Books to read when pregnant?

[anythingwithagiraffeonit]

Hi everyone!

Can anyone recommend any good books to read while pregnant? Spending all my time watching Bringing Home Baby :p

I have just read:

Notes from the underbelly
tales from the crib (and)
watermelon

any others? X

The Panic-Free Pregnancy by Dr. (Michael?) Broder.

Awesome. Helpful, evidence-based, and, as it says on the tin helps you avoid unnecessary panic in pregnancy. I loved it! It's an American author, though, so not sure if available back home?

Hi Anything

Is this your first? If so, here's some sage advice a veteran parent friend gave me

"Read all those classic books you've always wanted to read but haven't, because once the baby arrives, you'll be lucky to have the concentration to get through the first page of the Daily Mail"

If you're looking for advice books, I've really enjoyed The Rough Guide to Pregnancy and Childbirth" by Kaz Cooke.

Very helpful/ reassuring but v funny as well. The only thing is that it's been adapted for the UK from Australia so there are a couple of annoying little slips where they havent "translated it properly".

Three in a Bed is quite interesting from the novel point of view (since you included Watermelon); quite liked Confessions of a Bad Mother as well (also a novel)

I am desperately trying to think of the author or title of the one "real" parenting book I did enjoy (it's an old one though so not sure of its availability) - it's by a well known female journalist person but very good (dammit, brain gone!)

The Rough Guide to Pg as ArcticFox mentions is pretty good as well but I didn't exactly read it, more dipped in and out when I felt like it.

this is a fascinating read and the best thing for preparing you emotionally for motherhood - it's been a huge help to me.

Also this for a great how-to baby book (written for the American market, but very good - non-prescriptive, no-nonsense, informative and occasionally funny)

Preparing yourself for what happens after the birth is definitely time well spent, IMO! A lot of first-timers get obsessed with the pg and birth, but that's the easy part!!

Blooming birth is a good one I've read and do try to read one of Sheila Kitzinger's books.

Ones to avoid: the best friend's guide to pregnancy and what to expect when you're expecting- both american and very medicalised.

Extreme Motherhood by Jackie somebody is about her experience of having triplets (and a toddler) and makes having one look easy.

I also liked the Fat Ladies Club and Ann Oakley's From Here to Maternity/On Becoming a Mother is dated but tells it how it is with several women's accounts of pregnancy/birth/motherhood.

Have Baby Will Travel by Sarah Tucker is good if you want hope that having a baby wont necessarily curtail travel plans, if you are way inclined.

stand and deliver

The day by day pregnancy book is a bit rubbish IMO. You sort of have to search about various chapters to find information which ought to have been together on one page.

I've just been recommended Active Birth by Janet Balaskas - my friend said that she found it a really inpiring read and was actually excited about giving birth by the end of it!

Other than that, I would echo ArcticFox's advice and say read all the books you've had piling up now - it's probably the last chance you'll get

Ha! FInally my brain kicked into gear and came up with the name - Libby Purves' book called How Not to be a Perfect Mother.

I loved it - it seems to advocate benign neglect in many ways - and it made me more relaxed about the whole thing.

Having said that, I just noticed when searching for that link that her son committed suicide at 23. I doubt that it had anything at all to do with her parenting methods (Dr. Spock's son also committed suicide, btw) but it might put you off.

Spiritual Midwifery by Ina May Gaskin. I had the pleasure of meeting her at a breast feeding conference and she made such a positive impression on me. I read this after giving birth to my DD and I really wished I had read it before.

My partner and I we reading books together...as its our first baby we both feel bit nervous and that book really made us closer...The New Father: A Dad's Guide to the First Year (Mitchell Beazley Health)

You can see things from men perspective..as written by man..

other one is "Yummy Mummys Guide funny but useful"

hope it helps
x

Probably not Rosemary's Baby. I had problems sleeping after it.

ArcticFox are you me?

I clicked on this thread to recommend reading all the books you've been meaning to because you won't get a chance to for quite some time, and also The Rough Guide to Pregnancy and Birth because as well as giving great advice, it's just brilliantly funny.

But I see you've already done it.

It's good advice, anythingwithagiraffeonit, heed it well!

I second Ina May Gaskell's Spiritual Midwifery...amazing book, amazing woman, and totally revolutonary (at the time) and inspiring. Makes me go all 'psychedelic' just thinking about it!!

I'd give 'We Need To Talk About Kevin' a miss too.

Read anything and everything and disregard about 90 % of it.

Hang out here for all the pg and baby advice you'll ever need.

Oh, actually, 'What Mothers Do' is a good 'un. And the Kaz Cook is a good laugh and not sickly sweet.

Agree with arcticfox - read all the (non child/pg) books you've always wanted to. I had a (quite medical) book on pregnancy that I quite liked, but read nothing since, apart from browsing the No Cry Sleep Solution a lot in Borders. MN is better, as you'll get more pros and cons - books tend to be more dogmatic, and can convince you that there is a right and wrong way to do things. Which, extremes aside, there isn't really.

I would really, really recommend Ina May's Guide to Childbirth if you have concerns about the labour.

Pages and pages of birth stories of women who've all done what you will do. I found it so empowering to think about the millions of women who go through this, it made me think about my mother, my grandmother and all my female ancestors doing the same thing.

I think it helped me a lot during labour to think I was joining an amazing part of the population who had been through the same thing.

Ooh, I'm going to read it again

I read Making Babies not long after I'd had DD and I spent the whole time going yes, yes, that's just how it is! It is a sweet funny book.

Actually this is a lovely book to, it gives you lots of info on birth and babies and how they develop, and there are lots of lovely photos, then at the back there is a more "medical" index that's comprehensive without being scary.