Recommended Reading & Listening

On this page you lot'll observe a many options for reading and listening. You do not take to utilize them all! Read the descriptions and choose the choice(due south) that best suits your needs.

Birth & Pregnancy Podcasts

The Nascence Hour: A Birth Story Podcast

Bear witness Based Nativity Podcast

Birthful

Informed Pregnancy

Fear Gratuitous Childbirth & Maternity

Doing it at Home

Birth Stories in Color

40 Weeks

The Push Guide

Happy Homebirth

Fourth Trimester

The Boob Group: Judgement Costless Breastfeeding Back up

Read Positive Birth Experiences

Ina May'south Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin

Drawing upon her thirty-plus years of experience, Ina May Gaskin, the nation's leading midwife, shares the benefits and joys of natural childbirth by showing women how to trust in the ancient wisdom of their bodies for a healthy and fulfilling birthing experience. Based on the female-centered Midwifery Model of Care, Ina May'south Guide to Childbirth gives expectant mothers comprehensive information on everything from the all-important mind-body connection to how to give nativity without technological intervention.

Filled with inspiring birth stories and practical advice, this invaluable resource includes:

• Reducing the pain of labor without drugs—and the miraculous roles impact and massage play
• What really happens during labor
• Orgasmic birth—making nascence pleasurable
• Episiotomy—is information technology really necessary?
• Mutual methods of inducing labor—and which to avert at all costs
• Tips for maximizing your chances of an unmedicated labor and nativity
• How to avoid postpartum bleeding—and depression
• The risks of anesthesia and cesareans—what your doctor doesn't necessarily tell you
• The all-time means to work with doctors and/or birth care providers
• How to create a safe, comfortable environs for nascence in whatever setting, including a hospital
• And much more

Ina May'southward Guide to Childbirth takes the fright out of childbirth by restoring women's faith in their own natural power to give nascence with more ease, less pain, and less medical intervention.

Childbirth Without Fear: The Principles and Practise of Natural Childbirth by Grantly Dick-Read

In an historic period where birth has often been overtaken by obstetrics, Dr Dick-Read"due south philosophy is still as fresh and relevant as it was when he originally wrote this book. He unpicks every possible root cause of western adult female"s fearfulness and anxiety in pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding and does then with overwhelming heart and empathy. Essential reading for all parentshoped-for, childbirth educators, midwives and obstetricians!

Kate Rope's Strong as a Mother is a practical and compassionate guide to preparing for a smooth start to motherhood. Anybody knows the secret to having "the Happiest Baby on the Block." This is your guide to being the Sanest Mommy on the Block. It will prepare you with humor and grace for what lies ahead, give y'all the tools yous need to have intendance of yourself, permission to struggle at times, and professional person advice on how to move through information technology when yous do. This volume volition become a dog-eared resource on your nightstand, offering you the aforementioned care and support that yous are working so hard to provide to your kid. It will help you lot prioritize your emotional wellness, set boundaries and ask for help, make choices virtually feeding and childcare that feel good to you, get proficient sleep, create a strong relationship with your partner, make self care an everyday priority, trust your instincts, and really enjoy the hardest job you will ever honey.

Transformed past Birth by Britta Bushnell, PhD

Childbirth is more just having a babe. Transformed by Birth invites yous to discover childbirth as a transformational experience that alters your knowing of who y'all are and lasts long after pregnancy and nativity are over.

Our culture has inundated us with limiting ethics that prevent u.s. from fully engaging in the journey of pregnancy and childbirth—including a need for control and certainty, vilification of pain, and reverence for technology and intellectual knowledge, among others.

Transformed by Nativity helps y'all articulate away unwanted behavior and behaviors so yous can open to the meaning and ability of this uniquely life-irresolute experience. It offers daily practices, rituals, exercises, and more to help y'all cultivate resilience, ability, and connection during this transformative fourth dimension.

Your guide to the emotions of pregnancy and early on motherhood, from two of America's top reproductive psychiatrists.

When yous are pregnant, you lot get enough of advice about your growing torso and developing baby. Yet so much virtually maternity happens in your head. What everyone really wants to know: Is this normal?

Even after months of trying, is it normal to panic subsequently finding out you're significant?
Is it normal not to experience love at first sight for your baby?
Is it normal to fight with your parents and partner?
Is it normal to feel like a breastfeeding failure?
Is it normal to exist zonked past "mommy brain?"

In What No One Tells You lot, ii of America's top reproductive psychiatrists reassure you that the answer is yes. With thirty years of combined experience counseling new and expectant mothers, they provide a psychological and hormonal backstory to the complicated emotions that women experience, and evidence why it's natural for "matrescence"—the birth of a mother—to be every bit stressful and transformative a period as adolescence.

Hither, finally, is the beginning-ever practical guide to help new mothers feel less guilt and more self-esteem, less isolation and more kinship, less resentment and more intimacy, less exhaustion and more than pleasure, and learn other tips to navigate the ups and downs of this exciting, demanding time.

 by January Harshe

An inclusive, not-judgmental, and empowering guide to pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum life that puts mothersfirst, offering straightforward guidance on all the options and issues that affair most to them (and their partners) when preparing for a baby.

In Birth Without Fearfulness, January Harshe–founder of the global online community Birth Without Fear–delivers an honest, positive, and passionate message of empowerment surrounding everything that involves having a babe. It"s a guide that fills in the considerable cracks in the data available to women and families when they"re preparing to welcome a child–covering care provider choices, medical freedom, birth options, breastfeeding, intimacy, postpartum depression, and much more.

Birth Without Fear shows moms, dads, partners, and families how to choose the best provider for them, how to trust in themselves and the birth process, and how to seek the necessary assist later the baby has arrived. In add-on, information technology volition educate them virtually their rights–and how to employ their voice to exercise them–as well every bit how to cope with the messy postpartum feelings many people aren"t willing to talk almost. Dissimilar other pregnancy books, Nascency Without Fright will also help partnersunderstand what mothers are going through, as well as discuss the challenges that they, too, will face–and how they can navigate them.

Shattering long-held myths and behavior surrounding pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum experience, Birth Without Fear is an accessible, reassuring, and ultimately inspiring guide to taking charge of pregnancy, childbirth, and beyond.

Siobhan is on a mission to show women everywhere that birth tin exist better. And not merely better, but amazing!

This book is for EVERY woman growing a babe and for EVERY type of birth — from a domicile water birth through to an unplanned caesarean.

And so, whatishypnobirthing? Essentially, it'south a form of antenatal educational activity, an approach to birth that is both evidence-based and logical. Hypnobirthing teaches you lot how your body works on a muscular and hormonal level when in labour, and how to work with your body to make nativity more than efficient and comfortable. Being relaxed is key, so you will learn how to quickly and easily access a state of deep relaxation using a combination of breathing techniques, visualisations, guided relaxation exercises, light bear upon massage, positive affirmations and various other techniques.

Hypnobirthing volition alter your mindset towards birth and requite you the tools needed so that y'all can navigate your birth – and whatsoever twists and turns – with confidence, feeling calm and in control throughout.

No affair where you sit on the 'anxious-to-excited' spectrum at the moment, by the time you finish this volume you'll feel relaxed, capable and genuinely excited near giving nativity, because it's truly the most awesome affair you lot'll e'er get to do in your life.

International nascency intervention rates are well in a higher place those recommended by the World Health System and climbing. In Nascency with Confidence, i of Australia'southward foremost thinkers on the subject of childbirth explains why normal birth is almost impossible in our current birth civilisation—and what women can do to crush the odds. In this attainable, straightforward book, Rhea Dempsey draws on over thirty years' experience to show how a woman's selection of caregivers, support squad and birthplace, likewise every bit her life experience and personal attitudes to pain, will affect her nascency outcomes. Featuring real-life stories, the latest Australian statistics and opportunities for guided personal reflection, Birth with Confidence provides the knowledge and practical communication that women demand for the all-time chance of normal birth in today'south birth culture.

Chapter 1. The birth you desire: what motivates the willing woman?
Chapter 2. Reality hurts: birth in the labour-bypass era
Chapter three. It'southward a fine line: reframing hurting in labour
Affiliate iv. Approaching labour: what pain blazon are you?
Chapter five. Crisis of confidence: when cocky-belief crumbles
Chapter 6. The correct support: who volition get you through?

Birthing from Inside: An Extra-Ordinary Guide to Childbirth Preparation by Pam England CNM, MA and Rob Horowitz, PHD

Here is a holistic arroyo to childbirth that examines this profound rite-of-passage not every bit a medical outcome but equally an act of self-discovery. Exercises and activities such as journal writing, meditation, and painting will help mothers analyze their thoughts and face up their fears during pregnancy. For apply during birth, the book offers proven techniques for coping with labor pain without drugs, a give-and-take of the physician or midwife's office, and a look at the male parent'southward responsibilities. Childbirth education should also include what to expect after the baby is built-in. Here are babe basics, such as how to breast-stroke a newborn, how to get the niggling one to slumber, and tips for getting nursing off to a practiced start. Pregnancy, nativity, and postpartum is a process of continuous learning and adjustment; Birthing From Within provides the necessary back up and teaching to make each phase of birthing a rewarding experience.

HypnoBirthing® has gained momentum around the world as a positive and empowering method of childbirth. Here'southward why: HypnoBirthing helps women to become empowered by developing an awareness of the instinctive birthing capability of their bodies. It profoundly reduces the pain of labor and childbirth; often eliminates the need for drugs; reduces the demand for caesarian surgery or other doctor-controlled birth interventions; and it besides shortens birthing and recovery time, assuasive for amend and earlier bonding with the baby, which has been proven to be vital to the mother-child bond.  What's more than, parents report that their infants sleep better and feed more easily when they oasis't experienced birth trauma.

HypnoBirthing founder Marie Mongan knows from her ain four births that information technology is not necessary for childbirth to be a terribly painful experience.  In this book she shows women how the Mongan Method works and how parents they can take control of the greatest and about important event of their lives.

And so, why is nascency such a traumatic consequence for then many women? And why do more than 40% of births now cease in caesarian section, the highest pct in history? The answer is simple: because our culture teaches women to fear birth as a painful and unsettling feel. Fear causes three physical reactions in the body—tightening of the muscles, reduced blood flow to the birthing muscles, and the release of certain hormones—which increase the pain and discomfort of childbirth. This is not hocus-pocus this is scientific discipline.

Janet Balaskas led a motion of women who refused to give nascence lying down. She has been didactics women most "active nascence" ever since. In this updated and Americanized guide, Balaskas explains how to set up for and experience a truly natural nativity. She leads the pregnant adult female through yoga-based stretching exercises and massage practice, and describes the stages of labor and comfy positions for each, at home or in a hospital. Balaskas has as well included a chapter on water nascency also as postpartum exercises.

Go Informed well-nigh your Torso, Pregnancy, Nascency, and Postpartum

Since the original publication of The Birth Partner, partners, friends, relatives, and doulas have relied on Penny Simkin'due south guidance in caring for the new mother, from her terminal trimester through the early postpartum menstruation.

At present fully revised in its fifth edition, The Birth Partner remains the definitive guide to helping a woman through labor and birth, and the essential manual to have at manus during the event.The Birth Partner includes thorough information on:

      • Preparing for labor and knowing when it has begun
      • Normal labor and how to help the adult female every stride of the way
      • Epidurals and other medications for labor
      • Pitocin and other means, including natural ones, to induce or speed up labor
      • Non-drug techniques for easing labor hurting
      • Cesarean birth and complications that may require information technology
      • Breastfeeding and newborn care
      • and much more than

For the partner who wishes to exist truly helpful in the birthing room, this book is indispensable.

Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Newborn: The Consummate Guide past Penny Simkin, Janet Whalley, and Ann Keppler

Parents beloved this book because it puts them in command; experts love it because it"s based on the latest medical research and recommendations from leading health organizations.Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Newbornprovides the data and guidance you need to make informed decisions well-nigh having a condom and satisfying pregnancy, nativity, and postpartum menses–decisions that reflect your preferences, priorities, and values.

Dissimilar pregnancy guides that can overwhelm and alarm past telling y'all upwardly front all the things that can possibly go wrong, this book first describes normal, healthy processes, their typical variations, and the usual care practices for monitoring them. Only and then does it cover possible complications and the care practices and procedures for resolving them. Throughout, the presentation is crystal-clear, the tone is reassuring, and the phonation is empowering. And the language is inclusive, reflecting today"s various family configurations such as unmarried-parent families, composite families formed by 2d marriages, families with gay and lesbian parents, and families formed past open adoption or surrogacy. From sensible nutrition advice to realistic birth plans, from nascency doulas when desired to cesareans when needed, from reducing stress during pregnancy to caring for yourself every bit well as your baby afterwards nativity, this pregnancy guide speaks to today"s parents-to-be like no other.

Baby Care Basics by the Hospital for Sick Children

Despite all the planning in the earth, nothing tin can really prepare a soon-to-exist new parent for that big stride afterward the baby is built-in. All that well-intentioned information and counsel offered past family and friends is just not enough and likely confusing when the stressful days arrive.

Written past leading pediatric experts in a friendly, easy-to-empathise mode, Baby Intendance Nuts offers a comprehensive guide to help parents brand the right choices for that new baby.

In total color, the volume is engaging and convenient. Information technology covers all the essential topics from a baby"s birth, first few days, growth, development, breast-and formula-feeding, introducing solid food, to sleeping through the night and much, much more.

Having easy and quick access to this comprehensive information is so important in getting started on parenting and establishing a routine that works for all.

Pregnancy—unquestionably one of the nearly pro­found, meaningful experiences of adulthood—can reduce otherwise intelligent women to, well, babies. Pregnant women are told to avoid cold cuts, sushi, alcohol, and coffee without e'er existence told why these are forbidden. Rules for prenatal testing are similarly unexplained. Momshoped-for desperately want a resource that empowers them to make their own right choices.

When award-winning economist Emily Oster was a mom-to-be herself, she evaluated the data behind the accepted rules of pregnancy, and discovered that near are oft misguided and some are but flat-out wrong. Debunking myths and explaining everything from the real effects of caffeine to the surprising dangers of gardening, Expecting Better is the book for every pregnant woman who wants to enjoy a salubrious and relaxed pregnancy.

With Expecting Better, laurels-winning economist Emily Oster spotted a need in the pregnancy market for advice that gave women the information they needed to brand the best determination for their ain pregnancies. By digging into the data, Oster found that much of the conventional pregnancy wisdom was wrong. In Cribsheet, she now tackles an even greater challenge: decision-making in the early on years of parenting.

Equally any new parent knows, there is an affluence of frequently-conflicting advice hurled at you from doctors, family unit, friends, and strangers on the internet. From the earliest days, parents go the message that they must make certain choices around feeding, sleep, and schedule or all will be lost. There"southward a dominion—or three—for everything. But the benefits of these choices can be overstated, and the trade-offs can exist profound. How do you brand your own all-time decision?

Armed with the data, Oster finds that the conventional wisdom doesn"t always concur up. She debunks myths around breastfeeding (not a panacea), slumber preparation (non and so bad!), potty training (wait until they"re ready or mayhap bribe with Grand&Ms), language acquisition (early talkers aren"t necessarily geniuses), and many other topics. She besides shows parents how to recollect through freighted questions like if and how to go back to work, how to think about toddler discipline, and how to have a relationship and parent at the aforementioned time.

Economic science is the science of decision-making, and Cribsheetis a thinking parent"due south guide to the chaos and frequent misinformation of the early on years. Emily Oster is a trained skilful—and mom of two—who can empower us to brand better, less fraught decisions—and stay sane in the years before preschool.

From America's leading regime in childcare comes the definitive guide to having a healthy pregnancy-and a healthy babe.

The Salubrious Pregnancy Book guides expectant mothers and fathers through all stages of pregnancy from preconception through birth, focusing on how to raise the health of mother and baby.

How to grow a smarter and healthier babyHow your baby is developing, and how you lot may exist changing both emotionally and physicallyEating correct for two, with a helpful list of pregnancy superfoodsExercise and keeping fit during your pregnancyConcerns and questions you may have virtually exam and technology, genetic counseling, and childbirth optionsHow to protect the womb surroundings and recognize potential household hazardsAdvice on working while pregnantChoosing the right healthcare provider and childbirth classThe transition into parenthood, and much more …

Written in the Searses' trademark reassuring tone that makes their books long-term bestsellers-The Healthy Pregnancy Bookis the must-take resource to fit the greater demands of today's savvy parents.

From the childbirth experts at the Mayo Dispensary comes the newly revised guide on planning for a healthy pregnancy. With detailed data about fertility, prenatal care, common pregnancy symptoms, and childbirth, this comprehensive guide will be your go-to source for answering all your ordinary—and non so ordinary—pregnancy questions.

The second edition of Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy dives into the nitty-gritty of motherhood past touching on topics like getting pregnant, using medications safely, proper meal planning and practise, making important pregnancy decisions, and building beneficial lifestyle habits to aid protect the wellness of your fiddling one. The book features a forty-calendar week pregnancy calendar, where moms-to-exist can track their babe'due south progress, as well as detect a thorough assay of weekly changes to expect over the course of their pregnancy.

Finally, this collective effort from the obstetrics and gynecology experts at the Mayo Clinic covers new information well-nigh the latest technologies in prenatal intendance and childbirth, likewise equally details the benefits and risks involved with growing trends in childbirth, including topics like habitation births, placentophagy, and vaginal seeding.

Whether you're a first-time parent or just in need of a refresher, the Mayo Clinic Guide to a Salubrious Pregnancy volition provide invaluable advice that you tin can trust to help give your little one a healthy start. As the premier pregnancy resources for parents-to-be, this illustrated transmission combines expertise from accolade-winning healthcare professionals with straightforward, easy-to-understand guidance every parent needs to know.

The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth by Henci Goer

Equally an intelligent woman, you are probably used to learning as much as you tin before making major decisions. Only when it comes to i of the virtually important decisions of your life–how you will give birth—information technology is hard to gather accurate, unbiased information. Surprisingly, much of the research does not support mutual medical opinion and practice.

Nascence activist Henci Goer gives clear, curtailed data based on the latest medical studies. The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Amend Birth helps you compare and contrast your various options and shows you lot how to avoid unnecessary procedures, drugs, restrictions, and tests. The book covers:
Cesareans, Breech babies, Inducing labor, Electronic Fetal Monitoring, Rupturing Membranes, Coping with dull labor, Pain medication, Episiotomy, Vaginal nascence afterward a Ceasarean, Doulas, Deciding on a doc or midwife, Choosing where to have your babe, and much more than.

A Practiced Nascence, A Prophylactic Birth:Choosing and Having the Childbirth Feel You Want past  Diane Korte

Based on a survey of two grand women and responses from readers of the get-go and second editions, this complete and accurate guide enables women and their partners to take control of the childbirth experience. Diana Korte and Roberta Thou. Scaer, both long-time La Leche leaders, analyze today'south childbirth options and assistance readers to choose among them – to find "Dr. Right" (or a midwife), and possibly a labor assistant, too, and to choice a hospital, birthing heart, or dwelling birth. They draw the pros and cons of medications, fetal monitoring, consecration of labor, and other medical interventions during nascence, and they tell readers how to avoid an unnecessary cesarean department and ensure that all their wishes are followed. In chapters such as "If Y'all Don't Know Your Options, You Don't Take Any," "The Obstetricians Blackness Handbag of Interventions," and "How to Have a Normal Vaginal Nascency (and Avoid an Unnecessary Cesarean)", Korte and Scaer are refreshingly frank but never dogmatic; they want their readers to decide for themselves what's all-time for them.

Prenatal nutrition can be disruptive. A lot of the advice you take been given nigh what to eat (or what not to eat) is well-significant, but frankly, outdated or not evidenced-based. In Real Nutrient for Pregnancy, you will get clear answers on what to eat and why, with enquiry to back up every recommendation. Author and specialist in prenatal nutrition, Lily Nichols, RDN, CDE, has taken a long and difficult await at the science and discovered a broad gap between current prenatal nutrition recommendations and what foods are required for optimal health in pregnancy and for your babe's development. There has never been a more comprehensive and well-referenced resources on prenatal nutrition. With Existent Food for Pregnancy as your guide, you can exist confident that your food and lifestyle choices back up a smooth, healthy pregnancy.

For over ii decades, Canadians have counted on Ann Douglas for her reassuring, proven and never bossy advice. Featuring the latest recommendations from Canadian health regime and the all-time tips from more than than 100 Canadian parents, The Female parent of All Pregnancy Books is an indispensable resource for giving your infant the healthiest possible outset on life. Inside, you'll find

Facts about diet during pregnancy, prenatal testing, pain relief and breastfeeding Strategies for dealing with morn sickness and other common pregnancy complaints
Tips on coping with a loftier-take a chance pregnancy from moms who have been there
Information about alternative and complementary therapies
Updated research findings on topics including prenatal mood disorders
Inside scoop on what labour is really similar with strategies for planning for the birth yous want
A sneak peek at life with your baby

Boosted Resources

Video Skyrocketing C-Department Rate from the Happy Healthy Child childbirth instruction series

Delivery of the Placenta