The Complete Illustrated Birthing Companion: A Step-by-step Guide to Creating the Best Birthing Plan for a Safe, Less Painful, and Successful Delivery for You and Your Baby

Amanda French, M.D., F.A.C.O.G. is a Boston-based, board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist who completed her training at Boston Medical Center. She has been employed in private practice and as a Clinical Instructor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. She has also worked as an Assistant Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City. Currently, Dr. French is practicing at Beth Israel Deaconess-a Newsweek top-10-rated hospital. Susan Thomforde, C.N.M. has been a practicing nurse midwife for more than 27 years. She's been called "a midwife's midwife"-the highest compliment in midwifery. Susan has taught classes on emergency delivery for the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) conference. She was a member of the Tufts University faculty while working at St. Margaret's Hospital and has been an adjunct faculty member for Yale University, Case Western Reserve University and University of Pennsylvania midwifery students. She resides in the Boston area. Jeanne Faulkner, R.N., has a 20-year history as a labor and delivery, postpartum, neonatal and NICU nurse and a ten-year history as a health writer/journalist. She shares her real world perspective and practical advice on the obstacles and opportunities Suparents face both inside and outside the hospital in her weekly column for Fit Pregnancy Magazine online called Ask The Labor Nurse. She is also an advocate, writer, speaker and lobbyist for global women's and maternal health issues and has traveled with CARE (a global humanitarian organization) to work with mothers around the world. She lives in Portland, OR. Dana Rousmaniere is a Boston-based writer, editor and author who has written for print and online publications including Good Housekeeping, Healthy Living, Living Fit, Women's Health, The Atlantic Monthly Online, Babble.com, CafeMom.com and more. She was Managing Editor of Fit Pregnancy Magazine online for many years, and has also held positions as Senior Producer at Lifetime Television Online and New Media Editor for Hearst Publishing. Her Fit Pregnancy blog, The Charlie Chronicles, was a finalist for the 2007 Maggie Awards for Best Regularly Featured Web Column. Dana continues to write and work for some of the most-visited parenting sites online, including Babble.com and CafeMom.com.