The Best Pregnancy Books for Future Working Moms
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The best pregnancy books for future working moms: pink / white / pink / multicolored
I read a ton of books during my first pregnancy, and thought I’d shout out a few of my favorites here…
The Best Pregnancy Books for Future Working Moms
What To Expect When You’re Expecting: For some reason, I considered this book the “duh, everyone gets that book for pregnancy,” and so it took me by surprise when I realized how hated this book is by many in the pregnancy industry. As near as I can understand it, the first edition of the book may have had harsh advice, and I’ve often heard people describe the book as “fear-mongering.”
That said, I loved the fourth edition. Far from fear mongering, I thought it was a gentle warning of what I might expect each month, or a reassuring explanation of what I was already experiencing. I only read one month at a time up until about 32 weeks, when a little scare made me think I should at least skim the final chapters to see what to expect of the labor/postpartum experience.
Balance is a Crock, Sleep is for the Weak: I only found this one by my second pregnancy, but: this book is a gold mine — tons of great information for pregnancy, maternity leave, and beyond, all written in an informative but funny tone. It should be required reading for any working mother.
From the Hips: This book has advice for both your pregnancy and your parenting. I didn’t start reading this book until my son was born, but I really found it refreshing. The book has a lot of anonymous anecdotes, and there is an abundance of intelligent voices. I also liked that the book talked about things that I hadn’t seen elsewhere. (Example: the difference between postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis, which have different symptoms that other books lumped together in a scary way.)
Let’s Panic About Babies!: This book is hilarious, and I’m not just saying that because it was written by bloggers. Again, this is one that has satirical advice for the pregnancy and the fun first year of parenting, and I didn’t start reading it until about my 8th month. Many nights while reading this, I woke my husband up because I was laughing so hard. That’s how good it is.
Bonus Hesitant Mention:
Belly Laughs: I really hesitate to recommend this one because the author (Jenny McCarthy) has become associated with so many things I disagree with. So: maybe check this book out of the library instead of buying it. I really did find it to be a funny and genuine take on pregnancy, though, so if you can put other opinions out of your mind…
A few additional pregnancy books to consider…
Psst: we’ve also rounded up great books for new working moms to read and put on your registry for baby:
Pictured above, great books for new working moms: pink / white / white/ green
We’ve also rounded up great books for working mothers, full of tips and tricks from women who’ve balanced career and family:
Some of the best books for working mothers include:
Readers, which other books have you found invaluable to you during your pregnancy? Which ones did you throw down in disgust? (Don’t forget to check out our roundup of the best maternity blogs and newsletters!)
Honestly, the most helpful book I read was the Ultimate Guide to Pregnancy for Lesbians. I’m straight, but got the book from a lesbian friend. The info was medically accurate and the tone was perfect: factual, honest, down-to-earth but somehow inspiring confidence. Not patronizing AT ALL, and none of the cutesy “your little peanut has fingernails!” business found throughout What to Expect. I loved it.
I also found Baby 411 and Toddler 411 to be really good as well. Matter-of-fact, evidence-based, well-organised.
I just wanted to add a few –
Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth was hands-down my favorite. Geared towards natural birth, but great information in there on interventions, and wonderful, confidence-inspiring birth stories.
Secrets of the Baby Whisperer saved our lives. That is not an exaggeration.
I really liked One Year to an Organized Life with Baby. Not at all about pregnancy but designed to help you organize your life during your pregnancy. So glad I did (most) of what the book recommends before baby came, because finding important things like medical records and birth certificates is much easier now.
Ina May’s Guide to Breastfeeding was excellent.
And Baby Makes Three is a wonderful book for preparing your marriage for baby. We go back to this book often. Can’t recommend it enough.
Birthing from Within was a book that I loved, although a lot of the “art” stuff was lost on me. Geared toward natural births but primarily focuses on getting rid of fear associated with childbirth. Helpful for me, I just skimmed the chapters on “birth art” :)
The Working Gal’s Guide to Babyville was good.
That’s all I can remember.
I read What to Expect. I agree with a poster above who didn’t find it that interesting at 9 weeks….I found I referred to it more and more as time went on. But I took everything it said with a bushel of salt because I took the “everything in moderation” approach to pregnancy, and that book seems to rely an awful lot on scare tactics.
However, what I really want to say is that while it is all well and good to read about pregnancy, I found it much more useful to read about baby care during my last trimester. Sooner or later you are going to be faced with a little being who totally relies on you for everything and doesn’t come with a manual. You won’t have time to read anything at that point, so better do so before said little being arrives. In that vein, I read “The Happiest Baby on the Block”, a bre@stfeeding book, and started on (but then had to put down for about three months) one of the Baby Whisperer books.
I thought From the Hips was really good. Approachable in the same way as Girlfriend’s Guide, but felt slightly more modern and more technical (later publication date).
I also liked Good Enough is the New Perfect as a guide to working motherhood. I have re-visited it a few times in the past couple of years as my career has grown.
Balance is a Crock sounds like it would really resonate with me, as I am looking for some ideas about how to get out of permanent survival mode. However, my children are 1 and 3. Is this book only geared toward those with itty bitty babies?
Loved the Mayo clinic book, hated what to expect. I just thought it treated everything as life threatening and unnatural. Also used the what to expect and webmd apps, which were fun to read. My husband and I would wake up together every Sunday and get excited to check the what to expect app to see what fruit the baby would be that week. Someone also bought me that Dr. Oz book which is awful.
For labor, I read natural hospital birth and the birth partner. Really recommend both. Even if you aren’t planning a drug-free birth (and I did not have one) still helpful
for giving you the pros and cons of everything.
Bringing up Bebe! Not really a pregnancy book, but it really helped me to take more relaxed (non-“What to Expect”) approach to my first pregnancy. I’m rereading it now with #2 :)
Is it weird/bad that I’m not reading any pregnancy books (9 weeks pregnant)? I started reading What to Expect, but I just couldn’t get into it. I have a baby bump app on my phone which gives me daily information, but other than that I’m not reading any books on pregnancy.
I returned What to Expect after my physician husband found multiple medical inaccuracies in his five minute scan of the book. The Mayo Clinic Guide got his seal of approval and I referenced it from time to time.
I really enjoyed Origins by Annie Murphy Paul.
AlphaMom’s pregnancy calendar was the most hilarious, useful, interesting pregnancy reading I did! I think Balance is A Crock shouldn’t be required reading until *after* getting pregnant — it definitely made me nervous about balancing everything!
Expecting Better by Emily Oster. LOVE this book. Oster is an Econ professor at Chicago (yes, she’s a full prof of Econ at Chicago and she’s in her 30s – impressive lady). She was tired of being told don’t do x or y without any information about why. She went through the studies and presents an analysis of, for example, why doctors advise women to limit caffeine and what levels of caffeine intake were tested, how, and with what results. It was exactly the kind of information I needed and what’s often sorely lacking in this area.
Not a book, but the website Pregnant Chicken was my big resource for the dos/don’ts of pregnancy. It feels like everything has a warning against it, and most websites are full of people saying “why take the risk?”But I wanted to make my decisions based on actual knowledge of the risks and benefits, and PC helped sort through all nonsense.
I’ve heard that the book “Expecting Better” is similar, but I didn’t read it during my pregnancy. I was too tired to do much but read an article or blog post here and there.
I am using the Mayo Clinic’s Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy. It goes week by week for symptoms, baby’s development, etc. I also have the corresponding app on my phone; it has snippets of the same info as the book, but I mainly use it to remind me what week I’m currently in (you enter your due date at set-up).