The rate of c-section births has risen dramatically in the United States, accounting for more than twenty-four percent of deliveries in 2001. Yet there is no up-to-date book on the market dedicated to undergoing and recovering from the most commonly performed surgery in the U.S. Now two veteran journalists in health, parenting, and fitness have teamed up to create a candid and carefully researched guide for the nearly one million mothers facing or recovering from a cesarean.

Covering both the physical and emotional aspects of this surgery, The Essential C-Section Guide offers frank discussions of the special circumstances a C-section delivery presents. Readers will discover a host of important facts, ranging from the effects of a C-section on future deliveries to the risks of anesthesia. The authors also share comforting wisdom about the feelings of inadequacy a C-section can cause and tips on caring for an infant while healing from this major procedure. The latest recommendations regarding exercise, pain, and nursing are addressed in-depth as well.

Written by authors who have firsthand knowledge of C-section delivery, The Essential C-Section Guide provides thorough answers to the many overwhelming questions associated with cesareans. Informative and supportive, this is reassuring reading for every expectant mother.

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With breastfeeding at a 20-year high in the United States, the essays in this book are sure to resonate with millions of nursing mothers. Penned by 25 distinguished writers, these personal stories are by turns happy, funny, poignant, wry, determined, exhausted, and elated-in short, all of the emotions that breastfeeding evokes. This anthology makes a perfect shower or new-baby gift!...