This one was ok. It did have some good information about pre-pregnancy health and what you should be doing to get your body in order before trying to get pregnant. But, sometimes the book would leave you hanging without fully explaining a topic and left me googling for hours on end.
This book had a lot of great information about getting your health on track before baby. It had some great nutrition tips, foods to avoid and such. I didn't use this one as much after I got the last book.
This book really should be a textbook in every health education classroom! I learned so many things about my body that I didn't know before and this book left me feeling like I was finally armed with the information I needed to take control of the situation of infertility that I was experiencing. I only wish I had known about this book before we started trying! Anyone who is even considering TTC in the anywhere near future NEEDS to read this book.
This is the only "Pregnancy" book I got because I do most of my other reading online on Babycenter.com and Thebump.com. I LOVE this book. They break down the pregnancy over each week and talk about what you can expect to experience. It's also broken into trimesters, talking about your health in each and what you might expect to happen at each OB visit. Overall, I think it's been very informative and it's a good starting point when you're learning about what's going on with your body during pregnancy.
A friend of mine let me borrow this book. I thought it was funny and definitely a good laugh, but I could see how some people who are reading a pregnancy book for the first time could get a little terrified after reading this book. The author basically talks about how your good looks will disappear and you will be overweight and have saggy breasts after your pregnancy. My advice, read this book AFTER reading several other books, because then you will see it for the humor it has to offer and it won't scare you into thinking your life will be over after baby.
I liked that this book did have some balance to it in that the author talks about how doctors need to be sensitive to birthing mothers' needs, but also how mothers need to be flexible and understand that most doctors are trying to help them deliver their babies safely. However, the title "Homebirth in the Hospital" leads you to think that this is going to be all about how to have a TOTALLY natural birth in the hospital. Not so. Every story of birth in this book has one intervention or another.
I loved this book. The author did a fantastic job of condensing a lot of research and studies into an easy to understand format. It leaves you empowered after reading it to really make your own decisions when it comes to the birth of your child.
This book had a lot of great information about natural birth, and even had a movie to go along with it, but I was unimpressed with how they totally vilified doctors and other medical professionals. I know that there are a lot of bad obstetricians out there who would rather give you a C-section so that they can go home and not get sued, but not EVERY doctor is bad. The books overall message is that the hospital is NOT a safe place to have a baby and how basically the only way you will be safe is to have a baby at home. So basically they're using the same arguments that the bad doctors and health professionals use to scare women into having a hospital birth. There was no talk about how to work with your doctor to have a safe, natural birth wherever you choose to have one.
Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife
I thought this book was one of the most well written books about the problems with this country's maternity care system. It's written by an obstetrician and he talks about the problem, but he also gives solutions. It's definitely an eye opener for anyone who is about to give birth.
Ina May's Guide To Childbirth
Loved this one too. It's a collection of birth stories from the viewpoint of the midwife who "caught" the babies. It's inspiring and beautiful and anyone who is scared of childbirth should read it.
Birthing from Within
This one does talk about natural childbirth, but more importantly talks about empowering women to make their own decisions about birth based on what's right for them. It's a great read.
Born in the USAI thought this book was one of the most well written books about the problems with this country's maternity care system. It's written by an obstetrician and he talks about the problem, but he also gives solutions. It's definitely an eye opener for anyone who is about to give birth.
Ina May's Guide To Childbirth
My personal favorite. Anyone who is hoping for a natural, no intervention, birth should read this one. It is informational, but it also has so many inspiring stories of birth, some with intervention and some without. This was one of the first books on birth that I read and it really showed me how some interventions that you might think of as bad really do have their place when used properly.
Currently Reading
Pre-Natal Psychology/Epigenetics:
Origins: How the Nine Months Before Birth Shape the Rest of Our Lives
I thought this book was a must read for any pregnant woman after reading it. It talks about how every choice we make during pregnancy directly affects the person our child will become. It talks about how a large amount of stress while pregnant will convince the baby that the world is a stressful place and he/she will be pre-programmed to a very on edge, high strung person. That's just one example, but this book was a great source of information about how what we do and think while pregnant shapes who our child will become.
The Baby Emergency Handbook
James actually picked this book out. I think it's a great book for new parents, like us, who don't really know anything about taking care of a newborn and are going to be completely lost when our baby comes home. It's a go to guide for everything from fevers to infant CPR.
