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 the Ina May guide to childbirth.. Your main idea on how midwife births are safe effective and acceptable made me rethink ever going to a hospital if my wife were to ever have a child. You attacked so many negatives about midwives and you have brought so many positive aspects out that it would be nonsense for someone to ever read this book an actually continue to go to a hospital for 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 s/he 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 process of approaching someone with questions , which further developed your book into being anactual guide and can really help people who do not kno where to begin. You have literally made a guide that can walk someone through their entire midwife experience. But let me be more specific. Such where u wrote some questions which you listed ou on pages 308-310. In this section of the book another idea I focused on was where you spoke about maternal death beginning on page 272 and continuing on. This was a very emotional part of the book which may come off as nightmarish but at the same time very informative. The last part of you book also spoke about vaginal birth after cesarian. This part of your book was very factual and raised awareness and knowledge to those wondering. Your book is more of a guide than most other books written on this topic due to the fact that the reader feels as if you are actually speaking to them.

At this point, realizing that s/he'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, historical analysis, journalistic analysis, policy analysis) from the perspective of a ( ....) 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, to focus less on all of the stories of childbirth. I feel that the first part of the book is repetetive and dry. 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 orgasm during natural birth & techniques that hospitals avoid which ultimately are the proper solutions. Such as the hands and knees push which can get a baby out if danger arises, where as in a hospital they take other approaches. In fact, I'm likely to inform my family and friends about natural birth as a result of your book. The author replies, "Thanks! Talking to you gives me hope about our future as a society!"