Contact: Lisa Braun Dubbels

Catalyst Publicity & Promotion Group

Phone: 651.343.7315 (24 hrs)
Phone: 612.234.7560
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE lisa@catalystpublicity.com

(Minneapolis, MN)—TV and film commonly portrays women in childbirth

as a hysterical emergency—with screaming and extreme pain. With
images like this permeating our popular culture, it is hard for women to
feel confident about this incredible, life-altering rite of passage.

Enter Belly Button Bliss: A Collection of Happy Birth Stories (Fairview

Press, September 16, 2010), a new book that shares the birth stories of
women who felt empowered, delighted, and downright happy with their
labor and delivery experience.

Edited by Jennifer Derryberry Mann, a prenatal /postnatal yoga teacher

and a DONA-trained birth doula, Belly Button Bliss: A Collection of Happy
Birth Stories captures the stories of 23 women who remember their birth
experience fondly. This unique gift book includes short, personal stories of
good experiences with hospital births, home births, as well as Cesarean-
section, vaginal birth after Cesarean (VBAC), twins, and the birth of an adopted child.

Research into women’s satisfaction with birth has shown that a few, key factors make for a good birth:
receiving good support from caregivers during labor, good rapport with caregivers, participating in decisions
about labor care, and having a better-than-expected experience. Those traits are evident in each of the birth
stories featured in Belly Button Bliss.

“Birth is a special occasion, and it ought to be a happy one,” says Derryberry Mann. “If you want to help an
expectant mama feel good about birth, tell her a happy birth story. To hear what has gone right with birth, to
know how women moved through the intensity, to learn what kept them focused and unafraid, to hear about
that moment of joy and pride—these are the stories that make a truly wonderful gift for a mother-to-be.”

Belly Button Bliss: A Small Collection of Happy Birth Stories is edited by Jennifer Derryberry Mann, a freelance
writer and editor specializing in prenatal, postnatal, and mind-body topics. As a certified yoga instructor she
focuses on teaching prenatal yoga classes, which are enriched by her doula training, and on teaching postnatal
mama-baby Yoga Bonding for infants and toddlers.

Fairview Press publishes books dedicated to the physical, emotional, and spiritual health of children, adults,
and seniors. Fairview Press is a division of Fairview Health Services, a regional health care provider affiliated
with the University of Minnesota.

BELLY BUTTON BLISS: A SMALL COLLECTION OF HAPPY BIRTH STORIES

Jennifer Derryberry Mann
$16. 95 | ISBN-13: 978-1577492306 | 120 pages | Hardcover
 Contact: Lisa Braun Dubbels
Catalyst Publicity & Promotion Group
Phone: 651.343.7315 (24 hrs)
Phone: 612.234.7560
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE lisa@catalystpublicity.com

MINNEAPOLIS, MN–A prenatal yoga teacher and editor of a collection of happy birth stories says giving birth
can be a satisfying, confidence-building experience for women.

“There is so much cultural and medical emphasis on the pain of childbirth,” says Jennifer Derryberry Mann,
editor of Belly Button Bliss: A Collection of Happy Birth Stories. “What expectant mothers need to know is
that birth can be empowering, uplifting, and inspiring. Many women feel a renewed sense of confidence and
greater belief in themselves for having given birth.”

Derryberry Mann’s new book includes more than 20 stories from women who were happy with their birth
experience—in hospitals and at home, with OBs and midwives, with doulas and dads, with drugs and without.

Here are 9 tips from happy birthing mamas for a better labor:

1. Trust in birth as a natural process.

2. Go beyond the hospital childbirth education class. HypnoBirthing® comfort measures, Birthing from
Within childbirth prep, Lamaze, and Bradley educational programs give women the confidence to try
for a natural birth.
3. Laugh and smile between contractions.
4. Labor in the comfort of your home as long as possible, with help from a doula and your partner.
5. Take a walk outside during early labor. Enjoy the fresh air, pausing for each contraction.
6. Let your partner firmly massage your legs and back during contractions, resting—or even napping—
between contractions.
7. Stay on your feet. Swivel your hips. Let gravity help you work with the natural rhythms of birth.
8. Recite a calming mantra, such as “It is what it is” or “It’s aaaall OK”, to sustain you through
contractions and pushing.
9. Move around, even between pushes. Squat while pushing, then stand up to shake out your legs.

Women tend to have the greatest long-term satisfaction with their birth when they feel they were well cared
for during labor and were in control of their responses to the intensity of contractions.

Belly Button Bliss: A Collection of Happy Birth Stories gives expectant women an inspiring perspective on
labor and birth. The book’s smaller format and savvy design make it an ideal gift for baby showers and as a
pregnancy pick-me-up. The book includes more than 20 positive stories, drawing on experiences with hospital
births, home births, and special birthing circumstances, including Cesarean-section, vaginal birth after
Cesarean (VBAC), twin birth, and adoption. For more happy birth stories, visit JenniferDerryberry.com or
mamahhh.com (forthcoming).
 Contact: Lisa Braun Dubbels
Catalyst Publicity & Promotion Group
Phone: 651.343.7315 (24 hrs)
Phone: 612.234.7560
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE lisa@catalystpublicity.com

Jennifer Derryberry Mann, freelance writer, editor,

and yoga teacher, is passionate about birth, babies,
and new (and not-so-new) mamas. Jenni believes in
the power of a happy birth story to give families a
mindful, healthy beginning. As a writer and editor,
she loves covering pregnancy, postnatal care, early
parenting, and mind/body care for women and their
families. As a certified Forrest Yoga and Yoga Bonding
Instructor, Jenni helps women navigate the transition
to motherhood. She loves teaching expectant mamas,
then meeting their babies on the mat in a shared
yoga practice, and ultimately helping women create
new connections to their core values, core beliefs,
and core muscles. Jenni, her husband, Scotty, and
their two daughters, Anabel and Alia, make their home in Athens, Georgia. Visit JenniferDerryberry.com or
mamahhh.com (forthcoming) for more birth stories and mama mind/body care.