FIRST Official Lamaze® Guide Helps Women MAKE INFORMED CHOICES AND GIVE BIRTH with Confidence

WASHINGTON—Lamaze International, the leading childbirth education organization in North America, announces the publication of its first and only pregnancy and childbirth book. The Official Lamaze® Guide: Giving Birth With Confidence presents childbearing as an elegant, simple and healthy process instead of an experience fraught with danger, and provides parents with the tools they need to make informed choices that result in happy and fulfilling birth experiences.

Authors Judith Lothian, RN, PhD, LCCE, FACCE, and Charlotte De Vries reveal how simply pregnancy and birth unfold when allowed to progress naturally. The book encourages women to have confidence in their bodies’ natural ability to have birth, and move past routine medical interventions and into the natural rhythm of pregnancy.

The Official Lamaze Guide discusses everything, from pre-conception to the first weeks of being a mother. In addition, parents learn how to choose a caregiver and birth site, as well as practical strategies for communicating and negotiating with health care providers.

Marshall Klaus, MD and Phyllis Klaus, MFT, CSW, world-renowned authors in the field of pregnancy and childbirth, tout, “The Official Lamaze Guide: Giving Birth with Confidence is the first book that every pregnant woman should read before she makes any decisions about her maternity care. The information presented is clearly described, grounded in evidence, and gives a true picture of the reality of practices as they exist in today’s hospitals, birth centers and home births.”

International birth advocate and author, Sheila Kitzinger says, “This is a superb book. Though it’s called ‘official’ it isn’t written in bureaucratic language and isn’t heaped with instructions. It’s humane, funny, tender, down-to-earth and joyful. Essential reading for all pregnant women who seek autonomy in childbirth.”

The Official Lamaze Guide also is designed to aid childbirth educators by reinforcing what is taught in the classroom about finding comfort in labor, and creating a birth plan and baby plan. It is designed to work in conjunction with or to encourage participation in childbirth education classes.

The book will retail for $12.00 and will be available in bookstores nationwide after October 1, 2005. Bulk pricing also is available. For ordering information, visit www.lamaze.org or call 877-9LAMAZE.

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Lamaze International, based in Washington, DC, envisions a world of confident women choosing normal birth. For more information about Lamaze International and the Lamaze Institute for Normal Birth, visit www.lamaze.org.

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