Am I Allowed? has been SUCH an important book for pregnant women and families for so many years. It covers everything from understanding your basic rights to explaining where to go for more information. There’s information on how to get your needs met and, if you need it, on how to complain. Beverley Lawrence Beech the author, was a passionate birth activist, international speaker and this book is based on 40 years’ experience challenging the over-medicalised, hospital-based, model of childbirth. Most women, trust the medical system to provide them with the best of care. ‘What is must be best’ and discover, too late, and to their cost, that the care was often based on outdated routines and ‘rules’ to which they were expected to conform. I tell all my clients that decisions should always be based on feelings…not facts!