Book review: Happy Birth Day

Happy Birth Day by National Childbirth Trust

	Well laid-out step-by-step guide to how your pregnancy will develop, what to expect from the birth and the first weeks of your child's life
	It's very detailed and has some medical photos which some women may possibly find daunting
Features:	Stage-by-stage guide with diagrames, boxes and lots of useful sidebars on getting pregnant, pregnancy, birth and early parenthood. Comes with a DVD of various women's birth stories, plus input from Davina McCall
Price:	£16.99 RRP
Contact:	Octopus Books

The concept Lots of women find going to National Childbirth Trust (NCT) groups during pregnancy a great way of finding out about their pregnancy and birth health, and a way of making friends who are going through the same experience as they are. This is a handbook to all you might need to know about pregnancy and birth. It is clear and fairly written, and surprisingly, actually includes some useful and open information on bottle feeding, which is not something the NCT are neccessarily associated with usually. Organisation The book is split into six sections: Becoming a parent, weighs up the issues you might think about in your decision to have a baby and what you can expect from the time ahead; Choice for your care looks at the different forms of medical care, antenatal groups and the areas of birthing you might want to plan for (like a water birth and/or a home birth); Self-care in pregnancy addresses the health and well-being aspects of pregnancy; The birth takes you through the process of labour and birth; Medical intervention explains the pros and cons of different forms of pain relief and/or surgery you might encounter during birth; and Early daze looks at the earliest weeks of your child's life. With colour-coding and bright, easy to follow design, the wealth of information is not too overwhelming, though it still doesn't quite live up to the cross-referencing of Heidi Murkoff's What To Expect When You're Expecting pregnancy guide book. Voices of experience One of the invaluable things about sharing your experiences, hopes, fears and questions either on forums like the ones here at ThinkBaby or by joining an antenatal group, is that you begin to feel more positive and supported in readiness for the months ahead. This book is a useful textbook, but the DVD that comes with it has an additional value because it can pass on those personal experiences from other women who have been through what you are going through. The ThinkBaby verdict A useful text book for pregnancy. Handy for those times when you're not in front of a computer - because when you are online, ThinkBaby can answer those questions for you! Usefulness: 4/5 Readability: 5/5 Value: 3/5