This guide enables mothers to make positive choices about pregnancy and childbirth, It encourages them to trust and act on their instincts rather than acquiesce to the many unevaluated routines and procedures used in maternity care. Clear, challenging, unsentimental and under-awed by the "miracle" of modern obstetrics, here is a book that women can use from the minute they know they are pregnant to become more than simply silent partners in one of the most important events in their lives.