Mind Over Labor

""This book will show you how to create the kind of birth you want,'' writes Jones, author of After the Baby Is Born, etc. He compares childbirth to lovemaking in terms of the potential joy for the woman and claims that the key to a ``safe, happy birth'' is mental imagerythe art of creating vivid pictures in the mind to help the woman ``surrender'' to the ``pleasure'' of childbirth. Mental-imagery exercises include thinking of a ``Special Place,'' such as a favorite beach, or envisioning the child in the womb and asking ``what he or she needs.'' Jones stresses the importance of a mellow labor environment and subtly promotes the idea of delivery at home or in a childbearing center, but he fails to spell out the risks of a nonhospital delivery. His goal of a well-informed, positive-thinking pregnant couple is admirable, but his insistence that attitude can overcome virtually any problem is questionable. (February)