Starting out. (The Complete Guide to Pregnancy and Birth - Dr Miriam Stoppard)

Member Name: Bryn Pearson

Product:	The Complete Guide to Pregnancy and Birth - Dr Miriam Stoppard
Date:	08/01/02 (66 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good for planning a baby, reassuring, good overview

Disadvantages: bit short on detail, not so good at what happens when the baby arrives.

Back when everyone lived in large, extended families, the odds were that even if you didn't know anything about sex, you knew all about the results. Most women would approach their first baby armed with a wealth of second hand information. These days, many women have never held a baby, changed a nappy or seen anyone breastfeed before they approach parenthood themselves.

As we live in smaller families and have less expereince of other people's babies, we have to get our knowledge from somewhere. (some people of course will opt to try and get through without swatting up, but most women like to have some idea of what's going on and it does help if you know what you're in for.) There are many many books out there that will tell you how to have a baby. Some of them are fairly cold and medical, some are pretty freaky and weird - you have to shop carefully if you want to preserve your sanity.

"Conception, Pregnancy and Birth" is a really good book if you are thinking of starting a family. It has a good overview of the technical process, the way a pregnancy develops, the things you will encounter with the medical profession and the like. All the basic information you might need is here. The book contains scientific information, good diograms, practical advice and fairly up to date details about the medical profession and how it relates to pregnant women. If you want to know what you might be letting yourself in for, its a fine book to read.

I found reading in advance calmed a lot of my pre pregnancy nerves - I felt more certain about what I was embarking on, more empowered, more like I might stand a chance of coping. My husband also read the book, which means he was prepaired for the various mood and body changes I have so far undergone. This is very useful, and it saves a lot of trouble, believe me.

Miriam Stoppard deals in fairly close details with the stages of development in a baby. She covers issues like b
eing an older parent, being vegeterian, having health issues etc. She explains the various birthing options and talks about the various things that can go wrong. The information is well presented, easy to read and easy to make sense of.

During my pregnancy, I have been dipping in and out of the book, to reassure myself that how I feel is 'normal' to find out how big my baby should be by now and the like.

This book does not tell you everything, and most topics are covered failry superficialy. If you have specific needs or concerns, you will need more specialised texts. As a handbook for going through your pregnancy with, this is good, but not the be all and end all - supliment it with other reading for best effect. This book is most useful before you actually start trying for a baby - I would strongly recomend reading it if you are actually planning becoming a parent.

There's a very good couple of pages of useful addresses - well worth having, and some information about what happens after the baby arrives - here the book is at its weakest, with very little space being given to feeding, post natal depression and the like. There are other books that can help you deal with newborns, so again, worth looking around.

The only thing I feel this book really lacks is a suggested reading list - if each section offered you names of a couple of other books that would cover the area in more details, this would be the most useful resource ever. Ah well.

Shop around for this book - copies often turn up in booksale palces and you don't have to pay through the nose for it.

Summary: