You find yourself at a cocktail party with the author of the book you just finished reading. To demonstrate that you really read it, you say, "Hey - thanks for writing Guide to Childbirth. Your main idea that midwives and home births can produce happy, relaxed, or even peaceful labors really made me rethink pregnancy & birth."

But the author, surprised to be talking to someone who instead of sharing their own birth story actually rephrased the main idea of the text she spent months giving birth to asks, "Really, which parts were most effective or important for you?" When you answer, "Well, in the last third of the book you focused on the technical parts of labor and birth, which further developed the first 2/3rds of the book. But let me be more specific. When you discussed the routines to refuse on pages 218-222, I was really interested in the different procedures that used to be mandatory; especially the pubic shave. I didn't realize that it was ever done. It was cool to see why they were used in the first place and why they were later ceased in most places. Another interesting section was on page 232, when you listed the various types of pain medication. I didn't realize there were so many types. The most interesting to me was the inhaled pain medications because they're so often used in Britain, both in hospitals and at home, but we still don't use them here in the US. A third interesting part was where you discussed the different causes of maternal deaths and how unaware US physicians were of the death rate on page 278. One section of it that I found particularly interesting, was the part in which you discussed the amniotic-fluid embolism. It was interesting to see how it affected women and how little people knew about it.

At this point, realizing that she's having a unique conversation with a serious reader of her/his book, the author asks - "But what could I have done to make this a better book - that would more effectively fulfill its mission?" You answer, "Well, let's be clear - your text sought to provide narratives and journalistic analysis from the perspective of midwives and mothers for the book-reading-public to better understand pregnancy & birth in our culture. Given that aim, and your book, the best advice I would give for a 2nd edition of the text would be, using more narratives from women who have experience hospital births so as to further your comparisons between midwives and hospitals. But I don't want you to feel like I'm criticizing. I appreciate the immense amount of labor you dedicated to this important issue and particularly for making me think about the impact a home birth and a great support group can have on the emotional state of labor. In fact, I'm likely to have children differently as a result of your book." The author replies, "Thanks! Talking to you gives me hope about our future as a society!"