Book Smart

Since this page is primarily read by family and close friends, it will be no surprise to know that Mike and I have read up a lot on this whole baby thing (mostly Kat-ed.). We are both book people, and honestly, have had a fair amount of time on our hands in the last 9 months. As the pregnancy progressed and especially now in the home stretch, we have enjoyed reading and rereading a few books. We hope this mix has given us a pretty balanced look at the whole pregnancy and birth process.
The first book, one I have already mentioned on this site, is Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way, by Susan McCutcheon. Since attending Bradley classes was not an option, we chose this book to learn all about the method. In addition to providing specific information about the method, this book covers general nutrition and controversies in childbirth. The author takes an advocacy role, giving her opinions (backed up by medical studies) about what she sees as the over-medicinalization of births in the United States. It was really eye-opening for me, and I highly recommend it. Some of the photos freaked Mike out a bit at first, but as the "coach" portion of the "husband coached childbirth" equation, he has become familiar with this whole book.

On the other end of the spectrum is Vicki Iovine's book The Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy: or everything your doctor won't tell you. The author interviewed her friends and their mates before compiling this assessment of the entire pregnancy/delivery process. She doesn't reference scientific studies or doctors, instead focusing on more mundane issues like:
-why are maternity clothes so tacky? or
-what will really happen to your body?
At first I felt like the opinions of a middle-class Californian mom and her friends didn't really apply to me, but in balance with the other books I have found it helpful and sometimes funny. You are kidding yourself if you think Mike has read any book beginning with "The Girlfriend's Guide...", though I did read a few excerpts to him along the way.

The book everyone recommended to us was, of course, What to Expect When You're Expecting by Heidi Murkoff, Arlene Eisenberg and and Sandee Hathaway. Actually, we refer to this book around the house as "What to Freak Out About When You're Expecting", as-- especially at the beginning of the pregnancy-- the information about what could go wrong at every step of the way was much too overwhelming for us. I also really disliked their habit of listing all potential pregnancy symptoms in each "monthly" chapter. It was just too negative for me. As time progressed, I became a bit more comfortable with it as a reference, only looking things up as they occured, or became a concern. I cannot deny that it is full of information, and when I became accustomed to it I did enjoy it. Not a cover-to-cover read for Mike, again-- but I have shared a lot of this book's information with him throughout the pregnancy.

One of my favorite books to read throughout the pregnancy has been A Child is Born by Lennart Nilsson and Lars Hamberger. This was given to me for my birthday by some dear friends from Charleston, the Fitts family. It is one of those that Mike and I both read cover to cover when it first arrived, and have rediscovered it recently as we await the baby's arrival. It features photographs and images of the baby at every stage along the way, from conception to delivery. The photos are amazing-- and it truly makes you realize the unbelieveable process of newly developing life.

The final book in my mini-library is Sandra Steingraber's Having Faith: An Ecologist's Journey to Motherhood. This book combines the author's research on chemical contaminants in the environment with a personal look at her own pregnancy and delivery. As an environmental policy researcher, I found this book invaluable in its ability to highlight the ways chemicals or toxins from pesticides, plastics, and a host of other sources stick around in our environment. As I read this book I was continuously thankful that I don't live near a major industrial area, and that the air quality in Overijssel is much better than that of the rest of the Netherlands. She spends a great deal of time discussing the benefits of breastfeeding despite the levels of contaminants all women in industrialized countries have in their breast milk. Again, I highly recommend this book.