My Favourite Parenting Books & Resources: Part 1 – Beginnings

OK this doesn’t have too much to do with parenting as such, but is definitely needed to get there! This is the best book I know of on the subject of sexual relations within Christian marriage. It has a lot of Biblical wisdom as well as practical advice.

If you are having any issues in this area or think it is not quite what it could be, you should read this. In fact the counselling course that I have done recommends every couple read this as part of premarital counselling.

Taking Charge of Your Fertility (by Toni Weschler)

From natural birth control to maximising your chances of getting pregnant, this is a handbook that many women use – just look at the hundreds of 5 star reviews on Amazon! I loved it as it opened my eyes to a whole world I didn’t know about.

I liked this book because it’s very comprehensive. When you are pregnant you go through sooooo many changes and it is quite scary, especially the first time! So it is nice to be able to look up the week or month you’re in and see what is happening to your body and your baby.

The diet in the front is basically the same as is recommended in the next book below, which has been heavily researched, so should be a good guide for what to eat while you are pregnant.

When I was traipsing around natural parenting and childbirth forums I found a lot of people referring to ‘The Brewer Diet’ during pregnancy. I looked it up – you can see it on the website here – and then, of course, bought the book on it! It is a little hard to get hold of because I think it is now out of print, but I found it well worth the read.

In there Dr. Brewer goes through all the research he did on how diet affects pregnancy and childbirth, and what you should be eating to maximise your chances of having a healthy baby through eating well.

When I looked up the recommended diet for pregnancy in ‘What To Expect…’ (above) I found it was basically the same thing. So while the book may be out of print, the advice has obviously been heeded.

I loved this website when I was pregnant, and browsed it several times a week. My favourite feature is that if you type in you due date they will send you weekly newsletters via e-mail, telling you how you and your baby are changing this week. It’s so exciting to know what is going on!

Essentially this is a forum for mums to discuss anything and everything, so there is obviously much on there that I don’t agree with! But having said that, it is a great way of finding help and information on the practical aspects of parenting.

For example one topic I remember searching for was, ‘How to travel with a baby on a long distance flight’ for which I got lots of helpful information! You can also join an ‘Ante-natal club‘ for some companionship and ongoing discussion with women due the same month as you are.

If you can only get one book on childbirth, I would highly recommend this one! It is a little on the old side, but made all the difference to me. My labour before the birth of my second child was horrendously painful even though on the face of it, it was an ideal natural birth – at home in a birthing pool, with gas and air and no complications.

During my next pregnancy I decided I needed to find some more advice. Among the natural birth forums and e-mail lists I found a lot of people talking about ‘The Bradley Method’ and also this book which is similar. I bought both books but liked this one best as the Bradley method is mainly about your husband coaching you through it, and I didn’t feel like it would work that well with us!

The biggest thing I gleaned from this book was about the fear-tension-pain cycle. Basically if you’re afraid it leads to tension, which leads to pain. Conversely if you make yourself relax there will be less pain.

For my next birth I took his advice and every time I had a contraction I concentrated hard on relaxing my whole body, but especially my abdomen. Then as the contractions got worse I lay on my side and did the same thing.

It was the quickest, least painful and by far the most enjoyable out of all my three births – it made SUCH a difference. There is a newer copy available but it doesn’t have the greatest cover picture so I decided to post this version instead!

I can’t remember much about this book apart from that I learned how important it was to give birth as upright as possible. But it did help me towards decisions like avoiding an epidural since they mean that you have to give birth lying down. It also takes a good look at different pain relief in childbirth.