I know this is an old thread but thought I would post anyway. I just got this book and after reading lots of natural birth books I tend to agree with Natalie.... the terminology to me is a bit off-putting. I think there is probably some merit in the techniques but based on the above posts maybe not all of them are good - ie stomping not being good from a blood flow perspective??

I'm wondering what the best techniques are, does anyone have any comments based on their experience? I'm planning a home waterbirth so hopefully a lot of the fear/adrenalin problems will be a non-issue. However I had an epidural last time and want an undisturbed birth this time so would like some extra tricks up my sleeve (I am having a doula).
After having a very long, difficult birth with DD (she was fully posterior and I pushed her out with no intervention and no drugs), I wanted some strategies up my sleeve to help with DS as I had it in my head that he was going to be posterior too, so I borrowed Birth Skills at the recommendation of my midwife, as she has a whole chapter on posterior. I have to say, I did the stomping and it worked beautifully - I found once my contractions started I had to be on my feet but didn't want to pace through them - I ended up leaning on a windowsill and stomping. As they intensified, I focused on an object (a blue ofice chair I could see) and I then progressed to sending my breath towards the chair (the 'aah' breath that Juju talked about), but stomping through eash one. Once I needed something more, I ended up in the shower, still leaning on the rails and stomping, and breathing the pain down the plug hole. This all really helped until I got to the transistion stage, and I also went from 3cm to fully dilated in just over an hour. I didn't pay much attention to what Juju said about pushing, and I just went with what my body felt like doing (although, the first few bearing down urges I tried to ignore, because in my head there was no way I had dilated that quickly so again, I thought DS was posterior and I was tring to push at 6cm).

So, for me, her techniques worked to get me through the first stage of labour. Although, I have to say, both of my births have been empowering - the first one was due to the confidence my mw had in me and my ability to deliver DD posteriorly (is that even a word?)