Heart and Hands: A Midwife's Guide to Pregnancy and Birth

Completely updated in the third edition, Heart and Hands is a practical guide, textbook, and reference that is both hands- and hearts-on. Davis, a long-time, well-known midwife, gives how-to details on all aspects of midwifery practice, including prenatal care, problems in pregnancy, assisting at births, labor complications (including a devastating and beautiful description of a stillbirth by midwife Shannon Anton), and caring for the entire family postpartum. Each chapter has a special section "for parents," but expectant parents can use all of Heart and Hands to get as much knowledge as possible about their upcoming experience.

Product Description
For over two decades, HEART & HANDS has been a beloved guide for both midwives and parents interested in the benefits of midwifery care. This all-new fourth edition has been revised from start to finish, featuring updated material that emphasizes independent midwifery, physiologic (natural) birth, and the art of nonintervention. Midwifery expert Elizabeth Davis includes valuable hints for turning breech and posterior babies, mediating pain in labor, and supporting newborn physiology. Davis also reveals the keys to postpartum recovery, with practical tips on breastfeeding for busy mothers. Comprehensive and compassionate, HEART & HANDS remains a dog-eared classic for parents, midwives, and other birthing helpers.

If you're a doula - you want this book. If you're a childbirth educator - you want this book. If you're an aspiring midwife of any kind - you want this book. If you're a mother, a grandmother, an expectant parent, or a natural childbirth advocate - you too, want this book!

Guiding you through prenatal care, problems during pregnancy, the birth process, complications during labor, postpartum care for mothers and babies - this guide will last many, many lifetimes over. Included also, is information about becoming a midwife, and even setting up your own practice - or finding the right careeer route for yourself.

This is a timeless piece of artwork! Enjoy!


excellent book for midwifery students   January 4, 2000
Andrea Crowley (San Francisco)
51 out of 52 found this review helpful

Newly revised, this book is an old friend of mine. One of the first midwifery books I read, it covers an enormous breadth of information, yet is understandable for the beginner. It is still one of the 2 or 3 books I refer to first when I need to look something up. Elizabeth Davis just revamped and revised this book in 1997, and it is better than ever, with new sections on herbs and homeopathy, working with apprentices, hepatitis and HIV, midwifery practices, and issues of legalization, NARM, and MANA.

The book is very well-organized, with lots of excellent illustrations that make concepts easy to understand. There are many boxed areas for quick reference on herbs, and issues for pregnant women reading the book. These include questions to ask a potential midwife, self-care in pregnancy, danger signs in pregnancy, and many more. I recommend this book to consumers as well as midwives, as I think educating yourself during your pregnancy is very important, and this book is a wonderful resource.

My only criticism with the book is that the information is not very well documented- Davis will mention that research has found such-and-such, but doesn't cite the researcher or where it was published.


Wonderful resource for expectant mothers, too   May 12, 1999
25 out of 25 found this review helpful

I'm not a midwife, but I wanted lots of information about childbrith before the birth of my first baby. This was our favorite book about childbirth: the information was specific, the drawings were clear and beautiful, and the whole book was encouraging.


Full of heart   May 17, 2003
Peggy Vincent (Oakland, CA)
27 out of 28 found this review helpful

Elizabeth Davis's classic Heart and Hands just keeps getting better and better with each new edition as she strives to keep current with the craziness that is going on in obstetrical practice today. Geared toward midwives of all persuasions (CNM, CM, LM, DEM, etc.) some of whom may find themselves in a homebirth practice by default (as I did after completing midwifery school in 1980 and unable to secure hospital privileges until 1984), it's also essential reading for those pregnant couples who plan to give birth with a midwife in attendance. It is also an excellent resource for those who, because of their insurance, are destined to birth with doctors in hospitals but still want to be prepared with knowledge that will help them claim as much control as possible.
Beautiful photographs, exquisite drawings, and personal stories complement the appeal of this classic book that is destined, one hopes, never to go out of print.


To the person who said: More pronography then medical guidance   May 22, 2007
Richard Schoenborn (Steelville, MO United States)
24 out of 25 found this review helpful

This reader has an issue with a woman's whole body. In many birth books all you see is from the wasit down like the woman is not a whole person. When we focus on the whole picture (a womans torso, breasts and FACE!) we remember this isn't a birthing machine that needs fixing; this is a person, a woman, a mother.