From Library Journal
A midwife for over 20 years and author of Hearts and Hands: A Midwife's Guide to Pregnancy and Birth, Davis intermixes medical and scientific information about life-cycle phases and changes with client comments, responses from interviews, referrals to herbs and holistic remedies, descriptions of women's rituals (some quite inspiring), and freehand New Age-feminist-utopian generalizations about women's connections with nature and mysticism. Her physiological and medical data seem mostly accurate, and she is a rarity in acknowledging and celebrating the sexual aspects of birth and nursing. However, her juxtaposition of facts with speculations and opinions confuses the reader. Too wide a range of information is presented without enough references or qualifications. Useful for women's health collections, this synthesis would have been considerably improved by a bibliography and resource list. Martha Cornog, Philadelphia
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
A woman's sexuality evolves dramatically during her life. In this book, Elizabeth Davis explores hormones and menstruation, pregnancy and birth, menopause and aging, fertility management through body awareness, and much more, for a complete picture. She analyzes controversial hormone replacement therapy and looks at what effect stress, overwork, major life events, relationship upheaval, and sexual abuse have on a woman's sexual health. The book features chapters on sexual awakening, sex in the later years, and up-to-date information on the creativity hormone, oxytocin. Readers will appreciate her warmth and her "rare combination of breadth, practicality, strong - though not rigid - opinion and generous respect for individual experience" (Publishers Weekly).
