Calm Birth ─ Prenatal Meditation for Conscious Childbirth

The “trauma of childbirth” is a commonly heard phrase, but one that Calm Birth authoritatively counters. A resource for pregnant women and birth workers looking for empowering mind-body practices for a healthier kind of birth, this edition, revised with updated research and new material, shows how we can restore childbirth to its sacred status. The Calm Birth method, based on successful programs of the Harvard Medical School and the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, combines three proven practices—relaxation, meditation, and healing—with current scientific knowledge to nurture the expectant mother’s natural ability to give birth in true harmony with her body and her baby. Newman contextualizes the multilayered method within the existing literature of mind-body medicine and meditation science, as well as the meditation traditions from which two of the methods originate. In eight inspiring case studies of women who have experienced calm births, the author complements the thoughts of renowned experts including Carlos Castaneda and Carolyn Myss.

With 25% new material, this revised edition contains a new foreword by Sandra Bardsley, updated research in the fields of meditation, birth, and the prenatal period, two new birth stories, three new chapters, and new photo documentation.

Contents
Foreword by David B. Chamberlain, PhD
Foreword by Sandra Bardsley, RN. FACCE, LCCE, CD
Preface
1. Background
2. Prenatal Meditation
3. Childbirth in the Human Energy System
4. Pregnancy as a Path of Human Development and Evolution
5. The Calm BirthR Method
6. Calm Births
7. Calm Mother Practices: Empowering Postnatal Care
8. New Childbirth Medicine
9. The Evolution of Mind-Body Practice in Obstetrics
10. Toward a New Era of Childbirth Education
Glossary
Resources
References
Notes
Index

After graduating from UC Berkeley, Robert Bruce Newman dedicated himself to advanced studies and training with respected Buddhist teachers. After more than 12 years of training he was authorized to teach a more complete kind of mindfulness meditation, based on complete breathing. His training was such that he was accepted as a teacher of mind-body medicine in hospitals in Oregon, California, and New Jersey. In 1998, he began to present a new childbirth practice, Calm Birth, in Oregon hospitals and has since presented the Calm Birth method four times at world congresses of the Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health (APPAH) and was asked to present the method at the University of Michigan Medical School and at Bastyr University. The program has teachers in 15 countries around the world.