Mothering Magazine's Having a Baby, Naturally: The Mothering Magazine Guide to Pregnancy and Childbirth

it strikes me as only a slightly more natural approach than What to Expect When You're Expecting... still a good resource, but not as natural or alternative as i wanted or expected.

in the siblings section, it advises that siblings should be allowed to hold the newborn immediately. nope, sorry, not going to do it ~ immediately after birth (and the hours following) are, for me, strictly mama-baby bonding time. *nobody* will be holding my new sprite but me, unless there's an emergency. i'm not going to hand her off to my nearly-4-year-old son to hold just so *he* can bond with her and to lower the risk of sibling rivalry... there are better alternatives than this.

in the nutrition section, it relies on the USDA food guide pyramid ~ as a Mothering reader, i'm suprised the nutrition guidelines weren't based on something far healthier, such as the traditional Meditteranean diet.

in the childbirth section, every single illustration showing how the baby comes out of the mother depicts the mother laying down almost on her back, despite the repeated assertions that women should deliver their babies in an upright position. there is also no mention of unassisted childbirth, even though many women now are choosing to have their babies unassisted.

these are just the biggest issues i have with it (so far anyway). i plan to re-read it anyway to see if i'm taking too much out of context but, for my impression upon reading it once through... i have to say, i wouldn't recommend it.