Mumsnet Talk

I got my long-awaited BFP this morning. Whilst I don't want to get my hopes up too much, i am trying to stay positive. Now I've got the BFP I have come to the dawning realisation that I know NOTHING about pregnancy or babies.

So which books would be best to start with as a guide to what to expect in pregnancy/dos and donts/ etc?

Any recommendations appreciated.

Def Ina May Gaskin's Childbirth book. It's what got me through labour without any pain relief.

I really liked the Rough Guides to Pregnancy and the Rough Guides to Babies and Toddlers. Good luck and congratulations!

Congratulations on your pregnancy!

I second the Rough Guides. Informative without being dictatorial or preachy.

I third the Rough Guide, it's really good.

I'm also enjoying reading fiction about pregnancies - the Call the Midwife series are really good.

Big congrats!

Thank you very much, I have ordered the rough Guide and also What to Expect when you're Expecting, which gets good reviews.

I would not recommend ina gaskin. Great if you have an 'easy birth' and can breath through it, but for many women it's just not that simple and you then feel like a failure if you resort to pain relief which is ridiculous. It's american and irritating,
For pregnancy the dorling kindersly one is informative on everything including all birth options and post birth

This one's good www.amazon.co.uk/Your-Pregnancy-Bible-revised-expanded/dp/190476097X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328729465&sr=8-1

and I also bought this www.amazon.co.uk/Watch-Unique-3-Dimensional-Behaviour-Development/dp/1903258839/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1328729555&sr=1-1

My best friends guide to pregnancy is brilliant for a light hearted and hilarious side of pregnancy!

There's a lot of utter crap out there, even allowing for the fact that different approaches suit different people. I recommend browsing in a bookshop with a large parenting section to get a sense of what there is before choosing. Charity shops with book sections are also great for this - we have a local one with all books for less than a pound, which means we've bought lots of pregnancy and birth books for almost nothing, and bring back the bad ones by the armload.

I personally thought the Bloke's Guide to Pregnancy and the Best Friend's Guide were pretty dumb, though I know others like them. In fact, I didn't find anything that particularly clicked with me for pregnancy despite reading a lot - though there's so much decent information on Mumsnet (the menu on the right of this page) and the weekly NCT emails (if you join) were also full of useful information, that I didn't feel the lack. Though I'm lucky in that this has been a completely straightofrward pregnancy so far.

I'm 34 weeks now, and have been concentrating on birth books - the choice is all too often between unintellectual woo-woo and over-medicalised stuff that deals with birth in terms of Potential Problems. I second the Ina May Gaskin recommendation if you want something that approaches birth as something other than a set of potential medical problems (though joygirl has a point too), and I like Juju Sundin's Birth Skills. I like Francoise Barbira Freedman's Yoga for Pregnancy, which is easy to follow. I've just begun hypnobirthing classes and am doing the meditations daily, and while I'm finding them annoyingly cheesy at one level, I should probably have more classes and explore a bit further before dismissing them.

Congratulations!

Can't think of the name but the one by Lesley Regan is really good.

I got a one free with a magazine and it was the most offensive patronising piece of shite ever. For a start, I'm a woman, not a girl...

I have found What to Expect When Your're Expecting really useful and reassuring. It breaks things up into sections in a nice was so as not to overload you with info all at once. It has put my mind at rest on a number of occasions!