Prolonged Labor Handbook

Jan Tritten, editor

[2003, Eugene, Oregon: Midwifery Today, $18.00, 72 pages, paperback]

[Review first published in Midwifery Today Issue 73, Spring 2005, © 2005, Midwifery Today, Inc. Review by Cher Mikkola.]

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Another in the Midwifery Today Holistic Clinical Series, this little book is packed with articles gleaned from the pages of Midwifery Today publications and penned by authors such as Nancy Wainer, Sara Wickham, Marion Toepke McLean and Sharon Glass Jonquil. A spectrum of subjects about prolonged labor gathered into a small format enables practitioners to access information on the fly, in anticipation of or even during a prolonged birth or during general self-education. This booklet can be tucked into a pocket or birthkit or hole-punched and kept in a handy mini-notebook along with others in the series.

The booklet leads off with Valerie El Halta's "Preventing Prolonged Labor," a thorough guide for diagnosing and resolving just about any cause of prolonged labor and preventing hospital transports. Other techniques-oriented articles include a how-to description of diaphragmatic release; two reviews of herbal remedies as well as tinctures, tonics, oils and teas that have an effect on the uterus; and a Judy Edmunds article that describes numerous tricks of the trade. The book also offers birth stories, philosophical observations and thoughtful essays, as well as a liberal sprinkling of sidebars, line drawings and the kind of wonderful labor and birth photographs Midwifery Today is famous for. The brilliant Clinical Series condenses a wealth of information into easy-to-access, easy-to-carry booklets that any practitioner will value.

Reviewer Cher Mikkola is a contributing editor at Midwifery Today magazine, the editor of Midwifery Today E-News, and a freelance writer, editor and proofreader who specializes in the field of birth.

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