I’m pretty sure I’ve been feeling the baby move this week! It’s very gentle movements, in fact I can feel them now as I write, and to be honest it could just be my digestion, but I do have a feeling it’s movement! It feels like little nudges in my lower abdomen and like something is swimming about in there, which of course it is! Other than that not much else to report, no sickness or anything thankfully and I do feel like the tiredness is easing off. I do have really bad sinuses though which is making sleeping difficult at times. I don’t really have any huge cravings although I am eating a tonne of strawberries and I do have a fancy for a cheese savoury sandwich that I might have to meet later next week.

As I mentioned last week we went to a hypno birthing, also known as Natal Hypnotherapy course. It was just brilliant! I’ll share my thoughts on that in a future post, but it really started me thinking more about the actual birth and how I’d like to approach it.

Today I thought I’d talk about some of the pregnancy books I’ve read. These are far from a detailed review, as I’ve tended to dip in and out of each one. I had to laugh when the lovely Alex tweeted me a link to this article about actually not reading birthing books and I have to say I kind of agree with her on some of it, although personally I found Google much much worse, hence my total ‘googling anything to do with pregnancy ban’. 

Some of these have been more useful than others as you’ll see. I just bought these as Kindle versions so they have been good to dip in and out of from time to time:

What to Expect When You’re Expecting

I guess this is seen as the pregnancy book so I thought I’d better buy and and see. It is very detailed and goes into each stage of pregnancy including pre conception. Month by month it covers the baby’s stages of development and the kinds of feelings you might be experiencing. It is quite useful at reminding you that every woman is different, but at times I did get a bit freaked out, particularly in the first trimester when it seemed to feel like all sorts could go wrong. I was petrified that I would have a missed miscarriage. It is an incredibly detailed book, so if you like a lot of information then it could be good for you. However I am starting to er on the side of too much info = too much worry! It also talks about expecting multiples, after the baby is born, a section for Fathers and a whole chapter on managing a complicated pregnancy, or basically what could go wrong. It does say at the start of the chapter to skip this unless you really need to read it, something I certainly chose to do! I do believe that this is a UK version of the book, but it didn’t feel seamlessly British in terms of what our NHS care tends to look like.

Pregnancy for Modern Girls

I really enjoyed this book, it’s a nice easy read and basically covers what you need to know. It’s also written by a Brit and has lots of quotes and stories from other mums, so I felt like I could relate to this much better. The style of the writing is also much more friendly than other books here, I felt like I was reading the thoughts of a good friend. If you find out your pregnant and your here in the UK, I’d skip the above and go straight to this.

Bumpology

This is a fascinating read which rather than taking us through the usual month by month of pregnancy, looks at some of the myths sounding pregnancy and presents some scientific fact. It’s uses the most recent scientific research and studies to try and answer request questions such as ‘Can jacuzzi’s and saunas cause miscarriage?’, ‘will lying on my back harm my baby?’ and ‘can curry help trigger labour?’ It’s split up into sections of questions from exercise, food and drink, the developing baby, birth etc. It really is a refreshing read and gave me a lot of perspective on some common pregnancy old wives tales.

The Better Baby Book

This is written by Lana and Dave Asprey – also know as the Bullet Proof Exec. I can’t say I’m into that whole bulletproof thing, apart from the delicious coffee, but I did have had an interest in Paleo style nutrition while I was trying to repair my hormones so this appealed to me. It also appealed to the nutrition geek in me and by goodness does it go into detail! It covers pre conception nutrition and lifestyle as well as some things to eat and avoid during pregnancy, all with the aim of creating a healthier baby. Lana was in her 40’s when she got pregnant and they both ended up doing a huge amount of research and experimentation with what to eat and avoid. I did find it interesting but incredibly unrealistic in some ways. Lana didn’t experience morning sickness, but there was no advice for how to eat when you are experiencing it. As I had already researched nutrition for hormones (which tend to be the same for fertility really) I was already eating a lot of their suggested foods and taking some of their suggested supplements, but if you aren’t already following a really highly nutrient dense diet this might come across as a bit scary. One thing I did add after reading the book was some non gmo soya lecithin for the added nutrients. Also covered is are environmental factors such as moulds and toxins, reducing stress and giving birth. It’s quite an intense book and a lot to take in, so I wouldn’t recommend it everyone, however it did satisfy my need for a more alternative view on pregnancy nutrition, which as far as most books go, tend to stick to the usual NHS style grains heavy food pyramid. 

The Natural Pregnancy Book

I absolutely loved this book! I started to read it one Sunday afternoon and was in tears after about 5 minutes. Unlike all of the other books above, it highlights the fact that our bodies know how to give birth, it’s in our DNA! This book really helped me start and trust my body to carry and deliver this baby, and it was that realisation that got me so emotional. It highlighted that as much as modern medicine is amazing and saves so many lives, that is at a price, and what was once a highly community and female orientated experience, has become more and more a medicalised experience with the involvement of male doctors. She’s an American, where I believe midwifes are not as common as they are here in the UK so this is discussed quite a bit. The book is really comprehensive and as well as lightly covering the development of the baby and month by month thoughts and feelings covers nutrition, exercise and posture, the need for rest, common pregnancy issues and concerns, building an emotional bond and one of the things that attracted me to the book, all sorts about herbs and their uses. If you like this blog and a lot of the kinds of things I write about, I bet you’ll love this book as well. Definitely my fave of the lot.

If you are / have been pregnant, how did you find pregnancy books and which ones would you recommend? If you haven’t been pregnant, how often do you read health and wellbeing books?