Okay folks, I've read a lot of pregnancy/baby literature, including What to Expect When you are Expecting (dry, confusing, not well organized), Husband Coached Childbirth (informative but biased heavily on the Bradley Method), Natural Childbirth- The Bradley Way (very informative, good images, also biased toward Bradley Method), The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding (La Leche League nazis, informative yet attachment parent-biased), The No Cry Sleep Solution (written by a mom, good info, attachment parenting biased -- good for GENTLE and sensitive sleep method) and On Becoming Baby Wise (I like many ideas in this book: take with a grain of salt, they can be harsh as well) but my FAVORITE "pregnancy bible" book is called
The New Well Pregnancy Book (revised edition). This book has a wealth of knowledge from cultural views, to anatomy to labor and postpartum. Plus it's BALANCED writing: meaning they don't bash midwives and they don't bash hospitals. They present the information factually and honestly in an easy-to-read format that I refer to ALL THE TIME. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in a bible of pregnancy. I encourage you to read the biased books as well (even the attachment parenting Sears one, if you dare) but it's nice to read something that doesn't BASH other methods. If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't bother with the What to Expect book. I hear their baby book is good, but the pregnancy book is just riddled with bad news, and random things that could go wrong, and I don't like the organization of it all.
P.S. in defense of Sears, I do have his baby book, which I hear is a good reference tool. More on that later. I haven't read for pleasure since I got pregnant. Currently reading a reference guide of vaccines... more on that.
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4 comments:
cameron! thanks for the reviews...
xox -
vic
Howdy do,
I agree with your assessment of What to Expect, and I even found parts of it rather alarmist. I only have an outdated copy of Womanly Art of Breastfeeding that was my mom's that was not particularly helpful to me, but I suspect a newer edition would be better.
About La Leche League: my mom loved being a member in the late 1970s, when she didn't know many people who breastfed, and didn't have a lot of family support other than my very supportive father - I get the feeling it was sort of a life raft for her, and so he has really positive connotations with LLL.
I, however, was a little disappointed when I visited two separate local LLL meetings. I just didn't fit in at all and was happy to leave at the end. I think it probably has a lot to do with the particular chapter.
I wanted so badly to be a gung-ho LLL mom just like MY mom...but I found wonderful support elsewhere, and am happy the way it all turned out.
Hey Cameron! I was hoping to be able to read your blog one of these days with more personal experiences in mind. And obviously, that's now as I'm 29 weeks preggo.
I'm loving your posts so far. I admit, I referred them to a few friends a while back but they didn't really resonate with me until now. Thanks for all your info. I, like you, have been avidly reading books and am always looking for a good rec. You're the best! xx -hollye
It does have some good info, thus blog. I need to keep it up!
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