Best baby book for a 1st time mum....

[MillyStar]

...does anyone have any recommendations?

Gonna treat myself this weekend.

Pretty sure i'm 10 weeks tomorrow and i literally need to know EVERYTHING!!!

[KittyWalker]

I like the "My Best Friends Guides to....." pregnancy and beyond, non medical but fun to read. Also the "What to Expect...." series are good too. Congratulations

[Crosshair]

This is the first pregnancy book I bought:

www.amazon.co.uk/Your-Pregnancy-Bible-revised-expanded/dp/190476097X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1316702498&sr=8-1&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

Has lots of information and pretty much covers everything.

[cotswolder]

people may disagree but the worst thing I did was read books! Each baby is different and probably won't have read the book you have. I ended up winding myself up no end.

Best thing I did was to signm up for NCT classes and get a subscription to a pregnancy magazine and wade through those!

Good luck!

[thepigflu]

I found Robyn Barker's book Baby Love so helpful, it provides a very balanced account of pretty much every topic and was a voice of reason among the craziness of the other books I read at the time, which had my head spinning! A friend of mine had a baby recently and was given three copies of Baby Love by other mums.

[KittyWalker]

Oh yes Baby Love is a really lovely book.

[LittleBugsMum]

Me too Cotswolder, but my problem was that I read too many different ones. My plan was to read them then decide which best suited my philosophy. Not helpful when you've had no sleep, baby won't stop crying and you can't remember what you decided or where that particular chapter is etc etc.

If I had the time again (that would be lovely...) I'd pick one, read it then see how you go. And the one I'd pick would be The Baby Whisperer by Tracy Hogg just so you have some tricks in your back pocket if you lose your way a little.

Oh & use Mumsnet of course :)

[Kiwiinkits]

The Baby Whisperer by Tracy Hogg is full of excellent advice. It's not for everyone (co-sleepers, baby-wearers, extended bfers don't like it) but if you think you'd like a structured approach to looking after your baby the book is excellent. And it really works (me and every single one of the numerous friends I've lent it to).

[CountBapula]

The Mumsnet book is brilliant. The Baby Whisperer is OK, especially on sleep stuff, but there is some right old tosh about breastfeeding so take it with a huge pinch of salt if you plan to bf.

[TheSkiingGardener]

What to expect when you're expecting and What to expect - the first year

They dont preach a particular way of doing things but outline what might be happening, why it might be happening and some of the various options you have to deal with it.

Having those books really, really helped!

[TheRealMBJ]

The MN pregnancy and baby books. And Dr Sears 'The Baby Book'

[raspberryhead]

Really wish I had seen the mumsnet babies book when I was pregnant. It would have saved me buying many unnecessary things! Try going to your local library and look at the books available. Tbh was given/bought several and only read a few bits out of each (apart from the MN one which I have now leant to two people!)

[moomsy]

I have been annihilated by family / friends and even my partner sometimes for reading books while I was pregnant.

And I told them all to get stuffed.

At times when information is so readily available, we are used to making informed decisions about everything! We like to go to tripadvisor to check if a hotel we booked for our holidays is good enough or check restaurant reviews before going somewhere different... why would we leave ourselves in complete ignorance with the iminent birth of a brand new child?

Obviously there are different kinds of books with different advice to suit all sorts of folks out there so common sense applies. Over structuring of what ideal childcare should be like may make an already nervous mum to be a total freak but it's best to know what to expect, what you want for you and your baby and what you agree and disagree.

A friend of mine lent me these books and I found them all very useful. I didn't agree with everything that was in there but they served me as a great source of reference (I skipped the stories part of the Ina may book and just read the practical bits) :

• The food of love
  
• Stand up and deliver
  
• The pregnancy bible
  
• Your baby week by week (brilliant)
  
• In May's guide to Childbirth
  

Good luck! Keep reading but don't let worry spoil it for you. All will come together when you have your little one with you :)

[CountBapula]

Oh yes, The Food of Love is a wonderful book. Definitely get that.

[BikeRunSki]

The Food of Love is a very upsetting book if you can not bf.

I didn't like the "What to Expect..." series, American and barely transfomed for the UK market: eg - reference to check ups we don't have here etc.

TBH I had "The Rough Guide to Preganancy", then all my other info from mw, hv and MN!

[nicm]

i bought the rough guide to pregnancy. loved it and then got the rough guide to babies when ds1 was born. oh and mumsnet for other things!

:)

[notlettingthefearshow]

I agree about 'What to expect...'. It has some useful points but overall is very American and not suitable for the UK market.

[seasaltbaby]

I've just randomly bought 'baby sense' by Megan faure & so far its a nice easy read without being too preachy. I also love the rough guide to babies & baby whisperer is good. I also bought & read gina Ford but felt inadequate just reading it let alone trying any of her routines!

[Youremindmeofthebabe]

I loved the baby book/ baby bible by Sears and Sears. Very easy going, references to baby wearing and co-sleeping but not bossy with it, and a really handy developmental stage part and a quick reference bit with various illnesses in it.

here

Good luck

[Flisspaps]

Your Baby Week by Week was very helpful.

Anything by Miriam Stoppard was only any good for beating ourselves over the head with to lessen the pain of the colicky-crying between weeks 3 and 8.

Ina May Gaskin's Guide to Childbirth was very good, but useless once I gave up and went in for induction.

I bought a book called 'The Yummy Mummy's Guide to Pregnancy and Babies' and it basically did a very good job of making me feel very bad and like a scruffy old bat with a grubby noisy baby - both of which were true, but neither were necessarily bad.

[chocolateteabag]

Hi
I borrowed this one from the library and found it the best for explaining the first few days post birth:
"First-Time Parent: The honest guide to coping brilliantly and staying sane in your baby's first year" Lucy Atkins

I've since given it to 2 pregnant friends. It's a nice balance of information and humour.

I've also read:
Yummy Mummy Guide (a bit patronising at times but ok)
Gina Ford (some good stuff on routines if you are completely clueless - but very much personal choice)
Baby Whisperer (as other poster has said, some good bits but I found some bits a bit odd - I prefer the tv programmes)
What to expect - bit school text booky

My advice would be to borrow from the library and then if there is one which you really like you can buy it.

[dreamingbohemian]

I loved the What to Expect books. I felt they were very good at saying: some people will do this, some people will do that, do what feels right for you. So you had a lot of information to help you decide, but no pressure to do things a particular way.

I also thought they were very realistic, they didn't promote some idealised version of pregnancy and motherhood (i.e. set you up for disappointment).

The First Year book also has a lot of good first aid/illness advice.

[moomsy]

You don't need a book to get upset about something you wish had gone about differently.

I read two books which are supposed to help people who really hope to have a natural, drug free birth. I also surrounded myself with a lot of hippies who supported the same.

I ended up with a cesarean after being in labour for 4 days. I even had a dose of pethidine (shocker for some lol). The reason why I didn't get upset is because despite the fact I really wanted the labour to have gone one way, I knew I had to keep an open mind.

I also REALLY wanted to breastfeed. However I also knew I had to keep an open mind about that too so I took two bottles in my hospital bag (and two dummies) just in case. I managed to do it despite the c-section after pains thank you to a daughter who is naturally a pro at it and great help from the midwives / nurses / partner at hospital.... and the books I read :)

[stripeymummy]

I have read Your Pregnancy Bible - the updated version - good for detailed pictures and basic descriptions without being preachy, and What to Expect When You're Expecting - it is quite American, and some bits don't translate well for a British audience, but it is quite good as an encyclopedia for dipping in and out of. I found it invaluable when I had a really bad vomiting bug and throat infection combo when I was about 24wks, for advice and telling me not to panic.

I have planned not to read any parenting books and consult family and friends with kids, and trust my instincts, though I have been lent What to Expect in the First Year, and hope it will have the same encyclopedic properties as the other.

I think it's good to read some stuff, to make your self better informed of the processes, but when I find a book telling me what I should and shouldn't be doing and getting all preachy, I just feel like giving it the finger :o

[LivinInTheMoment]

I didn't buy any pg books, but got given loads from friends. My favourite so far is Jenny Mccarthy's Belly Laughs, its so funny.

I also like the Pregnancy for Modern Girls Hollie smith

As for all the other books, theres some good in them and some absolute crap in them. If thers a library near you, go and get out some books, then you can go through them for yourself and decide which one you think suits you best.

[Thumbwitch]

I was given a couple of pregnancy books by a friend and I think I found one of them useful a couple of times. Other than that, I mostly didn't read them.

THe book I did like was the Libby Purves book, How Not To Be A Perfect Mother - it basically espouses the "benign neglect" school of parenting but the most important thing it gave me was that most of it just doesn't matter - the baby will still be fine. And he was, and is. :)

Agree with going to the library - far better than spending out loads on books you may throw out of the window in disgust after page 10.