Recommended Reading?

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katef

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Hi!
Again, a newcomer who is after help and advice from the voices of experience here on Geobaby.

I am 6 weeks pregnant with my first child and am completely clueless about?well, everything pregnancy and child-related!

So far, this forum has been a mine of useful information on pregnancy in HK, and a general trawl around some UK-based parenting sites has also turned up quite a bit of stuff.

I was wondering though, which books the experienced Mums here would recommend for a total baby-novice like me? What have you found to be your ?Baby Bible? of choice, ideally covering pregnancy, birth and onwards?
Everyone seems to have a different opinion on what is useful and what isn?t, and one friend who recently gave birth for the first time advised me that all pregnancy and baby guides were dreadful, likely to be guilt-inducing and best avoided altogether! Is she right? Or do I need to do a little book-based research to complement the internet-trawling?

What are your favourites? Which would you recommend and which would you avoid?

Thanks in advance for your advice!
 
it's such a matter of personal preference & i think it's good to find a book/writer/website whose philosophy & approach you generally agree with/are comfortable with and stick to that. I found that choosing one book & one or two websites avoided a lot of contradiction and conflict (not to mention confusion and paranoia) as there are so many different ideas out there.

For me, I enjoyed prengancy & birth by Kaz Cooke (the australian version is called Up the Duff, but I could only find the uk version here). it's fairly irreverant - a little bit preggo info, a little bit personal diary, a little bit info about the UK health system (not so relevant here...).

I looked at www.babycentre.com.au & subscribed to the Natural Parenting Newsletter (http://www.naturalparenting.com.au/) & found them both very useful.

hope you find something that suits you!
 
lalligirl said:
For me, I enjoyed prengancy & birth by Kaz Cooke (the australian version is called Up the Duff, but I could only find the uk version here). it's fairly irreverant - a little bit preggo info, a little bit personal diary, a little bit info about the UK health system (not so relevant here...).
Click to expand...


Thanks for that and funnily enough, I picked up 'Up the Duff' in a second hand book shop yesterday but have yet to start it! I thought it might be good to start with something a little lighter in weight and tone and work my way up gently!

I'm finding an overwhelming amount of facts, old wives tales and expert information on every single aspect of pregnancy and childbirth that I've researched so far. I really like the idea of restricting things to one or two sources though, that's a great tip. I'm scared that I'll be so confused with all the conflicting advice that I'll end up paralysed with indecision!
 
Congratulations on your pregnancy!
My sister in law bought "The Mayo guide to a healthy pregnancy" for me. It was a great book - fairly factual about what was happening to the little prawn all the way through and sensible advice about when to call the doctor and what not to panic about. I thought it was pretty good. Covers only your pregnancy though, a little bit on childbirth options, but not really anything about baby care.
I was given an old copy of "what to expect when you're expecting" and i pretty much put it down and never picked it up again after reading a small section on nutrition in pregnancy and I remember the phrase being something along the lines of "...you should ask yourself before every mouthful, is this the absolute best I can give to my baby?...." Whilst I understand the importance of good nutrition, I didn't need to have a guilt trip about everything! I felt the book was written in a bit of a patronising way, although I'm sure for some it is a great resource.
 
Congratulations on your pregnancy.

If you are thinking about breastfeeding I suggest that you look at the book, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, http://www.shopinhk.com/the-womanly-art-of-breastfeeding-pr-4850866.html.

It is also available to borrow from the La Leche League Hong Kong library. There are many other books of interest to new mothers in the library. The books range from birth, breastfeeding and parenting, including special situations. The full library details are available at http://www.lllhk.org/Library.html

And of course we encourage mothers-to-be to attend the meetings. The article, Why La Leche League? at http://www.lllhk.org/WhyLLL.html explains why attending meetings may be helpful for you. The meeting schedule is available at http://www.lllhk.org/Meetings.html

Best wishes,
SARAH
 
I can also second the womanly art of breastfeeding. (should have put that in my post before!)
I think that your pregnancy and birth happens the way it is 'going to happen' to some extent but the best advice I ever got was to read up on breastfeeding. It is so important to know how the correct latch should look, feel etc so that you can get started straight away.
Thankfully my little girl seemed to know exactly what to do and I was completely chilled and relaxed about it, which REALLY helped, but I credit most of that with having being 'prepared' in a way - mostly by reading that book. WELL worth a read!
 
1) What to Expect Books
2) Nursing Mother's Companion
3) Gina Ford's Complete Sleep Guide
4) Baby Wise books
5) Dr. Spock's Baby & Childcare
 
Thank you all very much for the recommendations! I think a trip to Dymocks or online is in order after work!

With regards the the LLL meetings, I am definitely interested in these, but will actually be leaving HK around 20 weeks pregnant so will look out for meetings in my new city.

Thanks very much again - this forum is so helpful and I've learned a lot already!
 
"The happiest baby on the block" is invaluable for colicky babies, it saved me many times! And I think the best no-nonsense reference book for new parents is "Heading home with your newborn: from birth to reality" - it's written by two pediatrician moms - it's to-the-point (so important when you're exhausted!), realistic and funny. My main advice is read up on the baby and breastfeeding more than the pregnancy!
 
Here's a list of books that I purchased. The 2nd one is especially useful for me as the father. I would highly recommend it to any other expectant dads. Ladies, getting this for your partner will be beneficial to you. He'll be more receptive and understanding during the pregnancy!

The Joy of Pregnancy: The Complete, Candid, and Reassuring Companion for Parents-to-Be
by Tori Kropp
US$2.00 (about HK$15)

The Expectant Father: Facts Tips and Advice for Dads-to-Be
Armin A Brott; Jennifer Ash
US$10.60 (about HK$80)

Double Duty: The Parents' Guide to Raising Twins, from Pregnancy through the School Years
Christina Baglivi Tinglof
US$11.99 (about HK$90)

Twins 101: 50 Must-Have Tips for Pregnancy through the Early Childhood From Doctor M.O.M.
Khanh-Van Le-Bucklin
US$11.99 (about HK$90)

FYI, I bought the Kindle Editions from Amazon.com so that's why the prices are I listed are rather inexpensive. I don't even have a Kindle. I just read them off my phone and PC.
 
Thanks Jay
That's very useful to get an opinion from the Dad's perspective and a good tip about buying the Kindle version too!
 
Hi there and congrats, I can see you've had a lot of recommendations already but wanted to throw in my top tips. I was also worried about conflicting advice and there were a lot of times that I threw my hands up in the air with despair because my baby just didn't fit the mould many of the books described. He's now 10 months old and thriving despite my occasional moments of paralysis so I guess we did something right!

My picks for pregnancy are Up the Duff and a book simply called Birth (I can't remember the author's name but they have a website www.birth.com.au) and for Dad's-to-be we read "The Birth Partner" (a gift from a midwife friend), it was quite detailed but really thorough. My bible since my son was born is another Aussie book called Baby Love, by Robin Barker. I don't agree with everything she says but it's still a great reference book. The American version is available here at Dymocks. Good luck with it all!http://typhoonsandtantrums.blogspot.com
 
Thank you so much for all the recommendations! Really helpful!
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