My Pregnancy Bible
My Pregnancy is a book published by Dorling Kindersley and written by leading pregnancy experts who are all mummies themselves.
The book is edited by Dr Virginia Beckett and covers nutrition, antenatal care, fitness, emotional well-being, childbirth and babycare.
Since being given this book by one of its main contributors media midwife Nikki Khan a few weeks ago it has become my pregnancy Bible.
I turn to its beautiful pages whenever I have a question, reach a new week or feel something different. When I am restless I flick through the fabulous photos and when I need more I actually read the words and absorb the wisdom that unfolds.
This is a brilliant pregnancy book, written by mummies for mummies to be.
Esther, my 20 month old daughter, calls My Pregnancy ‘Mummy’s heavy book’. She is not wrong. This beautiful hardback is 400 pages packed with a wealth of knowledge, information and expertise.
In the foreword Virginia Beckett says
Let us – a midwife, a dietician, a fitness expert, a psychologist, a paediatrician and two obstetricians – enlighten you on the realities of pregnancy, and share with you our combined experience.
We hope to be your companions for your pregnancy, pointing you in the right direction but giving you the confidence to make your own choices …
… You are embarking on the amazing adventure that is parenthood. We’re with you every step of the way.
From the outset, from these words I felt that I was welcomed into a special community of women who understood exactly what I was going through and would be able to help me go confidently on my way.
This really is a great book.
My Pregnancy is split into eight sections: Ready for Pregnancy?; My Health and Lifestyle; My Antenatal Care; My Pregnancy Calendar; Preparing for Motherhood; My Labour and Birth; My New Baby and Me and My First Weeks as a Mum.
Because I was given this book more than 6 months through my pregnancy I have focused on the latter sections. The biggest part of the book is the pregnancy calendar. Each week there is a two page spread with text and photos telling you what is happening to your baby inside and also things that are happening to you and your body.
This week for example I am 36 weeks. The Pregnancy Calendar tells me that my breasts may be tender as they start to produce milk. It also tells me that Baby may now have a full head of hair. The pages for this week talk about Braxton Hicks contractions and false labour. They also explain that at the end of this week Baby will have reached clinical maturity and we will have officially made it to full term.
Saturday is going to be a day of celebration for Matilda Bump and me, if we make it that far!
The other section of this book that I have devoured is the Preparing for Motherhood pages. Although I am already a Mummy of two things are going to be very different this time. With Esther and William they were almost three months old before we brought them home. Feeding was established and they were in a routine. Their cord stubs had long since dropped off and they were awake and alert a lot of the time. Having a brand new newborn at home is going to be altogether different to this and I want to be sure that I get it right.
My Pregnancy offers great advice on preparing siblings for the new arrival (more about that in a separate post!), what baby will need, what mummy will need including a great section on what to have in your changing bag (another blog post coming soon!), transporting baby, getting ready for labour and packing a hospital bag, or two, three … !!!
Regular readers of Edspire will know that packing a bag has been an obsession of mine these past few weeks. I have packed and repacked and am still refining the contents of my hospital bag. My Pregnancy has a detailed section on doing just this. I have found it to be a great help as I packed and repacked my bags.
As I work my towards 37 weeks my concentration is focused more and more on labour and birth.
The wait is almost over … knowing what to expect in labour and your pain-relief options can help you face the experience confidently.
There is a lovely chapter on the process of birth that shows the baby moving down the birth canal.
Being aware of how labour progresses and what is hapening to your body and baby helpes you cope better with the discomfort.
I am hoping that this rationale will be true for me. If I can focus on each contraction literally bringing me closer to meeting my baby then I am hoping that it will help me to deal with the pain.
There is a great section in the book about how the baby lies and what you can do to optimise the position of your baby for birth. I have been using my birthing ball from The Miracle Box to help with optimal foetal positioning. (More of this coming in a review very soon!)
There is a very detailed section on dealing with pain in labour and I love that the book talks to you about natural pain relief and medical pain relief. I think that it is really important to have this balance and to make women aware of their options.
I do feel more prepared for birth and labour having read, and re-read, this very detailed section of this book. I feel like I understand what the different stages of labour are for and I feel determined to focus on each stage one contraction at a time. I hope that when the time comes I am able to deal with things the way I want to but I am guessing that most of my coomon sense and logic will gout of the window and be replaced with fear and emotion. We will see. I am definitely going to be taking this book with me.
The book does prepare its readers for what can happen when labour fails to progress. It takes the reader through explanations of assisted delivery and caesarean sections. It talks about fast labour, cord prolapse and shoulder dystocia.
My Pregnancy tells stories if these situations from mummies who know. It is a refreshing and honest, informative read.
This has been my pregnancy bible.
What has been yours?
I was given a copy of this book free of charge as part of a goodie bag but I was NOT asked to review the book. I have chosen to write this review as I have enjoyed the text so much.
My Pregnancy Bible