Okay, the BC Health Guide has a couple pages about pregnancy-- bare bones, but if you’re having a normal, healthy pregnancy, that’s really all you need.
I don’t know where in BC you live Stainz, but there are doulas in the lower mainland. One decided that a green light at an intersection was a cue to back up into my motorcycle a few years ago :rolleyes:
I strongly recommend against the What to Expect books. No one needs that kind of pressure during their pregnancy. I reccomend and frequently give The Pregnancy Book and The Birth Book to my expecting friends. Very informative without being confrontational, preachy or perfectionist. Both are by William & Martha Sears, who also write what I would consider the parenting books. If you read no one else, read The Sears.
For a UseNet resource, I recommend misc.kids.pregancy without reservation. Really. If you have a worry, a concern, a thought, a cute story, a loss, a birth…you’ll have people responding to you usually within 2-3 hours, and often within 15 minutes (try that with your OB’s office!). As for who the woman (and men) are: mostly moms with multiple children, some first time moms. Some are moms who have experienced losses, moms who have had tubal pregnancies, moms with multiple miscarriages, moms with normal pregnancies, moms who have homebirths, moms who have planned cesareans, a pediatrician or two, a couple of people who specialize in medical research, Americans, Canadians, Brits, Danes, Aussies and more…it tends toward ‘crunchy’ in tone, with a great deal of skepticism toward “standard modern medicalized birth” as is too often inflicted on women in the US today, and a lot of support for the use of midwives for normal, healthy pregnancies.
I second the recommendation for The Pregnancy Book by the Sears. I just gave it to my sister, who is expecting her first, and she loves it. The Girlfriend’s Guide was hilarious the first time I read it, but the second time I read it, some of her advice annoyed me. It’s still a light and entertaining read sometime if you need a laugh, though. But not an overall great reference like The Pregnancy Book was for me.
Thanks … I did pick up the Girlfriend’s Guide, and also something a bit more clinical, but the title isn’t coming to mind right now.
The Sears’ book sounds great too …
Thanks all - as usual, you’re a great help …
(now get prepared for a kajillion pregnancy threads from this nervous 35 year old!)
<note to self>
Do NOT buy those What to Expect books for just-prego-sis-in-law… it’s bad enough that she’s a doctor! She already thinks anybody who sneezes should go get checked for allergies :rolleyes:
</note to self>
On the other hand, when she gets another attack of “after 6 years in medical school, 3 working the ER, and being the doctor at several ER deliveries I don’t know a thing about this pregnancy stuff!” it might be a good way to keep her busy, she seems to enjoy worrying 
Thanks for the info, people! And to Stainz for starting the thread.
I also recommend The Mother Of All Pregnancy Books by Anne Douglas. There is an all-Canadian version, which I have found so much more helpful than the What to Expect book or The Girlfriend’s Guide. It’s nice that it skips over all the stuff that is irrelevant to those of us who don’t live in the US. It has tons of information but also words of wisdom from mothers that really put it all into perspective. Can’t recommend it highly enough. If you have a Costco in your area, this book is frequently available for half of the cover price.
I am not so much a fan of the Expecting book for the same reasons as others here: too damn preachy and alarmist. The month by month guide is interesting, but also available for free on so many baby websites.
The Girlfriend’s Guide was nice fluffy lite reading and good for a laugh, but hardly a wealth of information.
I’m 32, Canadian, 15 weeks pregnant and a chronic worrier myself (although that has abated somewhat in the past couple of weeks). If you ever want to chat, my email address is in my profile.
Most useful: Girlfriend’s Guide and babycenter.com
Useless: What to Eat When You’re Expecting (What to Expect is a close 2nd in this department, though, it will scare the hell out of you). It should be titled something like If You Eat So Much As One Candy Bar When You’re Expecting Your Baby Will Be Born Without A Hand And Will Grow Up To Become A Used Car Salesman.
I really agree w/Velma about not reading too far ahead.
At the same time, I love the Sears’ Baby Book & highly recommend it for down the road. Whether you’re slightly or extremely into Attachment Parenting, their medical info is wonderful. Detailed and reassuring and answers the “when do I really need to call my pediatrician” questions.
I didn’t happen to pick up the Sears’ pregnancy book, but since I was carrying twins my info needs were a little different. My Ob gave me the What to Expect book! And then he contradicted their advice over & over, so it was really confusing.
And Stainz, I was 38 when I became pregnant w/my twins! So you’re not the only GeezerMom around here!
I second TeaElle’s recommendations. The Sears books are chock-full of information.
One to avoid, IMHO, is “Your Pregnancy Week by Week.” The premise is nice, giving you something new to read each week and providing you with an updated drawing of what the critter looks like.
However, the author seemed compelled to throw in, each week, some macabre fact like “This is the time when the in-utero movements of some fetuses will result in a knot in the umbilical cord. This is a potentially life-threatening condition…blah blah blah” WTF? I don’t see why they have to include a “disease of the week” feature, particularly when it leans towards things you can’t avoid, or are rare.
Also FTR, my son had a knot in the umbilical cord! Didn’t know until he was born.
Congratulations!
I think it bears repeating: avoid the *What to Expect * line of books. Not only are they alarming and fascistic about nutrition, they have some really bad information on breastfeeding. The worst thing is they appear to be pro-breastfeeding, but the information is so full of errors, it will undermine breastfeeding.
My MIL also gave me some prenatal nutrition book that took WTEWYE’s approach to the extreme. I read a few pages, then stuffed it under my bed for a few months, then threw it out. Best decision ever!
Anyway, I loved loved loved The Unofficial Guide to Having a Baby. It is truly comprehensive, with sections on each trimester, bargain baby shopping, labor and delivery, getting back in shape after, and even losses (which was a separate chapter, easy to avoid when I didn’t need it, invaluable when I had a miscarriage - sympathetic, but straightforward, with hard facts). It’s also very easy to look stuff up.
*The Girlfriend’s Guide * I viewed more as entertainment than an information source. Not to downplay the value of laughing your ass off at the “Titty Fairy” description, though.
The thing that drove me (and my husband) nuts was there are no good books for expectant fathers. *The Expectant Father * by Brott and Ash was OK, but a bit thin and definitely dedicated to medical-intervention births and such, which was not our bag. The other books I found were awful. Another entitled The Expectant Father, this one by Parsons, was about 25 pages long, and began with stuff like, “A baby grows inside a woman’s uterus, which is another word for the womb.” My very informed and astute husband was rightly insulted.
And regardless of what books you get, remember
Sleep in while you can
Sleep in while you can
Sleep in while you can!
I’m not sure why everyone is so scared by the What to Expect… books; I didn’t find them the least bit alarming. Perhaps those prone to panic shouldn’t read them, but my wife and I liked them (although the organization was a bit scatterbrained; things that would have been good to know in the thrid month get introduced in the fourth month, etc.) The Girlfriend’s Guide, OTOH, was a superficial piece of crap, and I abandoned it quickly (though Mom made it through, she didn’t finish it until Aidan was a year old).
I’ll second Dr. Spock, and I’ll give some new recommendations
Baby Bargains, a shopping guide by the authors of Bridal Bargains, gives reviews and money-saving tips for new parents – brilliant, and a favorite of consumersearch.com.
Whatever you do, avoid the Babywise books. Those people are insane.
There’s a lot of good stuff in Caring for Your Baby and Young Child: Birth to Age Five, from the American Academy of Pediatrics. I trust their information over all others, and their mainstream orientation suits mine to a T.
You know, I’ve got that book by the American Academy of Pediatrics, and I think it’s surprisingly superficial. It plays the “call your pediatrician, just to be sure” card too much, and isn’t very detailed. I didn’t toss it out, but it’s just there as backup.
OTOH, I second your disgust for Babywise. Elizabeth Pantley’s No Cry Sleep Solution is much better.
Harvey Karp’s Happiest Baby on the Block is EXCELLENT! Really. This guy has got some excellent tricks for soothing a crying baby. My Hubby found his video at the library. My Mom was amazed at how well his techniques worked.
Baby Bargains is one of the few books I have thrown across the room and then picked up and disposed of by cutting it into peices.
I’d send hate mail to those authors if I weren’t so lazy.
(It really has to do with the fact I was adopting my first, and that book, which shouldn’t have ANYTHING to do with having a bio child, was really offensive in its assumptions. Its breastfeeding advice in particular - yes breastfeeding is cheaper, but its really really horrifying to an adoptive parent to be ambushed with a page long lecture on how my kid will be stupid and sick because I didn’t breastfeed. It was also relatively useless as my son came home at six months, so I didn’t need traditional advice about how many sleep sacks to get - but I did need to know what a six-nine month old child would need. Which it completely skipped over. The book should be titled “Newborn Baby Bargains for Biological Parents.”)
Well, in their defense, there are, what, 150,000 adoptions each year, compared to a total of 4 million births in the U.S? And some number of those adoptions, and most of those others of the 4 million, are going to join their parents at home as newborns. The Fields probably figure that most people who buy the book will be in that newly-born situation. The relative size charts for clothing companies still apply, and the parts about what strollers to buy, what highchairs are easy to clean, and so on–all still useful for people getting a new baby no matter the age of the little nipper.
I mean, I don’t mean to diminish what must have been some pretty frustrating assumptions (especially when a sentence or two would have given a nice nod to the families who are looking forward to adoption). But the book wasn’t that narrowly focused, at least not in its late-90s version (last one I read).
Cyn, OB/GYN RN
Can you change doctors? Talking comfortably with him and his staff could be just the thing, since he will be delivering your child. There are 15 expectant mommies on our floor at work right now, in various stages of their term and we talk talk talk.
My email is in my profile and what I don’t know, I have midwives, teaching docs and other assorted folk to quiz.
Yeah, usually I’m not that sensitive to that sort of thing, and I understand I’m the exception. But I really didn’t expect to get “the breastfeeding lecture” from a book on “which crib to buy.” And their breastfeeding lecture was really heavy handed.
What it didn’t do, that I was really hoping for, was to say things like "an exerscaucer is a great thing from about four months to when your baby starts crawling (6 to eight months). i.e. you don’t need to have it when you bring a newborn home from the hospital, and it has three - six months of useful life. You don’t need a highchair until several months in - but will use it heavily for a good year. Its really hard to shop for a six month old baby with no clue of a six month old babies needs.