Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Newborn: The Complete Guide

I wish I had read this book sooner. I was given several books on pregnancy and childbirth by friends and relatives. My husband and I call "What to Expect" the "Panic" book. Most of the others are comforting but lack detail. In contrast, this book is very thoughtful - it offers multiple alternatives for specific situations and it tells you WHY you would decide one way or the other. Sometimes it recommends a course of action and other times it lays out the alternatives and their pros and cons. But it always treats the reader as an intelligent and thoughtful person. I expected most pregnancy books to be written that way, but unfortunately, this is the only one I have found that arms the reader with the "why" behind each option.

I really love this book!I'm 4 months pregnant with my first child and I'm alternately scared to death and excited beyond belief. I've been soaking up information like crazy--getting books from the library, buying whatever looks good in the bookstore, and my midwife has given me a number of books to read, this being the most recent. Out of all of them, I think this one is the best.It is extremely thorough, not just with clinical information, but also descriptions of how you might feel, both physically and emotionally as you progress through pregnancy, labor, and post-partum. It covers everything I've been asking myself about what's happening to me, the baby, and what I can expect. Most importantly it covers what you do with the baby once you give birth and take them home, enough to get you over the "What do I do?!" fear and allowing you to get settled in as a parent.I also really like the focus on the birth partner as well as the pregnant woman; it's important to understand what both partners are going through during this highly confusing and magical time. I'm giving this book to my husband as soon as I'm finished reading it for the second time, as I want him to know what's going on with me and also let him know that I understand what might be going on with him. It's a great book for anyone who is involved in pregnancy in any way. After he's done with it, I plan to pass it on to our families to read.The only thing I didn't like about the book was the way it was organized, to me some of the chapters seemed out of order. It may have been the way I was approaching it, or that I was looking for specific information that was different from the flow. However, the chapters are very well laid out and titled, so it was easy to flip through the headers at the top of the page and find exactly the section I wanted, when I wanted it.Overall, a very thoroughly researched and produced book. Laid out in a manner that's easy to read and navigate, not at all intimidating and also not sentimental or biased. I would highly recommend this book to ANYONE who is pregnant, thinking about getting pregnant, related to or friends with someone who is pregnant, anyone who is curious about how it works, generally everybody.Don't hesitate to click the Add To Cart button and buy it now :)

We looked at, and tried to read, many pregnancy books, including the big names ("What to expect...", The Sears' book, and the Unofficial guide) that you see recommended everywhere. None of them hold a candle to this book. The best of those seem to focus on comforting couples through the experience. Often presenting redundant information between months, and not going into very much physiological detail. In contrast this book gave us what we were really looking for, honest to goodness data. Its written by professional childbirth educators, and is an education in itself. It's focused on the kind of in depth information your healthcare provider knows, and may or may not have time to tell you about. It won't give you advice on finding clothes that fit, it will tell you why your sense of taste totally changes, and what is going on in the body to cause that. No amount of soft peddling is going to change the fact that being pregnant is like having your body abducted by aliens. What we wanted is a book to help us understand what was happening, so the seemingly unrelated changes made sense too. What we want to know is what are the aliens doing with my body, why, and are they going to put it back when they're done. This book helps answer a lot of that, even stuff we hadn't thought to wonder about yet. If you're remotely technical, and like knowing how stuff works this is the best book we've found. However, it may not help much to validate your emotional mood swings, nor tell you when to ask for maternity leave.

For the most part, pregnancy books are written for and read by women, but if you're a caring father (or father-to-be) that wants to be involved with Mom and the baby, this is an outstanding book to read and refer to. It gives the fairest and most complete descriptions of the myriad medical options available to women before and during childbirth. It never surrenders the idea that individual differences or preferences may make some decisions right for one person, but not right for another. It portrays pregnancy as a natural and healthful (but challenging) condition, not as an abnormality. It is the best of the many books available.Penny has written other books, including The Birth Partner, which are also helpful and informative for Dads. They are uniformly excellent.