Jenni, you were right! (pregnancy books)

[Guest guest]

The NCT Book of Pregnancy and The Best Labour Possible arrived today

- and I am sorry to say that on a preliminary reading neither of them

meet with my wholesale approval. I was expecting a *lot* more

information to help women make choices. Perhaps there isn't room with

all the birth stories, which to my mind are merely entertaining - too

much talk of what was and wasn't 'allowed', and no commentary - I

think the vividness of birth stories can mean that they remain in

people's minds when other perhaps more reliable/generalisable

information doesn't :-(((( The Best Labour Possible is better, but

as you might guess, only relates to the birth itself (no pictures,

not a glossy coffee table book at all) (It isn't very good on my

personal hobby horse pre-eclampsia though - and since it was of

personal relevance to me, unfortunately my sister has a higher chance

of it being relevant to her)

I think the NCTs publishers must be expecting *its* book to be on

coffee tables as all its birth photos in the main text seem to show

babies appearing in the middle of a load of white paper rather than

out of a vagina. (There are some nice photos in the birth stories

section of mothers with their new babies - from zonked to exultant)

I think Jenni is probably right - the nearest thing to what I am

after *is* Enkin et al.'s Guide to Effective Care in Pregnancy and

Childbirth.

I think that what I want doesn't exist - something that tells you

what your choices are, what the risks are, what the size of the risk

is - not something that says X isn't safe and doesn't spell out what

that means at all. Having babies isn't 'safe' - it could kill you.

(Obviously, a lot of the time it isn't possible to say what the size

of the risk is because the research isn't there, and would be hard to

do) For example the section on safe eating doesn't really spell out

the difference between listeria and salmonella or make any mention of

the size of the risks. It's just 'don't do it' (The section on peanut

allergy/avoidance is better)

--

jennifer@...

Vaudin