Today I was talking to a long-time friend of mine who’s pregnant with her first child. I’m very excited for her! She was asking me about which pregnancy books I would recommend. I gave her the rundown of my favorites and after I got off the phone I thought, “Hey, maybe my readers would like to know this too!” Disclosure: I’m not a doctor, professional, or any sort of pregnancy specialist. These are just my thoughts from my personal experience and I hope you’ll find them helpful! Oh, and this post contains my affiliate links so if you make a purchase I’ll make a little profit at no additional cost to you.
If you’ve ever browsed around bookstores you’re probably familiar with the plethora of books written especially for moms-to-be. This section can even be overwhelming to the women who don’t have pregnancy hormones raging! While I haven’t read them all I’ve certainly read my share and I’m here to report on my favorites.
- – What to Expect When You’re Expecting This is usually the first pregnancy book that comes to mind so I’ll mention it first to get it out of the way. It’s been a long standing New York Times bestseller and one of USA Today‘s 25 most influential books of the past 25 years so it’s bound to be good, right? Although I think the cover is hideous {am I the only one?} I found this book to be very helpful. It is very informative and mixes light humor throughout. This book is very easy to read.
- – Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy This is a well organized wealth of information. It’s not as conversational as some and I liked that. It was straight to the point, comforting, and informative without making me feel terrible for all the things that I wasn’t doing correctly. My favorite section was the long list of common concerns women have during pregnancy. They are categorized into “call immediately, call tomorrow, or wait until next visit”. This is a book I would recommend to everyone who’s pregnant or thinking of becoming pregnant!
- – Your Pregnancy Week by Week This is my favorite book! A doctor friend of mine recommended it to me after reading it I was so glad that she did. As stated on page 41, “One purpose of this book is to help you see how your actions and activities affect your health and well-being and that of your growing baby.” It gives week by week information on the baby’s size {with pictures!}, an exercise to do {with pictures!}, nutritional information, and even a tip for Dad to do something for the new mom and baby. Scattered throughout the book are things to watch for such as depression in pregnancy, gestational diabetes, and pre-clampsia. Some have said that this book induced fear but for me it gave me confidence that everything was okay. I knew that I was doing everything possible to avoid complications and if something strange were to happen I would know what problem it was and talk to my doctor about it right away. It gives information on foods to eat, the most popular birthing methods, what’s in the delivery room, what to pack, and what to expect in the days, weeks, months, and even one year after labor. If I could afford it I would buy this book for every single pregnant woman I know {which at the time is 12 I think}!
- – The Girlfriend’s Guide to Pregnancy While this is not one of my favorite books I feel like I should include it because I know so many people who have read it and enjoyed it. To me this book is long on girl-talk and short on information. It’s my opinion that the book is negative and in some places even offensive. The author makes some assumptions that I wasn’t comfortable with, for instance she encourages women not to exercise vigorously during pregnancy because if something happened to the baby they would blame themselves. Also, she suggested that if you don’t have sex with your husband during pregnancy that he would get tired of waiting and cheat on you. While the book did make me laugh at points I was left feeling kind of depressed after reading it. I think a light-hearted, non-scientific, “tell it like it is” pregnancy book is completely fine but this one wasn’t for me.
It’s true that there is a lot of information online for moms-to-be these days but I still like to hold an old fashioned book in my hand and a highlighter in the other. If you decide to forego the paperback books, there are Kindle editions of all the books I listed above.
What about you? What books did you find helpful during pregnancy?
WTEWE quickly fell off as most people’s favourite because it’s so negative and omits a lot of info as well as give incorrect info. I love “The pregnancy Bible” though.
I haven’t heard of that one before. Thank you for recommending it, I’ll have to check it out!
There’s also one by Ina May Gaskin that is Ah-mazzing 🙂 Oh, and you’re welcome!
Great list of favorites. One of my top three is The Birth Partner, Third Edition. Intended for hubby’s or any birth coach, but I found I learned the most from it.
Ooh, I’ll have to add that to my book wish list! Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for sharing!
I read What to Expect (but of course trailed off somewhere in the 2nd trimester), and my insurance company sent me Your Pregnancy Week by Week. I liked that one too.
Honestly, what I’ve loved the most are books on childbirth! I’ve been consuming those like crazy. We’re hoping for a natural, no intervention birth, but I think they’re useful for anyone! My favorites have been Ricki Lake’s book, Your Best Birth, and Birthing From Within. The second one is pretty hippie, but you can skim certain chapters and the rest is really awesome!
The only one from your list that I didn’t read was the Your Pregnancy Week by Week! I have read all the others. I also really liked all the Dr. Sears’ books: The Pregnancy Book; The Birth Book; The Breastfeeding Book, and I’m working on The Baby Book. I’ve also been reading a lot of natural childbirth books like Ina May’s, Husband Coached Childbirth (The Bradley Method), and Natural Hospital Birth: The Best of Both Worlds.
Oh my goodness, I completely agree with you that The Girlfriend’s Guide was not for me! Some of the things she said (like the thing about exercise) just seemed ridiculous! The only reason I read it was to get a (very) different perspective from mine.
I did not read any books while pregnant except for hypnobabies because it’s what my doula recommended I do.
I read what to expect while you are expecting and found the factual information pretty good but they do tend to scare you a bit. I had a few apps for my phone that I found really helpful.