CHILDBIRTH expert Sheila Kitzinger has been remembered as a “remarkable” woman by her husband after her autobiography was published just weeks after her death.

Mrs Kitzinger, from Standlake, near Witney, who famously championed natural childbirth, died last month aged 86.

But before she died from cancer the author of 25 bestselling titles finished her last book, her autobiography A Passion for Birth.

In her life story, the renowned childbirth educator reflects on a pioneering career spanning more than 50 years in which she campaigned for changes in maternity care, placing women’s rights at the heart of childbirth.

Mrs Kitzinger remembers her student days in Oxford, and talks about her family life with husband Uwe and their five daughters and has even included a copy of her own obituary, a piece she had previously written for a newspaper.

Mr Kitzinger, 87, said: “Sheila was a remarkable woman.

“Sadly she died before she could see a finished copy of the book.

“She included her own obituary which is very unusual, but that reflects Sheila’s spirit.

“Sheila started the book about six or seven years ago and it was finished before Christmas.

“I know the book will be very well-received and there will be a celebration of her life in America - we have airlifted copies of the book to Boston where she started her American lectures.

“For Sheila the political was personal and the personal was political.

“Some people thought of her as a cuddly romantic, but she was an anthropological researcher and an extremely hard-nosed and realistic woman.

“For the last 10 years of her life women who had suffered badly in childbirth were on the phone to her.

“She was still giving them advice right up until the last few months of her life.”

In her introduction to the book, Mrs Kitzinger said: “The struggle for women-centred childbirth is an uphill battle.

“There have been times when I felt I was hitting my head against a brick wall and wondered if I could go on.

“But then a woman rings me up out of the blue and says: ‘Thank you for what you did to help me have a lovely birth experience’.

“And that makes it all worthwhile.”

And in her self-penned obituary, Mrs Kitzinger wrote: “For her the most important thing was that she passed on and shared with other women the courage, commitment and understanding needed in the struggle to enable women’s rights to be heard.”

In 1952 Sheila Webster married Uwe, a German refugee who was an academic and diplomat, and they had five daughters, Celia, Nell, Tessa, Polly and Jenny, and three grandchildren.

The couple moved into their home in Standlake in 1966.

Mrs Kitzinger’s development of a “birth plan” for women during the 1960s and 1970s was considered to have led to the transformation of maternity care.

In 1962 her first book The Experience of Childbirth started a debate in which she argued childbirth had become too medicalised.

Her campaigns also encouraged partners to be present during births and helped re-established the importance of breast feeding.

Mrs Kitzinger was awarded an MBE in 1982 for services to childbirth and parent education.

She studied social anthropology at Ruskin College and at Oxford University’s St Hugh’s College.

She graduated in 1961 and went on to complete research into race relations at the University of Edinburgh.

A Passion for Birth: My Life: anthropology, family and feminism is published by Pinter & Martin, price £20.