One new mother in twenty is diagnosed with traumatic stress after childbirth. In Birth Crisis Sheila Kitzinger explores the disempowerment and anxiety experienced by these women. Key topics discussed include:

• increasing intervention in pregnancy
• the shift in emphasis from relationships to technology in childbirth
• how family, friends and professional caregivers can reach out to traumatized mothers
• how women can work through stress to understand themselves more deeply and grow in emotional maturity
• how care and the medical system needs to be changed.

Birth Crisis draws on mothers' voices and real-life experiences to explore the suffering after childbirth which has, until now, been brushed under the carpet. It is a fascinating and useful resource for student and practising midwives, all health professionals, and women and their families who want to learn how to overcome a traumatic birth.