Pregnancy Reads
Personal post here as I am half way through my first pregnancy and want to share all that I have read so others can learn too!
For my weekly belly updates I’m reading The Mama Natural Week-By-Week Guide to Pregnancy and Childbirth
I get so excited to read this book every week, its hard to wait!! Not only do you get updates on how big the baby is, there are so many interesting facts about the baby’s development. And she always shares common ailments or symptoms that mom may be feeling. It’s usually spot on, or I end up feeling the symptoms a few days after I read about it. This is so helpful to not worry about all of the strange things that happens to your body during pregnancy. There’s also an affirmation and recipe in each chapter. I’ve written a lot of the affirmations down use during birth! And the recipes I’ve made are delicious and have become weekly rotations in our meal planning. Further, she shares lots of tips for preparing for baby. For example, she goes over a registry list and recommendations. And the week I just read, week 21, she offers different options for birth classes and the pros and cons of these different methods.
Sine we’re on the topic of birth methods, we are going with Hypnobirthing the Mongan method. We know there is a lot out of our control with this little one growing inside, but we know we can control our emotions and how we prepare for baby’s entry into this side of the world! And we want the birth experience to be as calm and natural as possible. So we felt like hypnobirthing was a great fit. Neither my husband nor I are avid meditators and while he is a pretty calm person by nature, I am very high strung and type A, so I am also so happy to have found the tools in this method to help calm and slow me down. We have been practicing the breathing techniques since before we got pregnant and I have enjoyed them so much. Hypnobirthing is all about taking the fear out of childbirth and going back to our roots as women who were meant to bear and birth children. Birth is something completely natural and meant to be, we can aid in the process and prepare for it of course, but it will happen on its own, as long as mom , baby and everyone stays calm and believes so. Now, of course they, and we, acknowledge that there are emergencies during birth and our medical professionals are herose when emergencies happen! We will be monitoring baby and mom up until birth and if there is any reason we cannot birth in this way, we will adjust.
Another book I learned a lot from is Babies Are Not Pizzas by Rebecca Decker. Our introduction to Hypnobirthing may not have been as open and accepted if we had not read this book first. Well, I would say this book and The Caesarean by Michel Odent. Both of these books dive into the history of birth and how it has become so medicalized in the past 50 years. If you are interested in learning more about your birth options and want to become more informed and educated on the subject I highly recommend these reads.
It’s funny, I strongly believe that birth is so completely natural and should not be medicalized or messed with. It is a fundamental part of being a woman, our bodies were created ad function in a unique way to birth babies. The science of our anatomy shows this and its so cool to learn about! But I also believe any major life event should be researched and I want to be well educated on as many sides as possible to make the decisions that are best for myself and my family. So while I think birth is a natural process, I still wanted to research and learn as much as possible to prepare! I feel the same way about becoming a parent, even though its a completely natural next step in life, I want to research and learn about different ways to be the best parent I can be!
So on to some of the parenting books I’ve read. I really liked Raising Grateful Kids in an Entitled World by Kristen Welch It was so applicable to trying to raise faithful, humble kids in today’s world. And then a great read that a friend actually sent to me during my pregnancy is To Have and To Hold by Molly Millwood. My friend said it is a really helpful book because it takes such a realistic look at the transition into parenthood and how to adjust.
I hope you enjoy this reading list! And I’d love to know your favorite books!