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Praise for Calm Birth
Childbirth in America is in trouble. But that is not the major message of this wonderful book, just the opposite. Newman offers a program called Calm Birth as a potent solution. It follows the tradition of the earlier pioneers such as Dick-Read, Lamaze, and Bradley in offering practical and ground-breaking solutions to the stresses of birth, but exceeds their efforts by a wide margin. This book is essential reading for birth and other professionals who handle birth-related impacts, such as pediatricians, pre- and perinatal practitioners, childbirth educators, doulas, midwives, nurses, and others. This book is essential for expectant parents who can promote the health of their babies and prevent unnecessary negative impacts. And its magnificent reading!!
William Emerson, PhD, former president, Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health
Robert Bruce Newmans Calm Birth program provides couples and professionals alike a beautiful map, a method and a philosophy, to prepare for birth in a way that honors and helps them connect with their deepest innate nature and abilities. Calm Birth opens up a vista of hope, empowerment, inner wisdom, and confidence to trust the ability to birth naturally. Families stories gracefully illuminate how Calm Birth ignites transformational experience in life, pregnancy, birth, and beyond. I hope you read this book.
Wendy Anne McCarty, PhD, RN, author of Welcoming Consciousness
Robert Bruce Newmans book successfully bridges ancient feminine healing wisdom and meditation to contemporary birth practices. With a broad overview of the history of birth, and deep personal knowledge of meditation, the author presents practical methods that have the power to redefine birth from a medical problem to a natural human process that blesses life itself. With the possibility of safe and calm birth, bonding and trust occur easily and naturally and spread to family, community, and beyond. This book is a must for anyone interested in childbirth.
Barbara Findeisen, MFT, former president, Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health
![Dovile practicing Calm Birth at 8 cman hour before giving birth Photo by Dovil - photo 2](/uploads/posts/book/386427/images/nab-calmbirth-fig01.jpg)
Dovile practicing Calm Birth at 8 cman hour before giving birth!
Photo by Dovil Karvauskien
Calm Birth
PRENATAL MEDITATION FOR CONSCIOUS CHILDBIRTH
REVISED EDITION
Robert Bruce Newman
Forewords by David Chamberlain, PhD,
and Sandra Bardsley, RN, FACCE, LCCE, CD
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North Atlantic Books
Berkeley, California
Copyright 2005, 2016 by Medigrace, Inc. All rights reserved. No portion of this book, except for brief review, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout the written permission of the publisher. For information contact North Atlantic Books.
Published by
North Atlantic Books
Berkeley, California
Cover photo by Cornelius Matteo
Cover design by Nicole Hayward
MEDICAL DISCLAIMER: The following information is intended for general information purposes only. Individuals should always see their health care provider before administering any suggestions made in this book. Any application of the material set forth in the following pages is at the readers discretion and is his or her sole responsibility.
Calm Birth: Prenatal Meditation for Conscious Childbirth, Revised Edition is sponsored and published by the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences (dba North Atlantic Books), an educational nonprofit based in Berkeley, California, that collaborates with partners to develop cross-cultural perspectives, nurture holistic views of art, science, the humanities, and healing, and seed personal and global transformation by publishing work on the relationship of body, spirit, and nature.
North Atlantic Books publications are available through most bookstores. For further information, visit our website at www.northatlanticbooks.com or call 800-733-3000.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Newman, Robert Bruce, 1935, author.
Title: Calm birth : prenatal meditation for conscious childbirth / Robert
Bruce Newman ; foreword by David Chamberlain and Sandra Bardsley.
Description: Revised edition. | Berkeley, California : North Atlantic Books,
[2016]
Identifiers: LCCN 2015051026 | ISBN 9781623170578 (paperback)
ISBN 9781623170585 (ebook)
Subjects: | MESH: Natural Childbirthmethods | Meditationmethods
Classification: LCC RG661 | NLM WQ 152 | DDC 618.4/5dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015051026
For all those women, now and in the future,
who would love to be empowered when they give birth
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Womb Breathing: Alison in tub between contractions a few minutes before the baby crowned.
Contents
![Calm Birth Smiling Alison breathes her baby out to be born as husband Damani - photo 6](/uploads/posts/book/386427/images/nab-calmbirth-fig03.jpg)
Calm Birth: Smiling Alison breathes her baby out to be born, as husband Damani (left) assists, breathing with her.
Photo by Christine Novak, RNC-OB
First and foremost, regarding my work in medicine and childbirth, I am deeply grateful to Shenphen Dawa Rinpoche and Chgyam Trungpa Rinpoche, two of my meditation teachers. After ten years of the study and practice of Vipashyana meditation with Chgyam Trungpa Rinpoche, I began to practice what I found to be a more complete form of Vipashyana with Shenphen Dawa Rinpoche. He transmitted the practice of vase breathing to several students of his starting in 1981. He authorized me to teach it in 1984. It was Vipashyana based on complete breathing, a more complete model of human function and potential.
At an early stage of this books development, David Chamberlain, PhD, began to provide invaluable editorial help and guidance. David had been president of the Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health (APPPAH), an international association of childbirth professionals, psychologists, and researchers intent on improving childbirth practices and health. He was a widely respected author and editor. His editing of two chapters of this book, Childbirth Meditation and Toward a New Era of Childbirth Education, for publication in the peer-reviewed APPPAH journal, was pivotal to the development of the book. His foreword is a testament to his understanding and support. Im deeply grateful for his invaluable help.
But even before Davids essential help with the book came Sandra Bardsleys important help in defining the Calm Birth practice. Sandra was and is a renowned nurse midwife and educator. As a midwife, Sandra had birthed hundreds of children; as an educator, she had published an important book, Creating a Joyful Birth Experience; and she had been one of the founders of Doulas of North America (DONA). That she wholeheartedly believes in (and has long been a teacher of) the Calm Birth practice is essential to Calm Birth. She helped define the practices, and has been a close adviser to the Calm Birth board of directors. She is vital to the program and the practices. Sandra is currently president of APPPAH, which remains an important supporter of Calm Birth.
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