Top ten pregnancy reads
We've picked out the ten best books for you to read during those magical nine months - you'll be informed, empowered and entertained.
Traditional reads
- Collins Pregnancy Week by Week
- Pregnancy
- Being Pregnant, Giving Birth: A National Childbirth Trust Guide
- Conception, Pregnancy and Birth
- The New Pregnancy and Childbirth Book
- New Active Birth: A Concise Guide to Natural Childbirth
- The Expectant Father
Hip new reads
Our reviewers
Bridget Christie is a health and beauty journalist based in Dublin. She gave birth to twins (a boy and a girl) in May 2002.
Eileen Flood O'Connor is an American freelance writer based in London. The mother of a twelve-month old daughter, she's expecting her second child in December 2002.
Roderick Mackenzie is deputy editor of a motoring magazine. He and his partner are expecting their first child in June 2003.
Melissa de Villiers is a freelance travel journalist. She's expecting her first child in January 2003.
Collins Pregnancy Week by Week, by Jane McDougall (HarperCollins £10.99)
This slim, spiral-bound manual uses a week-by-week format to help you count down to motherhood. Written by a practising gynaecologist, it's a pared-down guide to the bodily changes you and your baby are likely to experience throughout pregnancy, from conception through to delivery and birth. And because the text is broken down into clearly-labelled information boxes and illustrated with lots of pictures, the detail never seems too dense - perfect if you prefer to dip in and out to find out about the subject you require without reading an entire book from cover to cover.
Not only is there a useful checklist of 'Things to do', (from what to pack if you're having a hospital birth to advice on how to decorate the nursery), the 'Dates for your diary' section offers a chance to plan and record important developments and test results, making the volume a nice keepsake of your baby's journey into the world. I especially enjoyed the wealth of colour photographs and illustrations, offering exciting glimpses of the baby's rapid growth inside the uterus.
You'll love this book if:
You couldn't be bothered to wade through a weighty tome and want something concise (and well-illustrated) instead.| Melissa de Villiers | Buy this book at www.amazon.co.uk |
Pregnancy, by Gordon Bourne (Pan, £8.99)
First published over 20 years ago, this new edition of what the publishers describe as 'the pregnancy bible' has been updated to take account of modern practices and attitudes. Nonetheless, Bourne - a former consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at St Bart's in London - is still very much the old-fashioned voice of authority, painting a clear-eyed, unemotional picture of fertility, pregnancy, labour, delivery and looking after the new baby.
If you come to this book after dipping into any of the trendy 'alternative' pregnancy guides, you might find his style unfashionably brisk and prescriptive, and the textbook-style illustrations off-putting. But if you're the sort of person who prefers to get to grips with every medical detail, no matter how grisly, you should find this text a reassuring source of knowledge. If nothing else, it's an interesting insight into the management of pregnancy from the consultant's point of view - in other words, from inside what is still very much a male-dominated profession.
You'll love this book if:
You're looking for an authoritative antidote to the more touchy-feely, new age guides to pregnancy - the good doctor doesn't pull his punches.| Melissa de Villiers | Buy this book at www.amazon.co.uk |
Being Pregnant, Giving Birth: A National Childbirth Trust Guide, by Mary Nolan (Thorsons, £9.99)
Aimed at easing the fear of childbirth which the author claims is endemic in our culture, this is a supportive and accessible addition to your pregnancy library. This book is just what you'd expect from the National Childbirth Trust, which, through its antenatal classes, has helped to prepare thousands of women and couples for birth and parenthood. This paperback is an attempt to distill all that experience into a handbook format, big on easy-to-read bullet-pointed lists of information, and liberally sprinkled with soothing soft-focus photographs and drawings. Perhaps the most useful features are the extensive quotes from parents recounting their experiences, which helps bring the factual detail to life.
I also liked the fact that the underlying ethos is 'you are the expert about you' - the idea being that of course, you will want to listen to the professional advice of your midwife and doctor, but essentially you should have the confidence to consider how what they have said fits in with your own understanding of what suits you best. This book aims to ensure that you do just that.
You'll love this book if:
You're looking for an easy-to-read confidence booster to dispel all those first-time fears and anxieties.| Melissa de Villiers | Buy this book at www.amazon.co.uk |
Conception, Pregnancy and Birth, by Miriam Stoppard (Dorling Kindersley, £15.99)
One of the best-known manuals by one of Britain's leading childbirth experts, this excellent book positively bursts at the seams with information on every step of the pregnancy process, from infertility and pre-conception health to infant care. The most recent edition also brings the book bang up to date by including a chapter specifically for dads.
It's not hard to see why Stoppard's book has stayed top of the pregnancy book popularity stakes for so long - she's fantastically thorough, weaving together practical medical advice, supportive information on the emotional aspects of pregnancy, and case studies of common problems, all in meticulous detail and clear prose. What's more, the text is backed up by graphic photos and colourful charts outlining everything from the progress of a growing foetus to the correct way to exercise in pregnancy.
My only reservation is that such an onslaught of information might dispose the more anxious reader to even more questions or anxieties - but for most of us, short of moving the midwife into the spare room for the duration of your pregnancy, this is about as good as it gets.
You'll love this book if:
You're looking for just one pregnancy bible that you know you can trust.| Eileen Flood O'Connor | Buy this book at www.amazon.co.uk |
The New Pregnancy and Childbirth Book, by Sheila Kitzinger (Penguin, £15.99)
A classic guide by one of Britain's best-known childbirth experts. Kitzinger has been a leading voice for pregnant women since the Sixties, campaigning for them to have the right to the sort of antenatal care and birth that they want, rather than submitting passively to doctor's orders.
That's not to say that Kitzinger is biased in any way against hospital births with interventions - on the contrary, all the options are extensively discussed and women encouraged to make their own choices, from understanding your medical record to making educated decisions about your birthing preferences.
In terms of the day-to-day changes and developments which happen physically and emotionally during pregnancy, there's information to cover all eventualities, plus a good section on partners and their feelings and involvement in the process. The sections on labour and delivery are descriptive and full of practical suggestions - from massage to breathing to visualisation. The illustrations and photographs are beautiful, too. In short, this book filled me with confidence.
You'll love this book if:
You're looking for a classic guide to see you right through your pregnancy.| Bridget Christie | Buy this book at www.amazon.co.uk |
New Active Birth: A Concise Guide to Natural Childbirth, by Janet Balaskas (HarperCollins, £9.99)
When this book was first published in 1991, it was regarded as pretty controversial. Yet in a decade, Janet Balaskas has gained the respect of midwives and challenged general practice in hospitals to change in order to allow pregnant women to play more of an active role in the way their babies are delivered. But, her active birth philosophy is not just about what happens in the delivery room. She also aims to show how to develop the body's natural resources throughout pregnancy in order to deal better and more instinctively with the whole experience of childbirth.
If you're interested in having a home birth, or simply in finding out more about having a 'natural' pregnancy with the minimum of medical intervention, you'll find this book invaluable. There's ample information on how natural birthing positions such as squatting can help you to cope with delivery, plus a good section on yoga-based exercises to try both during pregnancy and postnatally. However, if you're not a convert to the active birth camp, you could find the tone rather extreme. I'd recommend giving this book a go, but in conjunction with a slightly less strident traditional guide, such as Miriam Stoppard's Conception, Pregnancy and Birth.
You'll love this book if:
You're interested in the natural methods behind the Active Birth Movement, and want to learn more| Bridget Christie | Buy this book at www.amazon.co.uk |
The Expectant Father, by Betty Parsons (Elliott Right Way Books, £3.99)
With over 30 years' experience running antenatal classes, you'd expect Betty Parsons to know her onions - yet to begin with, I didn't take to this book at all. What put me off was the author's fussily old-fashioned approach. Her insistence on assuming I am the 'husband' and my pregnant partner my 'wife', for example, was irritating, especially as we're not married. Then there's the Sex during Pregnancy chapter, where any really practical (and unfortunately, Ms Parsons, that does mean graphic) details are primly left out.
The format could be better, too. The text is dense, with long, unbroken paragraphs, meaning this is not the sort of book you can swiftly refer to if there's a problem. In fact, reading this is rather like being on the receiving end of a lengthy lecture from your bossy old auntie - the one who always knows best.
Yet despite all that, Parsons does have an undoubted talent for communicating - her detailed section on ways to support your partner through the labour process was both reassuring and enlightening. In short, I was won over. Sometimes, I guess, auntie really does know best.
You'll love this book if:
You're looking for a detailed dose of good old-fashioned advice - it's not a quick-flick guide.| Roderick Mackenzie | Buy this book at www.amazon.co.uk |
The Rough Guide to Pregnancy and Birth, by Kaz Cooke (Penguin, £9.99)
Claiming to cover "the scary parts, the funny parts and your private parts", this is another of those alternative guides aimed at terrified first-timers that purports to tell it like it is. Australian-born Kaz Cooke has structured her book into a useful week-by-week countdown that explains what's happening to you and the baby, exploring common health complaints, suggesting remedies and looking at what will happen at antenatal visits. Interspersed with these sections is an entertaining semi-fictitious weekly diary, providing a subjective counterpoint to all the practical advice.
Well-illustrated with witty cartoons and covering such diverse topics as weeing and working, blokes, bosoms and busybodies and how to be rude to complete strangers, Cooke's voice is friendly and funny that does its best to reassure you that you're not alone. Yet although it presents itself as a definitive guide, when it comes to technical information it can't really compete with the 'classics' by the likes of Miriam Stoppard and Sheila Kitzinger. Use this as a complementary read instead, especially if you have any concerns about a particular aspect of your pregnancy.
You'll love this book if:
Cooke's irreverent, sometimes hilarious approach to becoming 'a host organ', as she puts it, happens to tickle your funnybone.| Melissa de Villiers | Buy this book at www.amazon.co.uk |
The Best Friend's Guide to Pregnancy, by Vicki Iovine (Bloomsbury, £9.99)
It's not just mother-of-four Vicki Iovine's bone-dry sense of humour that lifts this 'alternative' guide above the rest, it's also the fact that she's so splendidly opinionated. "Our compulsion to exercise when we are pregnant is a reflection of our inability to surrender and let nature run its course", she claims, "So surrender! After all, exercise won't help you in labour or delivery in any way").
Just as forthright are her views on the drug-free birth vs pain relief debate. In her view, a healthy mother, achieved under any conditions necessary, is the ultimate goal - so don't let the Pregnancy Police bully you, she argues, into thinking you're doing something wrong if you opt for an epidural. Iovine is an American writer, so there's the odd American cultural reference British readers might not get, but on the whole she really does supply the sort of common-sense, hand-holding advice you'd want from a best friend, covering everything from the lowdown on having an amnio to dealing with the fear that you're turning into your mother. Highly recommended.
You'll love this book if:
You're looking for a witty and wise anecdotal guide to supplement your more technical manual on pregnancy and birth.| Eileen Flood O'Connor | Buy this book at www.amazon.co.uk |
The Fat Ladies Club, by Hilary Gardener, Andrea Bettridge, Sarah Groves, Annette Jones and Lyndsey Lawrence (Penguin, £6.99)
Having met at antenatal class, this book's authors decided to pool their experiences of first-time pregnancy. "Forget the textbook theory", they warn, "and settle down for what amounts to an eavesdrop into our girlie chats - no facts, no figures, just all the bits you really wanted to know but were afraid to ask!"
The 'girlies' stay true to their word. Not only do these cheerful, homely tales of their stretch marks, sex lives (or lack of them), morning sickness and wind entertain as well as reassure, but their honesty's endearing. On the other hand, I felt that the fact that they aren't professional writers was also the book's biggest weakness. The amateurish style (Cue! Overuse! Of exclamation marks!) tends to grate after a while, as does the Fat Ladies' rather plodding sense of humour. A pity, really, that the publishers didn't deliver the editing needed to transform this book into a slightly slicker offering, thus doing the Fat Ladies the justice their honesty deserves.
You'll love this book if:
You're bored sick of ploughing through all those earnest baby manuals and just want a bit of a giggle.| Melissa De Villiers | Buy this book at www.amazon.co.uk |
Where to next?
- Find out how to deal with a growing bump at work
- Stay blooming with our Health and wellbeing section
- Join our online antenatal classes
- Don't forget Dad! We've got all the info your partner needs to understand your pregnancy in our For dads section
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