This book sets off with the most laudable aim of helping new parents cope with the first months, that period when you may, quite reasonably, feel that you don't know what you're doing. And it does this, not by telling you how to change nappies and bath your baby, but by looking at it from a first-time parent's point of view. Yes, the practicalities are there, but there's also tons of support for the beleaguered mother, from your emotional wellbeing to dealing with unwanted visitors. It's written in a down-to-earth, friendly tone that makes you feel like you're talking to a friend and is definitely not patronising.
The book starts by making you think before the birth, and busting a few myths about what constitutes the 'perfect' birth, and whether what happens on that life-changing day really has any bearing on your parenting life anyway. It then deals in detail with the immediate post-natal period, and onwards to the first few months of your baby's life. In doing so, it deals with many of the issues you'll face in this short period of time in more detail than other baby-care books can manage, and could come to feel like your personal agony aunt.
Christine Hill is a chartered and state registered physiotherapist and runs highly regarded (and always fully booked) antenatal classes in west London; her husband Peter is consultant in child and adolescent psychiatry at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. They've drawn on this experience for writing this book, so you're sure to find all those common - and not so common - questions answered. The adage that “you can make mistakes and they will not be disasters” is one that I shall certainly be taking with me (in all aspects of life!).
