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My guest today on “Healthy Births, Happy Babies” is Barbara Harper, an internationally recognized expert on waterbirth and gentle birth, founder of Waterbirth International and bestselling author of “Gentle Birth Choices” which has been translated into 9 languages around the world.
In this episode, we will cover:
- why Barbara believes every baby DESERVES a gentle birth and how it inspired her to write the book “Gentle Birth Choices”
- What a birth in water offers the mother and the baby and how safe it really is (she covers the physiology of the first breath of life beautifully here)
- How to surrender to a “Baby Led Birth” and how doing so will allow for a safer and easier birth
Resources mentioned in the conversation:
- Barbara Harper’s website: www.waterbirth.org
- a link to get her book: Gentle Birth Choices in Amazon
About Barbara Harper:
Barbara Harper has dedicated her life to changing the way we welcome babies into the world and is an internationally recognized expert on waterbirth and gentle birth.
She founded Waterbirth International in 1988, with one goal in mind – to ensure that waterbirth is an “available option” for all women.
During the past four decades Barbara has worked as an obstetric and pediatric nurse, midwife, midwifery instructor, childbirth educator, doula and doula trainer and has used her vast experience to develop unique seminars which she teaches within hospitals, nursing schools, midwifery and medical schools and community groups worldwide.
Her bestselling book and DVD, ‘Gentle Birth Choices,’ has been translated into 9 languages so far. Her next book ‘Embracing the Miracle: The Science, Safety and Spirit of Birth in Water,’ will be ready for publication in 2017.
She has three adult children, two of whom were born at home in water, and one grandson in college. She lives in Boca Raton, Florida, where she is active in the community as a volunteer and as a midwifery and doula mentor.