My Must Read Pregnancy Books!
These books are amazing! They are for fertility, pregnancy and post partum! The whole journey from womanhood to motherhood and my husband and myself would have been lost without them!
I have read so many reviews from people and about books to really find what I was looking for to support me and my husband as we are going through our first pregnancy. I wanted these books to educate and inform us all about pregnancy, labor, birth and postpartum for us new parents! I also wanted these books to resonate with us and our crunchy way of thinking! The natural approach resonates with us and that's how we live our life, so naturally, that's how we wanted our pregnancy, labor, birth and port partum to go!
I am currently writing this at 32 weeks pregnant and can say so far that my pregnancy has been amazing and totally aligned with our natural, crunchy views! I will keep you posted on how things go with our birth and postpartum!
PLEASE NOTE:
I linked these books on amazon to show you what they were but I encourage you to call a small, locally owned bookstore and see if they have the book or can get the book for you! I love supporting small local book stores instead of amazon, especially during the pandemic when small businesses are really taking a hit!
Here Are Our Top 9 Books That Every Crunch Mom and Dad MUST READ!
I have organized these books into the 3 stages of pregnancy; trying to conceive, pregnancy and postpartum!
Trying to Conceive
Real Food for Pregnancy by Lily Nicholas
This book is gold! I recommend it to all of my clients because it is so so good. I work with women to help balance their hormones and help them get their health to an optimal point before getting pregnant. This involves many different, personalized things but a huge one for everyone one of my clients is what they are eating! I always promote a whole foods, nutrient dense way of eating!
You may be thinking this book should go into the pregnancy category, right! Wrongo!! It goes here because you should make these changes to your diet and start supplements at least 6 months before trying to conceive. Why? To help you get pregnant faster, to reduce your risk of miscarriage, to ensure you have optimal nutrient levels to grow a baby and support your body during this very demanding time, and to help you recover and heal quicker post partum. Pregnancy is a journey on its own and I always recommend my clients make these changes before they get pregnant. That way they will be more likely to stick with it and also they don't have to worry about changing their habits during a demanding time such as pregnancy!
Pregnancy
These 4 books have made a huge impact on my husband and I.
The Mama Natural Week by Week Guide to Pregnancy & Childbirth by Genevieve Howland
This has been my bible during pregnancy! If you haven’t heard of Mama Natural yet... stop what you’re doing and click this link! She is amazing and has so much info! I love the week by week guide as it has so much wonderful info about me and the baby and what my husband and I should be doing to prepare for our baby to come! It includes recipes, affirmations, info on tests during pregnancy, interventions, childbirth, exercise, common newborn questions and concerns, and so so much more!
The Expectant Father by Armin A. Brott and Jennifer Ash
My husband highly recommends this book! I originally got him another book but he did not like it. It perpetuated toxicity masculinity, stereotypes and misogyny which we are both not down for! He quickly ditched that book and swapped it for this one! My husband just wanted info on my pregnancy and becoming a dad and this book had it all! It had the facts and tons of info that he found super helpful! It goes through the pregnancy by month as well which he really liked!
“This book was a great intro to me becoming a dad! It covered a broad range of topics and gave good information for all different walks of life. I would highly recommend this book to a first time dad looking to support their partner and learn more about the pregnancy and birth process.”
Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin
I cant praise this book enough. This book completely changed the way I viewed birth. I was super scared of birth. Birth portrayed in the media looks awful, degrading, and the women looks likes they are going to die! It made me scared since I have never seen a birth before let alone an empowered woman birthing the way birth was meant to happen! I really want an unmedicated homebirth, so conquering my fear of birth was critical in ensuring I could have an unmedicated home birth! I think all women should conquer all of their fears and worries about birth weather or not you want a home birth or hospital birth, or a unmedicated or medicated birth. You deserve to birth without fear! Not to mention, fear makes birth more painful, longer and harder on the mom! This is called the fear, tension, pain cycle! You learn all about this in her book!
The Birth Partner by Penny Simkin with Katie Rohs
This book is for dad’s, birthing partners and anyone who is going to be joining you in you labor and delivery!
My husband is currently reading this one and covers so many wonderful things! This book will help him support me during labor and birth! It talks about going into labor, the stages of labor, things he can do to help reduce my pain and ways comfort me during labor. It also includes the medical side of things such as interventions, and other situations that could come up. Knowledge is power!!
Don’t worry if your birth partner is squeamish! My husband is the most squeamish and he’s enjoying the book!
Post Partum
The First Forty Days - The Essential Art of Nourishing a New Mother by Heng Ou
This book is exactly what it says it is! So often the mom is overlooked after having a baby. There is not always a lot of support for moms and parents and the healing of the mother is forgotten. It is so important to remember that the mother just birthed this child and her body needs to be nourished so it can heal, repair and also nourish her new baby (if she chooses to breastfeed). I loved this book and has amazing recipes too!
Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering by Dr. Sarah Buckley
The first line on the back of the book is Knowledge is Power, and birth is power. This totally resonated with me and I knew I had to read this book! She talks all about an undisturbed birth and treating birth as a natural process instead of a medical procedure. This is exactly how I want my birth to be! My body was made to give birth and I want to let my body do its thing and birth my baby! I don’t want to interfere, rather, I want to work with my body to have an amazing birth experience! She has a really great perspective as she is a medical doctor. I highly recommend this book if you also vibe with birth is natural!
(Disclaimer, I am considered low risk and have had no complications so I am able to birth at home in an “undisturbed” way. Not every woman is able to do this or wants to do this and I am in complete support of you! I am so grateful for our medical system to keep moms and babies safe in scary and potentially deadly situations. I am in no way against the medical system when medical intervention is truly needed!)
The Fourth Trimester by Kimberly Ann Johnson
This book was all about Kimberly’s post partum experience, what she learned and how she now helps women with their post partum journey! She talks about being a new mom but not prepping for postpartum, which I hear so so often from my friends and clients! She is a wealth of knowledge and I am so grateful I cam implement these things into my postpartum plan!
Ina Mays Guide to Breastfeeding by Ina May Gaskin
I have not read this book yet (currently writing this at 32 weeks!) but it is on my list to read before the baby comes! I still have some time, right? I have heard amazing things about this book and how it helps moms with breastfeeding since it can be really hard!
I cant wait to dive into this book to help make my breastfeeding journey a success!
I truly believe that knowledge is power which is why reading these books was so important to me! I wanted to know as much as I could to help me through the transition from womanhood to motherhood and also enjoy the process! I have heard from anyone who has children that the new born phase is hard, like really hard but I still want to cherish and enjoy that time we have together. In my mind, the new born stage only lasts as long as they are a new born… which is not that long! Savoring every moment, honoring my needs and taking care myself the best I can is the foundation to my fourth trimester!
