Product Description

This guide to pregancy and birth includes the following topics: how to prepare for pregnancy and your baby; crying, eating, weeing and working, blokes, bosoms and busybodies; nausea and other "side effects"; choosing how and where you give birth; what tests are like and what they're for; stretch marks, maternity and baby clothes, NCT classes, baby names and how to be rude to complete strangers; childbirth and pain relief, what to expect in hospital; and breastfeeding for beginners, and what it's like with a newborn baby.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #120030 in Books
• Published on: 2001-06-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The Rough Guide to Pregnancy and Birth sets out to offer "the soundest, sanest, wittiest advice you'll ever get" about life as an expectant mum. Covering "the scary parts, the funny parts and your private parts" Australian author Kaz Cooke counts down to motherhood using a week-by-week format, at each stage explaining what's going on to you and baby, exploring common health complaints, suggesting remedies and looking at what will happen at antenatal visits. She also includes a semi-fictitious weekly diary account that provides a friendly and very funny voice to reassure you that you're not alone.

Overall, this format works well, particularly if you're a reader who dips in and out. Not least, it means you can check up on whether you're growing out of your clothes at a normal rate! It's also good to sneak a peak at a couple of weeks in the future and suss out what's in store. Its readable, illustrated layout lends itself to perusal when symptoms are getting you down, not just because it makes you laugh about morning sickness, constant weeing and leaking breasts, but also as it make you realise that actually things could be worse! Having sneaked a peak at week 41 you could be disappointed that the diary birth is eventually by Caesarean. Obviously this prepares you for the worst case scenario but it results in skipping over the protracted labour stages which, for most new mums, makes required reading, not matter how scary they sound.

On the whole this book is funny, frank and perfect to dip in and out of but it's not one you'd really use as a reference guide, particularly if you were genuinely worried about an aspect of your pregnancy. Being the work of one sole author it's obviously a rather subjective view of what is for everyone, a uniquely personal experience. It complements the likes of Miriam Stoppard and Sheila Kitzinger but (despite being much more entertaining) really couldn't begin to replace them. Pregnant women are notorious for reading every book they can get their hands on, and despite The Rough Guide to Pregnancy and Birth presenting itself as a definitive guide, it's not going to change that habit any time soon.--Shona Campbell

Synopsis
This guide to pregancy and birth includes the following topics: how to prepare for pregnancy and your baby; crying, eating, weeing and working, blokes, bosoms and busybodies; nausea and other "side effects"; choosing how and where you give birth; what tests are like and what they're for; stretch marks, maternity and baby clothes, NCT classes, baby names and how to be rude to complete strangers; childbirth and pain relief, what to expect in hospital; and breastfeeding for beginners, and what it's like with a newborn baby.

About the Author
Kaz Cooke is an Australian author, newspaper columnist, cartoonist and mother. She does not live in a rustic French farmhouse with a frightfully artistic husband, and, what's more, there appears to be some mashed banana in her hair.

Customer Reviews

This book kept me SANE!!
I read this book cover to cover during my first pregnancy 4 years ago, and now that I am in my second pregnancy I'm reading it again. It kept me sane the first time round and I'm hoping for the same result!!!! It's funny how you can pick up the book at any point during your pregnancy and she mentions something in her diary entry that you can really relate to - almost like I had a question I was just starting to mull over in my mind and then here's Kaz with not just the answer but a hilarious account of her's or someone else's experience!!! The only book I actively reccommend to all my pregnant friends!!

Excellent book!
I had been given numerous books on pregnancy, all of which I found were quite patronising really, or do this, don't do this etc.

This is NOT like those other books - it is brilliant and funny, and is my week by week bible/bedtime read! Written by a real person talking about real things in a real language that we can understand and relate to.

I'm now here to buy her next book, which I can only imagine will be just as good! The what to do with it/what to expect when it arrives part!

Great, Informative and Funny
I love the week by week layout of the book, it is easy to read and not full of technical jargon, unlike some books. It is not patronising and I feel is an extremely comprehensive guide to the good, the bad and the ugly parts of pregnancy, without scaring you, it makes you feel normal and not at all out of your depth and is full of great advice.