Hi,
Just wanted to add that I bought and read this book about 4 weeks before the birth of my 2nd bub 8 weeks ago and I have to say it was invaluable! I used the techniques with great success and felt so in control right through the birth (ok well I started to lose it a bit at 9cm lol). I felt so out of control during my first sons birth so I was amazed at how effective it was to 'get bigger than the pain'. I managed so well that I (and my DH) was shocked when I was told I was 8cm when we got to the hospital. I was sure we had hours to go still because I was managing so well at home. I also thought the section on pushing was great as I felt like i really had no idea how to push effectively as first bub was posterior and I had no urge to push and he was pulled out with the ventouse after 2 hours of ineffective pushing. Anyway, no. 2 took 10 minutes to push out this time with a tiny tear that didn't require stitches (the part in the book about crowning was also great as this was also something I'd not experienced with no. 1). I have to say that I didn't really know what techniques i would want to use until the time came, so just kept them all in mind and wrote up a sheet of things for DH to suggest to me if I appeared to be struggling. I also made DH read the book cover to cover and then sit down and discuss what I thought I might need him to do lol! But he was fantastic during the labour and it really really helped a lot that he understood the techniques. Anyway, I can't reccomend this book enough. I don't know that I would have coped through the labour without it. I think it's definately worth the $$ even if you only have a few weeks to go.