Pregnancy and Birth Books

I cannot say enough good things about this book! I have been using it for over 2 years. After going off a "gentle" birth control (which made me nauseous daily and slightly depressed) we used the Fertility Awareness Method taught in this book to avoid pregnancy for 5 months. When we wanted to have a baby it only took us two months to conceive. Now I am a breastfeeding mother, and we have avoided pregancy the past 6 months after my cycle resumed when my baby was barely 4 months old!

With the knowledge gained from this book, I can confidently tell you the day I ovulate, precisely how many days from then my period should arrive, and I can connect "strange" bodily occurances with my cycle! I know exactly what is normal for my body so I would be able to detect the slightest abnormality that could indicate a problem long before my annual exam.

Additionally, this information can help me and the doctor with accurate pregnancy information. I know that since I have a longer than "average" cycle - I ovulate on day 21 usually so my cycle is 35 days long - a due date that the doctor calculates (which is based on a 28 day cycle) is WRONG for me! Further, a doctor who believes in inducing when a woman is one week overdue, would actually induce labor ON MY ACTUALY DUE DATE. With my knowledge, I can avoid such an unnecessary induction.

I think you get the point. This book is unmatched and is for every woman!

While very informative with regard to the workings of the female reproductive system, I felt that in the year 2008 it's unnecessary to do all of the temperature taking, charting, analyzing bodily fluids, etc...for pregnancy purposes. I was taken aback by some of the completely weird anecdotes (ie., the egg white story --GROSS) and felt that with the digital fertility monitors out there, you don't have to be a slave to that thermometer. As a hard working, career woman who likes to get her drink on occasionally, I like to sleep in on the weekends and would always miss the window for taking my temperature. I gladly spent the $200 for the easy monitor that fits better into my lifestyle and saves me from examining where my cervix is at any given moment.

Every woman should read this book! I am 33 years old and it took me until reading this book to understand what my body is going through each month. Thank you for explaining it in simple terms that we can understand. I can't believe they didn't tell us this in health class!

I bought this book over a year ago and reference it all the time. It is great to use when you are trying to conceive or if you are just trying to understand your cycles. I would & have recommended this book to my girlfriends.

I have found this book very helpful in getting started with the FAM method to avoid conception as an alternative to hormonal birth control methods. The author very clearly describes the fertility process and the steps to observing and charting a woman's cycle. I especially enjoyed the tone of the book, which is gently humorous and devoid of religious ideology. It really convinced me that FAM is a good method of birth control as well as an aid to conception.

The downside is a few "over the top" moments in the book. After using this method I will agree that the process of taking a temperature every day and charting fertility signs is not as inconvenient as I had originally thought, but I will not go so far as to say that "charting is a privilidge".

Overall, this book is a good start. I recommend it.

I love this book so much!!! It is full of positive birth stories, which is something that is really not that common in the US. The women acknowledge the hurdles of labors, but have a constant positive understanding of what is happening to their bodies. I would recommend this book to any pregnant mama or papa. My husband also enjoyed some of the stories I shared with him.

The first half of this book is just short birthing stories--which becomes very tedious to read straight through. The stories are interesting but completely anecdotal. The second half of the book gives very generalized information on natural birth. Despite being a physician myself at a university based practice, I thoroughly believe in the power of natural childbirth. This book is encouraging but honestly not really adequate in terms of the practical information. I give it 5 stars in terms of illustrating and reassuring that natural childbirth can be accomplished safely...but again only 3 stars if you are looking for a true guide to giving birth naturally.

I have read countless books on pregnancy & childbirth but have never enjoyed one quite as much as this one. It was extremely informational, encouraging and empowering to any woman who has been previously convinced by society and the US medical system that her body is somehow broken and incapable of NORMAL birth. I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone. Excellent!!

don't read the crap that OB's and doctors are handing out telling women that if their labor doesn't fit nicely into their schedule and goes according to a generic time limit they'll have to have a c-section. giving birth is an empowering experience that can be ENJOYED and NOT FEARED. ina may helps inform you of the possibilities in childbirth so you can explore your options and also know what to expect. fast, easy reading.

Even if giving birth outside a hospital just doesn't seem like you (or me), keep reading this book. Ina May's "Guide" is well written, with interesting history, and aware of today's trends. Every woman and birth is different, and every woman in this book is capable of more than you (or often she) can imagine. The first half of the book is birth stories- and the second half is Ina May's detailed explanation of the birth process and options. Now I know exactly why my own labor "failed to progress" -I was scared! And each of my secret fears were addressed in this book. Learn what a good midwife could do for you and what your body really could be capable of when you believe in yourself. I wish I had read this book during my first pregnancy!! Women centered birth makes so much sense- but change isn't going to come from the midwives- change can only happen when mothers make that choice. We mothers need to become aware that we always have options- knowledge overcomes fear. Ina May is an experienced and well-spoken midwife who reached through the pages to make a difference to me.

The pictures are wonderful in this book. I remember my mom having an earlier edition when I was little and now I have an updated edition of my own!

I haven't read this book. I purchased the book for my son and his wife, who will be having their first child in January 2009. It will also make me and my wife grandparents for the first time! They love the book! Thank you for the rapid delivery! Susan and Billy Thompson

I bought this book 27 years ago when I was expecting my first child and when my daughter told me she was planning a family, I immediately purchased the updated version for her. This book remains a classic! The pictures are unbelievable and so beautiful and vivid. Because it's a European book, the childbirth pictures may be more graphic than what we are used to here in the States, but look beyond that to see the beauty and wonder of childbirth depicted in this amazing book. I highly recommend it!

A+ new edition of a book that I originally purchased when my son was born 29 years ago. I purchased the updated version for him and his wife. It is excellent! I recommend for all new parents and/or grandparents to give as a gift to their children.

Wonderful book amazing to see detailed pictures of the baby. Great for showing your children what is going on in your body. Other pictures are dated and need to be updated to this decade.

Remember the fairy godmothers in Sleeping Beauty presented her with 'gifts' when she was born.....

A great baby present with lots of hopes and dreams for the child.

This was given to me as a baby shower gift for my daughter. It is one of our favorite books and I now give it out as a newborn gift to friends and family. The messages are powerful and simple. It is not a long book so it's perfect for bedtime.

This book is an awesome gift! It is a wonderful story that teaches children of all ages many important virtues and lessons!

This is a beautiful book about the wonderful gifts of birth! I have given this as a "new baby" gift to several of my friends, and they absolutely love the book. The illustrations and the words are done in a beautiful way. I highly recommend this as a great baby gift!

Every parent/grandparent needs this book and then every child needs to have it read to him/her over and over again so that he can know how very special the day is that he was born. This book celebrates the child's arrival to the family and helps to foster characteristics that should be a birthright to all children.

I have 6-8 weeks left of my pregnancy and started to read this book and bookmark pages for my birth partner, my husband. Reading now, I think this book is very beneficial and will be very useful for us when the time comes to deliver our first baby. It was recommended by my midwife and I am glad I listened to her.

This book is a great resource for anyone about to give birth or attending a birth.
It really goes into detail about "how it works", what can be done to help the mother, what might help alleviate birth discomfort, birth scenarios etc.. Very helpful, either as a supplemental reading for a birth class or as a very good substitute for one. I would definitely recommend you buy this book!

I loved this book I read it cover to cover in less than 3 days I found it very informative and the highlighted pages would be very usefull in the labor and delivery room. I look forward to being able to use it during the actual delivery

This is our first pregnancy, and my husband is honestly more nervous than me! Letting him know what to expect is great for him.

This was one of the best purchases we made in terms of labor and delivery for our first child. Well worth reading for the mom-to-be and anyone else who is going to be involved in the labor and delivery.

This product was extemely helpful in getting me ready for my twins. They were born 11 weeks eary and I was much more prepared for the NICU and what the care would involve for the hospital stay for my boys. I would suggest others with multiples or complications read it.

My baby is a micro-preemie that was born at 24 weeks and 1 day gestationally. He is now 28 weeks gestational age. The NICU loaned me a copy and I pretty much devoured it.

This book was wonderful in letting me know what to expect and where my preeemie was developement wise. He has had two surgeries (for a collapsed lung and PDA) and the book helped to calm my fears and inform me of the process. The book seems to cover every issue, even when the preemie goes home and what the future looks like for him/her.

I would recommend this to any parent with a preemie.

This book was full of useful information that helped me feel more calm after learning my niece would come early.

This was a very good book. It helped my daughter and I better understand what was going on in the NICU and with my grandson and why things are done a certain way. It lets you know the criteria that your baby needs to meet before he or she can come home. It also talked about Kangaroo Care, which the NICU my grandson was in, never metioned until we brought up the subject.

The down side was alot of the book also pretained problems with multiple births,so we could skip alot of pages that didn't pretain to us.

All in All I would recommend this book to preemie parents.

Pros: great information about what to expect, comprehensive data on outcomes and risks, talks about all stages (antepartum, delivery, NICU, early childhood, etc).

Con: 578 pages!!! And every chapter repeated some information from other chapters. The foreward suggests reading only the chapter that relates to you, and warns you against reading the whole book, but what a dumb suggestion - Of course I want to know everything! So I read the whole book, which repeats itself about 30%. For nervous fathers-to-be (and mothers too), reading almost 600 pages to get 200 pages worth of information is not worth it. My wife read the Dr Sears "Preemie" book (much shorter) while I read this one and she liked it. I was worried I wouldn't even get a chance to finish it before the baby came, which just piled on more stress - just know what you are getting in to when you buy this book.

If I had to make a recommendation - FIRST read one of the shorter books, if it doesn't answer what you want to know, THEN buy this monstrosity.

For the price and quality, it is good for new moms or anyone feeding their baby. The only thing I would change is to have more cushion on the seat.

I read this about a week before having my baby, and found it to be very useful information since day one. It's easy to read and very reality based, they keep it to the basics.

This little book is great! My MIL gave it to me and at first glance, I thought it was too basic and not likely to be that helpful. To my surprise, I read it the week before I was due and was so glad I did. It really goes over all of the basics and tells you what you don't know, but also, it was oddly reassuring to me because I discovered all that I did know! I now give it as a gift. It is definitely worth buying/reading.

The title is a little cheesy- but for first time parents, this book gives an informative, and entertaining overview of their newborn. I have nieces and nephews, but have never taken care of a newborn, and this book covers a lot of things I would have never thought about. It takes away a lot of worry so that you're not calling other parents or your doctor every couple of days. It's good for both moms and dads.

I read half a dozen books before I had my first baby, and now that I'm expecting baby number two I realize that this is simply the only book I needed. Easy to read, very informative and it covers everything you need to know. It leaves you with a lot of confidence and enthusiasm about bringing your newborn home - it even approached the mysteries of breast feeding in a practical and non threatening way. GREAT BOOOK - super gift for someone expecting!

Pushed was very informative and gave you SO much information about maternity care then and now. It also gave insight as to how to prep myself and how to be an informed consumer as to the type of maternity care that I would like to have. This book encourages women to take back birth and be informed instead of blindly trusting it to "the experts". I would HIGHLY recommend anyone who is considering going into the OB/GYN field and to any women who can get pregnant. This is fantastic! Once I started I couldn't put it down!

I had a completely complication-free pregnancy and planned on a natural birth. Like so many of the women detailed in this book, I ended up with a c-section because of fears of macrosomia (big baby). At my 40 week appointment, when I had not yet started dilating, the OB decided the baby was getting too big and I needed a c-section. When I protested, be brought in two colleagues and the three of them went through every possible complication for vaginal delivery of a large baby: shoulder dystosia, cerebral palsy, even stillbirth (yes, they sat there and told me if I didn't get a c-section it wouldn't be there fault if I had a stillbirth). I felt completely bullied and powerless and had the c-section. My daughter was a health 9 lb 12 oz, but I had terrible problems recovery from surgery, awful breastfeeding problems (my milk took over a week to come in), and postpartum depression that made bonding with my baby and, well, everything in life, difficulty. I still believe I could have had a vaginal birth. And now I'll likely never be able to have a VBAC, since so few hospitals and doctors allow them, unless I go the home birth route. This book showed me I was not alone. And while I don't have conclusive statistics, I can say that among my two sisters-in-law and three friends who were pregnant when I was, all six of us -- yes, all six -- had c-sections either for macrosomia or "failure to progress." And these were all healthy, normal pregnancies. Truly scary.

Sixteen years after my own "failure to progress" emergency C-section, Jennifer Block brought it all back in minutes. Intervention leading to intervention was the story of my first son's birth. My second positive pregnancy test jumped straight from joy into abject fear. Fear is a good motivator sometimes--our last two were born at home with two certified (and illegal at the time) midwives. Their beginnings aren't muddled in with my own trauma. The sad fact is, it's all thought of as so "normal" that most women today don't know what they've lost.

This book should be mandatory reading-- I agree with the previous reviewer--America needs a revolution in it's birth practices. I plan on helping start it by giving this book to every woman I know thinking about becoming pregnant. Thanks to Jennifer for all the hours spent researching this material. It is sorely needed.

I was amazed to read how obstetrics are handled in the USA (as an American woman who's had two children in American hospitals). I have been fortunate. Many other women are not. It is critical to read this book and be informed about your obstetric care if you are or intend to become pregnant (or someone you love is pregnant).

In the past week I've met 2 women whose insurance companies have refused to pay for a homebirth. I think it's pathetic that someone can walk in and ask for a $6000 c-section while another woman can't give natural birth with a midwife in her home for $1500. This book gives great background information on birth in our society yesterday and today. It's everything you wanted to know after watching 'the business of being born'. Please read it!

Simply superb. A simple book telling a beautiful tale. Wonderfully illustrated. My 3 year old and 19 month old love this book. There is not too many words that they get bored. It is large enough for children to hold and read.

This is a beautifully written book for children and adults. We totally love the story. It was given as a gift to our newest granddaughter by her godparents for her Baptism . the book was read by us and then we read it to her 3yr brother and 5 yr sister. It's a great book for the family to share. My daughter asked the 5 yr old who was that angel, she answered right away loud and clear. I'll let the readers read the book and answer that question for themself. I came home and ordered this copy and would love to see every family having a baby (1st or last) to read it together. It's a very special story. It's a gift that we will be giving to new parents as gifts as is our daughter planning to have copies on hand to give to parents of friends and Baptism gifts.

I enjoyed "Angel in the Waters." It is a beautifully written book from the point of view of a baby in the womb. As an expecting mother, I loved to imagine it was my child. I bought one for me and my husband and a couple of our friends who are expecting, too.

The pictures are true without showing gender, so it could be any Caucasian baby. It would be nice to have the story remade for other ethnicities, too. (Just an idea!)

I am going to buy more for other pregnant friends!

This book showed up on my reccomended list a couple of months ago. Hmmm, I thought--I'll chance it.
Since then I've given copies to:
--a 3 year old preparing for baptism
--a friend in the middle of potentially bad news about her pregnancy
--the teen mother of a child who died at 5 months gestation (I read it at the memorial service)
--the mother of a 19 year old killed in a car crash
Oh, and by the way, my son, who is adopted and who was abandoned at one week old, loves it, too. I think it's helping him form/reform hid connection to his birthmother in a really healthy way.
In any event--I like it. A lot. It is very simple, but can be used in very profound situations where something less whimsical would not work. It's charming, with gentle humor, and full of love.

I bought this for my older daughter when I was expecting no.2. It's about an unborn baby speaking to the angel inside the womb. It is so lovely, it actually brings tears to my eyes while carrying my baby and reading it to my older daughter on my lap. It also helps my older daughter to appreciate what is happening inside my tummy and appreciate her baby sister more!

I was not successful breasfeeding my first child and was quite determined to make it work with my second. I bought this book after she was born -her doctors were warning me that she wasn't gaining enough weight and I felt that I may not be successful a second time. I read only the chapters that applied and reread them every time I had questions or read further on when we got to a new "phase". I have found it very difficult to get BF advice without getting a load of judgement for bottle feeding. I felt this book was different and just pratical. It was a very helpful book as it made the little querks of BF make sense and answered lots of questions I had. I was able to BF my child and also able to wean her without issues when the time came. I refer this book to all my new mom friends.

This was a great gift for the new mom, who will be nursing! Looks like a great book for my daughter. Happy with the purchase, from the soon to be grandma!

This is a great book for help breastfeeding for the first time. It covers correct latch and different positions for breastfeeding. It is really helpful for first time moms.

This book was helpful for a first time Mom. I liked that they had scientific studies to back up what they were saying. Practical advice.

This is by far the best breastfeeding book I've ever read. Very clear and simple, I would buy it for every expecting mom I know!