Anything by Aviva Jill Romm

July 30, 2011

I highly recommend anything and everything by Aviva Jill Romm. She is a midwife, herbalist, and easy-to-read author whose works are both useful to experienced herbalists and accessible to families.

Natural Health After Birth: The Complete Guide to Postpartum Wellness is particularly amazing and useful, in part because there aren’t many books out there that address the postpartum period at all, but she covers it so well it would still be my favorite amongst hundreds. She covers social and practical approaches to getting support for the postpartum as well as herbs and dietary suggestions. I particularly love her discussion on postpartum care in various cultures and times. Most folks prepare for the baby, but not nearly enough prepare for their own postpartum transition: this book should be on everyone’s list.

Naturally Healthy Babies and Children is one of my favorite gifts for friends with kids. Lots of ideas for parents who want ideas for holistic ways to treat various earaches, rashes, and snotty noses.

The Natural Pregnancy Book: Herbs, Nutrition and Other Holistic Choices covers pregnancy from the same perspective. It covers which herbs are great in pregnancy and which to avoid, whole-food based nutrition, and ways to alleviate common complaints. For some expectant parents, this could be their only pregnancy resource guide, and I would be just fine with that.

Botanical Medicine for Women’s Health is Romm’s most recent book. As a midwife, I love this book, and consider it essential to my practice. However, it is written a bit more for practitioners than her other books, so I might not recommend it to herbal amateurs.

Vaccinations: A Thoughtful Parent’s Guide: How to Make Safe, Sensible Decisions about the Risks, Benefits, and Alternatives is, in my opinion, a well-balanced resource for making decisions about vaccines, though some might consider her a bit liberal. My one complaint is that it was written in 2001 and would do well to be updated.  A good counterbalance to The Vaccine Book.

ADHD Alternatives: A Natural Approach to Treating Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is the one book of Romm’s that I have not read. I would love to hear others’ opinions on this book!

To sum up my gush-fest, I highly recommend anyone in the women’s health field, as well as anyone who’s childbearing and/or parenting, check out Aviva Jill Romm’s books immediately. Or, if we’re pals, make sure I’m invited to your next gift-giving event.

Tags: Book Reviews

Author Bio: Jasper Moon, CPM LMT (they/ them)

Perinatal care specialist. Parent of two. Hosted three fetuses: my big kid, a surrogacy in the middle, and my little kid. Vegan; drinks a lot of tea. Board game (and general) geek. Goat hugger extraordinaire.

Read more about Jasper here.