The Essence of Childbirth, a bestseller in Italy since 18 years, is aimed to women and their partners, but also to midwives who want to explain physiological resources to women. It narrates the potential residing in the birth experience, a potential that every woman has the power to activate, the symbolic value of the processes of life that are inherent in the journey through pregnancy, birthing and breastfeeding, the emotional and transformative journey of woman and baby, the extraordinary life force that manifests itself within them and also in the father, their multiple resources. This book restores the women’s importance and centrality in the whole process of maternity, guides them from within and supports them in their very personal choices.

Verena Schmid has 40 years of experience as an independent midwife, working in homebirths, teaching and writing. In 1985 she founded the association for natural childbirth and homebirth “Il Marsupio” and in 1996 the “Elemental School of Midwifery Art” which she directed until 2016. For over 30 years she’s been teaching midwives all around the world about the salutogenic approach applied to the Midwifery Care, which she developed into the model of “Salutophysiology”. Since October 2011 she has been a lecturer at the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences in the “Physiology for Midwives” Master Degree. She also collaborated with the University Conception, in Chile, educating their professors and teaching in the Master Degree in Primal Health. She is the author of numerous articles and books and founded the midwifery magazine “Donna e Donna – the midwives’ journal” (1996-2022). In 2000 she was awarded the International Astrid Limburg Prize for promoting midwifery independence and natural childbirth. Until 2004 she worked as an independent midwife, teaching internationally in Europe and South America and pursuing her own research in Amsterdam with Prof. Kloosterman, A. Limburg, B. Smulders; in Pithiviers with M. Odent; in London along with Birth Centers and MIDIRS; and in Italy, among others, with Prof. Milani Comparetti. She is author of 7 books, some of which translated in English, Hebrew and German.