Best book ever! I had one in South Africa with preparing for my 3rd baby's birth. Moved county and I'm pregnant with my 4th and had to get it again. Really insightful, short and sweet. Ruth was my midwife with my 3rd, so happy to have had her and her support.

From 1997 to 2015 I was a La Leche League Leader and breastfeeding activist . In those years I experienced day by day how limited the "promotion and support" of breastfeeding and "motherempowerment" can be, if PROTECTION (from interferences with the physiological processes!) is not the BASIS, the "cultural keyword" , the continuous medical-assistential key-àction !....Michel Odent's book "Do we need midwives" and other of his writings, together with my three personal birthexperiences, and the many experiences with mothergroups and motherbabies and healthprofessionals/community gave me a more and more detailed, scientifically updated and broadened picture about what the birth-breastfeeding-primal healthcontinuum is and how "evolutionary healthgenesis-healthreset and healthbalance" is created in our species " and how sustainable life between mankind and our motherearth could and SHOULD (...) be recreated.And then... then I discovered Ruth Ehrhardt's little but so so crucial booklet...... I realized that Ruth's book reassumed "THE KEY" , "the basis ingredients" for humanity to reverse its millennarian cultural birthparadigm and to finally rediscover "how parturition/birth and breastfeeding are born" in our species and how we should primarily PROTECT these crucial survival-evolutionprocesses from interferences!This concised but so incredibly crucial booklet should be read and "digested" and metàbolized and intériorized in the first place by all the persons who work "on the birth-breastfeeding scene", so midwives, gynaecologists, doulas, nurses, neonathologists etc.... And by hospitaldirectors, politicians, professors and teachers and other institutionally, politically and culturally important persons who create guidelines and protocols and educational programs etc for pregnancy-birth and breastfeeding assistance...This book should also be interiorized and used by associations and activists who work in the field of of peace and justice and by film and theatre makers and artists and painters and poets and architects and well, actually by everybody.....:-)The "birthparadigm-shifting" and "re-empowering" and the "physiology-re-activating" and the "re-healthenizing" impact would be incredible, really incredible on 360° degrees and in all the directions for our species and for the whole mother life circle, just as it would be and it IS for the life of every single motherbabycontinuum and every family......Yes dear precious true midwife Ruth: The updated science of human physiology is more and more able to confirm: If the basic needs of a woman in labour and of the motherbaby during the whole primal period will be rediscovered and protected then we can really change the future of mankind!! Eternally THANK YOU for writing this book, and MORE than this, for your continuously interiorizing and experiencing the principles of the book with every motherbaby you meet and every birth you attend!!

I have been contemplating a natural childbirth, and as usual in this case, one tends to gravitate towards the writings of Ina May Gaskin and Michel Odent, the usual 'gurus'. Then I stumbled over this little book by a Cape Town midwife by the name of Ruth Ehrhardt, and it is a very refreshing and informative read indeed. Based on the works of Michel Odent, this book gives you the lowdown about birth with the pregnant woman's needs at the core, which differs widely from the way things are usually handled in hospitals. The book is written in a wonderful concise and precise language that leaves no doubt about the writer's intent. A very informative and refreshing read. The book helped me verbalize my own choices when it came to explaining my birth choices to my loved ones, and it also strengthened my own determination in choosing my own way of giving birth.

This is an amazing quick read! If you are having trouble getting support for your birth vision this is the book for you. It is short enough you can just hand it to people for them to read on the spot. It lays out the needs of the laboring woman in a simple and humanizing way.

A great short read on physiological birth

Basic and to the point. It was a good reminder for me as a doula to give the woman space if she is coping well but I do think there is a place for a hands on approach, such as when a mother has back labor or a very long exhausting labor where she needs someone's support.

I worked for 10+ years as an OB/GYN Maternity Nurse. I was young; just one year out of nursing school. I intuitively knew that things we were doing to Moms & Babes just were not right. What was "right" I had yet to learn.At 23 I thought of returning to midwifery school... did not happen. At 33 I was pregnant for baby #1. Despite being well versed in "hospital mentality natural child birth, I started researching true natural health care for pregnant, birthing, and lactating moms: Susun Weed, Ina May Gaskin, etc. I knew I did not want to labor and birth in the standard medical care's idea of natural childbirth. This book, 18 years ago, would have been a gift that would have opened my eyes quickly to the world of true natural birthing.A good read for:all females thinking they may want to have children,pregnant women,Maternity Nurses,Doulas in training,practicing doulas,midwives trained in the hospital idea of natural childbirth...OB/GYN Docs,husbands,partners...

1st I was not paid or reimbursed for my review. So this is an actual reader review.I'm a 30+ year nurse & doula that is always looking for quick, easy to read & understand information for my patients & clients. This book comes in both a paperback & Kindle format.The information was just what I need to use with my pregnant families. I liked the ease of the 32 page layout along with ease for all levels of information intake. I would recommend having both formats to allow use with anyone interested in learning about the woman during her childbearing life cycle.Great book. Thank you for giving me another resource. TheRN Doula Etc