If I only read one pregnancy/baby book, it should be...

[SecondCityShark]

What are your suggestions?

It's such a topic of debate and I don't want to go through a stack of conflicting advice.

What's a good one-stop shop that covers all basic bases, in your opinion?

www.amazon.co.uk/Expecting-Everything-about-Pregnancy-Labour/dp/1844087735?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

This one. Week by week. No messing around. Found it super useful.

Not a popular opinion on MN but my recommendation would be The Contented Little Baby Book

For a first time Mum in 2002 with no previous knowledge of babies or routines it worked like a dream for us

I'm sure someone will be along shortly to tell you to read any book but this one but I can only give you my opinion based on my experience

I said I didn't want a stack but I've already just immediately bought both of your suggestions @GivenchyDahhling and @freelions

I've got a feeling that mightve been a costly thread for me to start.

On birth, mine would be Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth. Very hippy, but so empowering. I read it in my second pregnancy after a first birth that was really out of my control, and have read it in pregnancies 3 & 4 too. Those births were totally different experiences. Would recommend to anyone. I also liked Expecting Better by Emily Oster in my last pregnancy, I found the evidence based approach really reassuring.

This for going into labour feeling confident in your ability to ‘do this’. It’s very practical and goes through the stages of labour and explains what could happen, what often happens that leads women to feel they ‘can’t do this’ etc.

Even if you want all the drugs you can get, it’s still worth reading for the stages before then when you are managing your labour at home etc

www.penguin.co.uk/books/1096394/mindful-hypnobirthing/9781785043093

To be honest, I read everything I could get my hands on during pregnancy and none of it was the remotest use. I’d recommend Naomi Stadlen’s What Mothers Do (Especially When It Looks Like Nothing) which contains no advice, but is kind,wise and non-prescriptive.

This is brilliant, i am going to read the hell out of all of these suggestions

Expecting better is useful for putting your mind at rest.

Not a book, but the Positive Birrh Company digital natal hypnotherapy course was better than all the books I read.

How Not Th Be A Perfect Mother, by Libby Purves, is a humorous and common sense book about parenting in the early years. It’s main message, for me, was that you don’t have to be perfect - and sometimes it is OK to take a shortcut, so you can have 10 minutes with your feet up and a cup of tea.

Emily Oster for me. I also liked Your Baby Week by Week, just ignore the sleep training stuff as she is veeeery early with it imo.

Also recommending What Mothers Do. It was a hugely important read for me.

Also Anne Enright's Making Babies, her stories abit motherhood.

My first choice is always What Mothers Do (Especially when it looks like we're doing nothing). I had no support network around me when ds was born, but I kept this in the pocket of my changing bag and whenever he napped I would read a bit and this always felt like a phone call from a best friend. the author gave me permission to slow down and just hold my baby/ mother at my own pace. Probs not for every new mum, but a game-changer for me.

Sorry! Just seen it's already been recommended...ignore me!

@Mid30smidlifecrisis

Sorry! Just seen it's already been recommended...ignore me!

No, it’s good to see other people liking it! I used to go to her discussion groups for new mothers in Stoke Newington when DS was born, and found them helpful and interesting.

Glad a few of us found What Mothers Do helpful

Currently reading pregnancy,birth and beyond nothing to compare jt too,but seems good.

Just a warning, I hated Your baby week by week. My baby did none of the things they suggested and i just ended up worrying unnecessarily

I love Emily Oster, straight facts. Everything else in someone's opinion.

Why French Children Don't Throw Food. Really wished I'd read it when I was pregnant. The French have a whole different (better) way of doing things. A very entertaining read too.

The First Forty Days: The Essential Art of Nourishing the New Mother

@Greeceplease

Why French Children Don't Throw Food. Really wished I'd read it when I was pregnant. The French have a whole different (better) way of doing things. A very entertaining read too.

Wait what's the answer though? 🤣

I've never read a baby book but Ibe njsg borrowed from the library Philipa Perry's The book you wish your parents had read. Am hopeful

I would
Recommend doing a blossom
Antenatal
Course
They are great

Milli Hill’s books

The only one I read was What to Expect When You're Expecting.

It was 10 years ago, so maybe not so popular at the moment, but it does the week by week/ month by month thing and I found it useful and reassuring (although the tone is slightly cutesy/irritating sometimes) and informative enough that I revisited it with subsequent pregnancies.

Expecting Better (for pregnancy) and/or Cribsheet (for looking after a baby), both by Emily Oster