Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Newborn: The Complete Guide by Penny Simkin, Janet Whalley, Ann Keppler Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $6.60 You Save: $8.40 (56%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.86 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Newborn: The Complete Guide
Book Review: By far the best I've read! Very thorough and detailed.
Summary: 5 Stars
I really love this book!I'm 4 months pregnant with my first child and I'm alternately scared to death and excited beyond belief. I've been soaking up information like crazy--getting books from the library, buying whatever looks good in the bookstore, and my midwife has given me a number of books to read, this being the most recent. Out of all of them, I think this one is the best.
It is extremely thorough, not just with clinical information, but also descriptions of how you might feel, both physically and emotionally as you progress through pregnancy, labor, and post-partum. It covers everything I've been asking myself about what's happening to me, the baby, and what I can expect. Most importantly it covers what you do with the baby once you give birth and take them home, enough to get you over the "What do I do?!" fear and allowing you to get settled in as a parent.
I also really like the focus on the birth partner as well as the pregnant woman; it's important to understand what both partners are going through during this highly confusing and magical time. I'm giving this book to my husband as soon as I'm finished reading it for the second time, as I want him to know what's going on with me and also let him know that I understand what might be going on with him. It's a great book for anyone who is involved in pregnancy in any way. After he's done with it, I plan to pass it on to our families to read.
The only thing I didn't like about the book was the way it was organized, to me some of the chapters seemed out of order. It may have been the way I was approaching it, or that I was looking for specific information that was different from the flow. However, the chapters are very well laid out and titled, so it was easy to flip through the headers at the top of the page and find exactly the section I wanted, when I wanted it.
Overall, a very thoroughly researched and produced book. Laid out in a manner that's easy to read and navigate, not at all intimidating and also not sentimental or biased. I would highly recommend this book to ANYONE who is pregnant, thinking about getting pregnant, related to or friends with someone who is pregnant, anyone who is curious about how it works, generally everybody.
Don't hesitate to click the Add To Cart button and buy it now :)
Book Review: NO Other Book Needed
Summary: 5 Stars
When I became pregnant, I went looking for a book that was even handed and fair on both sides of the natural/medical coin - a book that would not scare me on either side - and a book that didn't insult me with worries like ' what happens when you can't see your shoes anymore' THIS BOOK WAS IT! All the information is laid out for you to make your own judgement and decisions. It is fair and straight foward and HONEST. Forget 'What to Expect' and 'Girlfriends Guide' - if you are looking for REAL answers, Look no further than this book.Book Review: THE book for expectant families
Summary: 5 Stars
Here it is---THE book for expectant families! Pregnant women are treated as if they are intelligent and are capable of making good decisions on behalf of themselves and their soon-to-be-born children.This book is completely evidence-based and allows consumers to learn about options so that they can better communicate with their careproviders and participate in their pregancy, birth and postpartum experiences. Partners are addressed in a respectful and essential manner
As a childbirth educator, I make sure each of my couples has a copy of this book---it's the text I teach from. As a doula, I want all of my clients to read this as well.
Don't give birth without reading this one!
Book Review: If you can't take her class, READ HER BOOK!
Summary: 5 Stars
When I was pregnant with my son in 2000, I was lucky enough to be able to take Penny's childbirth education class. Now that I'm recently pregnant with my second child, I plan to take it again, and buy this new edition. This is the text book for her class, and I swear I took it to the hospital with me when I was in labor! My copy is dog eared and stained (don't ask!). While Penny does advocate natural births (who wouldn't think it's better?), she is a wealth of information about every kind of birth possible, and is the least judgmental person I've ever known! She speaks WORLDWIDE about childbirth practices. She provided my husband and I the information we needed to make the best decisions for our family. This book could only be better if Penny made a housecall when you purchased it!Book Review: This is a GREAT book
Summary: 5 Stars
We looked at, and tried to read, many pregnancy books, including the big names ("What to expect...", The Sears' book, and the Unofficial guide) that you see recommended everywhere. None of them hold a candle to this book. The best of those seem to focus on comforting couples through the experience. Often presenting redundant information between months, and not going into very much physiological detail.
In contrast this book gave us what we were really looking for, honest to goodness data. Its written by professional childbirth educators, and is an education in itself. It's focused on the kind of in depth information your healthcare provider knows, and may or may not have time to tell you about. It won't give you advice on finding clothes that fit, it will tell you why your sense of taste totally changes, and what is going on in the body to cause that.
No amount of soft peddling is going to change the fact that being pregnant is like having your body abducted by aliens. What we wanted is a book to help us understand what was happening, so the seemingly unrelated changes made sense too. What we want to know is what are the aliens doing with my body, why, and are they going to put it back when they're done. This book helps answer a lot of that, even stuff we hadn't thought to wonder about yet.
If you're remotely technical, and like knowing how stuff works this is the best book we've found. However, it may not help much to validate your emotional mood swings, nor tell you when to ask for maternity leave.