Review: Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Newborn: The Complete Guide

Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Newborn: The Complete Guide by Penny Simkin, Janet Walley, April Bolding, Ann Keppler, Janelle Durham is the last of the general pregnancy books that I had on my list to read. I probably didn’t need to read it. Not because I didn’t learn anything — I did, and there were several areas where this book was better than the others I read — but I think three general pregnancy books reaches the points of diminishing returns. So now you know =)

But on to judging this book on its own merits! In many ways this was my favorite of the three books. I still prefer the tone of the Our Bodies, Ourselves pregnancy book, but I feel like in content this book combined the best of that book and the Mayo guide. This was, to some degree, at the expense of being about 30% longer than the other two (including appendices).

This book contained good information about alternatives, like the Our Bodies, Ourselves guide and detailed information about things like exercise like the Mayo guide. As far as I can recall, the chapters on breastfeeding and self comfort techniques during birth were more detailed than either.

The book did have a rather strong bias toward a lower intervention birth, so if that’s not of interest to you, the book may bug you. If that book is of interest, you’ll likely find it very supportive. I enjoyed it, but if you want a more balanced look at the alternatives, I recommend the Our Bodies, Ourselves guide; it’s attitude is more “we want you to know that the low intervention route is a viable option, but that it’s also perfectly OK to choose interventions. Either way, just make sure you know what you’re choosing.”

So my end recommendation of books for the pregnant or wanting to conceive couple?

• If you want more insight into how your menstrual cycle works and ways to track fertility, read Taking Charge of Your Fertility
• If you’re not sure how you feel about different birth options, read Our Bodies, Ourselves: Pregnancy and Birth for a balanced overview of options
• Read Expecting Better to understand the data behind many of the standard recommendations and get the data to decide for yourself which recommendations are more or less relevant to you.
• If you feel the Our Bodies, Ourselves guide didn’t give you enough info about pregnancy itself,
• If you decide you prefer the more standard hospital birth, read the Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy
  
• If you prefer the lower intervention approach (whatever setting), go with Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Newborn (and, for the philosophical/emotional side of things, Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth)
• But note that either will give you lots of substantially different information, including about the alternatives. The difference is mainly a matter of tone.