Book Reviews

Now that pregnancy is almost over, I wanted to share the books I read and how they helped me.



Easy Labor, suprisingly enough, is not a work of fiction. Written by an anesthesiologist, this book discusses every single type of pain management and pain relief moms can use during labor. It gives input from doctors, nurses, midwives and moms. Easy Labor provides an unbiased look at alternative and medical intervention for pain during labor.













What to Expect When You're Expecting gives a general overview of pregnancy in a question and answer format.

This book was a good source of medical facts and answered many general questions.











Knocked Up, by Rebecca Eckler, is a humorous account of Rebecca's pregnancy that reads like a novel. This book gave me a welcome respite from the facts and figures of some of the other pregnancy books. I read Knocked Up during my first trimester, when I needed a laugh more than I needed to read more medical jargon.


















Baby Bargains drills down and gives you the scoop on which baby gear is worth the extra money, and what you can skip altogether. I found it to be a great resource for choosing furniture, toys, car seats, breast pumps, and all the other things that were totally unfamiliar to me as a first-time parent. Jon and I got a kick out of seeing all the parents in Babies R Us clutching their copy and referencing the book when making a purchase.


















Written by a mother of four, The Girlfriends Guide to Pregnancy is a practical and humorous book about what's going on with baby, mom & dad's bodies and minds during pregnancy. It deals more with feelings and emotions than other pregnancy guides, discussing your husband's fears and telling moms-t0-be to check their vanity at the door for a while.





















Shopaholic & Baby, by Sophie Kinsella, is part of Kinsella's series about Becky Bloomwood, a Londoner with fabulous taste and a wee bit of a shopping compulsion. Becky's credit card bills and letters from the bank always make me feel better about myself.













Jenny McCarthy's Belly Laughs tells the story of Jenny's pregnancy. Jenny shares all the things nobody ever told her about pregnancy, and frankly, nobody ever told me, either. Jenny tells her story in her trademark gross-out style, but with pregancy as a backdrop, it doesn't have its usual shock-value. This book made me realize that motherhood means getting past my usual gross-out threshold.









Your Pregnancy Week By Week gives weekly updates on what's happenning with both baby and mom. The chapters are short and easy to understand. I also downloaded the audiobook to my iPod and listened to it during my commute.















Buff Moms-to-Be was great for me to use as an exercise guide during pregnancy. They should put a warning on the chest-press exercise that it shouldn't be done after the 7th month or so. I almost had to get help from the staff at the gym when I couldn't get up from the bench!