An authoritative guide to natural childbirth and postpartum parenting options from an MD who home-birthed her own four children.

Sarah Buckley might be called a third-wave natural birth advocate. A doctor and a mother, she approaches the question of how a woman and baby might have the most fulfilling birth experience with respect for the wisdom of both medical science and the human body. Using current medical and epidemiological research plus women's experiences (including her own), she demonstrates that what she calls "undisturbed birth" is almost always healthier and safer than high-technology approaches to birth. Her wise counsel on issues like breastfeeding and sleeping during postpartum helps extend the gentle birth experience into a gentle parenting relationship.

SARAH BUCKLEY, MD, is an internationally known authority on natural birthing and parenting choices. She has published numerous articles in Mothering magazine and Midwifery Today. She lives in Brisbane, Australia.

 THE AUTHOR SCOOP

How long did it take you to write this book?Around ten years since I wrote the first material, and around 9 months to rewrite and put it all together.What was the hardest thing about writing a book?Combining it with looking after 4 children When did you know you were a writer?When I was 10, I told my class teacher I wanted to be an author! Favorite childhood book?I was a precocious reader, I read Jane Eyre at age 10 and loved Wuthering Heights.If you had to boil your book's message down to one sentence, what would it be? Trust your body, trust your baby, follow your instincts What are you working on now? A commissioned report on the hormonal orchestration of labor If you had a superpower, what would it be? Sorting things out on every level, which includes a special talent for removing embedded hair ties from Barbie hair.