Maternity Books

This is a good book for a beginner student. It is a little more basic than I expected but is thorough and well divided into skill topics. It provides good practical information that "spells it out" for beginners but also could be a useful resource for those with a little more experience.

In Myriam Szejer's book, Talking to Babies, we are taken into her world of clinical work with babies and families. Her perspective opens new vistas of babies, family dynamics, and ways of healing at the very beginning of life. One of the most important current tenets in early development understanding is that we need a coherent narrative of our human experiences (Dr. Daniel Siegel's book, Parenting From Within), that our ability to make sense of our life experience is very important. Dr. Szejer's book brings to light her experience that babies too, need their stories, their coherent narratives. Helping to find the underlying story and speak it, helps babies thrive. Her book fits within the larger field of prenatal and perinatal psychology in which we find babies are much more conscious, aware, and able to understand and communicate much more than what was previously thought possible. As a fellow baby clinician and professor in this field, I am grateful for Dr. Szejer's work and that her book has been translated into English. Wendy Anne McCarty, Ph.D., author of Welcoming Consciousness and Being with Babies.

What new mom or mom-to-be doesn't need a little assistance when it comes to getting everything they need for their baby or finding that special celebratory gift for themselves? Hillary Mendelsohn has made a name for herself as a person who knows online shopping and in THEPURPLEBOOKBABY: The Definitive Guide to Exceptional Online Baby and Maternity Shopping, a special edition of thepurplebook, she goes a step further by focusing solely on this demographic of women.

With a guide as focused as this book, the consumer is able to cut out a lot of the legwork and time running from store to store looking for a particular item. THEPURPLEBOOKBABY is a wonderful resource for mothers, friends, grandparents, or basically anyone interested in shopping for baby items.

Broken down into various catagories, the guide is structured into an easy what-to-look-for format, in which Mendelsohn has hand-selected only the best online resources, running the gamut in price, style, and even popularity. What I especially liked was she also included items just for mom, in which a woman could fully enjoy the benefits (pampering, special attention, and love) of pregnancy and/or motherhood.

Reviewed by Tee C. Royal
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

Bruce and colleagues have produced a timeless work. This is an outstanding source of information about the history, myths, facts, and future research emphases that should be place on women's mental health needs. The public health perspective puts it into a systems framework that is useful for researchers, students, and the general lay person interested in women's special mental health status. Thank you.

Written for a mid level provider. This book offers disease information, treatment plans, evaluation and education for the patient. Can be used as by nurses to supplement the teaching the provider may have provided or the patient did not understand. The book doesn't have an index. But once you get used to how the contents are set up you can find your way around the book.

The book arrived promptly and in the condition it was represented to be in. Was very happy with transaction.

The book is great, exactly what i was looking for, and I got it in a timely manner!

A classic textbook that has it all. Essential reference for students and practicing midwives alike.

Premier midwifery book, written for and by nurse midwives, but has a lot of excellent information for direct-entry midwives as well.

Perspective of a soon-to-graduate direct-entry midwifery student: I would rather read almost ANY book rather than this one. I know some of you have to buy it like I did, but if you don't *have* to, don't. My toddler ripped a few pages out of it, and honestly, instead of getting upset that she had totally messed up a $100 book, I was kind of glad she did it, because I hate this book so much. I'd rather read anything by Anne Frye, Myles, heck, even Williams over this thing. It is boring as all get out, completely non-dynamic, there's no glossary, the index stinks, there are no words in bold or anything, no little case studies in a box beside the text... I mean NOTHING to relieve the monotony of the tone. Gag me with a spoon.

This pamphlet gives an excellent overview of the oppression of women healers and women in general at the hands of the church and the medical establishment. A must read for anyone interested in medical history, feminism and anti-oppression work.

I purchased this book looking for an historical perspective of women healers. Although this book does provide a history it is extremely biased towards the feminist idealogy. The book was written in the 70's and it shows with it's bias and underlying anger. The good thing about reading this is to realise how far women and the health system have come in the equality debate.

It's less than 50 pages long, but it's a great short history about witches, midwives, and nurses. It tells about how the profession began and why there aren't more women in the field today. It's good to learn the history of things that is rarely talked about. I would highly recommend this book to whoever may be interested!

As a witch and a labor/delivery nurse, of course I had to check out this pamphlet. History is the key word in the title. This pamphlet was published in the early 1970's as a propaganda tool for the feminist women's liberation movement. The history it works through is mostly valid, entertaining (the pics especially), and informative. The discussion on the current state of health care may have been the case in the early 1970's, but in no way represents modern times. Gone are the days where female nurses blindly follow the male doctor's orders. I work with just as many female doctors (if not more) than male, and when I was in another specialty, I worked with several male nurses. It's also the sign of a poor nurse not to question all orders (at least to her/himself) first before carrying any out. If the order is valid, and non-harmful to the patient, then I proceed, but I've caught too many errors and suggested too many alternatives to blindly follow the page-- this is also the case for just about every other nurse working today, with our levels of training/schooling/experience.

Ehrenreich and English's book has been highly influential in some feminist and New Age circles since its publication in the early 70s. Its thesis - that the women persecuted as "witches" in the Witch Craze tended to be midwives and healers - fits neatly with some ideological views of the suppression of women and has since been seen as historical confirmation of a patriarchal desire to control science and medicine and maintain control over birth, healing and women's bodies.

As a result, their thesis has become orthodoxy in these circles and has recently been given a popular boost via Dan Brown's pseudo historical thriller, *The Da Vinci Code*.

Unfortunately, Ehrenreich and English's research was selective, incomplete and ultimately false. Their study was subjected to critical analysis in later decades and found to be deeply flawed. Ehrenrich and English had taken a few isolated cases, assumed they were the norm and then extrapolated from them to conclude that healers and midwives were a particular target of the Witch Crazes. In fact, the evidence indicates otherwise.

David Harley systematically examined the evidence in his article "Historians as Demonologists: The Myth of the Midwife-Witch" (Social History of Medicine 3 (1990), pp. 1-26.) and found that being a midwife actually *decreased* the chances of being charged with witchcraft. Many accusations of witchcraft centred on still-births and infant deaths, with the blame for these occurrences being put on the malicious magic of witches. Far from being more likely to be accused of witchcraft, midwives and village healers were more likely to be the accusers, or to be witnesses summoned to support such accusations. In *The Witch in History*, feminist historian Diane Purkiss writes "midwives were more likely to be found helping witch-hunters" than as victims of their inquiries.

As a result, this book's value lies mainly in its indication of how some early feminist views of history were marked more by ideology and enthusiasm than rigor, comprehensive analysis of the data and objective methodology. It's value as a work of history is minimal.

This text is not only hard to find information you need, some of the chapters are hard to follow and read. The illustrations are good but information can be hard to come by. And talk about typos! Someone needs to proof read this text before it goes to the printer the next time.
Overall I think two stars is being very generous.
I am sure there is a better text to pick from.

This study guide makes up for everything that the text book lacks. I got the study guide in time for the 2nd exam and oh boy has it helped. I have recommended to all my fellow class mates to get this book.

Mostly general information. I had a hard time finding some of the information that I needed. Honestly, I don't feel like I have gained a whole lot of studying out of this text. Some of the chapters were hard to understand.

The study guide work book is okey. I've only read a few chapters on the actual txt book and doing the study guide really helps because it summarizes the content of the txt book. I recommend this study guide work book for both OB and Peds.

This book and the study guide were required for my school of nursing. This book was very, very helpful for both pediatric nursing course and my maternal-child course. It helped so much with all homework assignments and careplans. The way each topic is broken down and labeled is extremely "user friendly". Each illness/disease has a nursing diagnosis as well as nursing interventions. Well worth the $ it cost. I highly recommend. :)

1. The authors acknowledged that not all women can wear the "Survival Kit" products to work - some women work in environments where cotton/lycra stretch fabric doesn't cut it. I thought this was very honest of the authors.

2. THANK GOD they pointed out that overalls are a bad idea for anyone over 5'7" Not that I think they are such a great idea for anyone under 5'7", but I guess you have to start somewhere! And, of course, I guess it depends upon your age and where you live as well.

On the other hand...

1. Patterned hose are a bad idea on anyone, much less a pregnant woman.

2. Ditto blue shoes with a black outfit.

Overall, I thought the book was very unambitious. Instead of containing hard to follow advice from exacting New York City fashion sophisticates (i.e. a standard to strive for), it mostly contained advice on how to stretch a wardrobe (i.e. use stuff you already own). If you can't figure out how to do that on your own, you should buy this book. But I think most women would do just as well without it.

If you can dress yourself pre-pregnancy, You don't need this book. Any fashion magazine or maternity catalog will help you pick out your own clothes pregnant or not.

The authors' [...], has some beautiful maternity clothes, so I believe their fashion savvy has continued to evolve in the 10 years since this book was written. Thank goodness! The advice in this book is pretty outdated--think Elaine's clothes in Seinfeld. The book present many laughably bad ideas (leggings as pants? leggings with loafers? wearing your husband's shorts?) as maternity musts. I kept reading it and hooting "I would rather die!" If your non-maternity style is schlumpy, you don't need help maintaining it throughout your pregnancy; if your style is at all classic, tailored, fitted, trendy or sexy, their advice is not for you. The best way to dress your pregnant body is to find the maternity versions of what you wore before. (Duh.) For great maternity style, check out designers like Isabella Oliver, then find cheaper versions of those clothes at Target, the Gap, Old Navy, etc. But do splurge on something to make yourself feel beautiful, as well.

I bought this book for a friend of mine who, when telling me about her wonderful "I'm Pregnant!" news, she followed up with a quick, "Help! I need fashion advice. I don't want to be in sailor dresses for 9 months!" Before giving her this book, I read it and LOVED IT! For those of us who are NOT pregnant, but actually looking forward to it someday, but who are also turned off by the maternity clothes we have seen, this is a true find. As the authors say, why wear something when you are pregnant that you wouldn't ever wear when you are NOT pregnant! I think that it's time for pregnant women to feel GOOD and BEAUTIFUL while they are pregnant and to even be sexy when they want to! Stop hiding under baggy, oversized clothing and be proud! This books gives you great tips on how to be fashionable while your body seems out of control.

I found this book well-written, entertaining, and informative, but HELLO Cherie and Jody, NOT EVERY WOMAN IS A SIZE FOUR OR SIX!!! However, it is possible to get past that and use their advice as a starting point, especially if you work in a field where you must maintain a professional, pulled-together image.

This is a cute book. Not earthy shattering fiction, but cute and endearing in it's own way. Ad an American I had some trouble with the language and spellings used in the book (It takes place is AUS.). However, I soon got used to it and the reading became better and faster. Not the top of my list of books, but something to try.

Sophie Anderson is a thirty year old with a problem. She broken up with her boyfriend then she finds out she is going to be having his baby. With Max running off to America,Sophie needs the help of her partying friends with get through the pregnancy and start a new life. But now Max is back and maybe he has a second chance.
This is the first book by sisters Kris Webb and Kathy Wilson, while I enjoyed "From here to Maternity:A novel of total exhaustion," as with most chick-lit by the end something that would never really happen real life happen to the main character, and then her life and the book ends very neatly. Its a good beach read.

I don't know how many other expectant mothers experienced this, but practically from the moment I realized I was pregnant six months ago, I had no attention span. Once an avid reader who could go through a book a day, I was stopped in my tracks, unable to finish a page a day. I've been able to read a few things here and there but finally with this book I was (almost) back to my old routine.

This book is such a quick, good, light read, I would recommend it to any mother - expectant or experienced. I really enjoyed reading about Sophie's experiences as a new mom (since I have nothing to compare motherhood to and no idea what to expect) and I was happy for this (what I think is realistic) insider look at the challenges ahead. And it was definitely a nice change to read about someone who feels just as clueless about pregnancy; babies and baby care as I do.

For those of you with your emotions in overdrive, this book isn't too mushy. And if there is anyone mom out there thinking she'll never finish a book again - give this one a try!

Also, where can I get Sophie and Debbie's inventive baby product in real life???? I really want one!

The modern day mother juggles it all in From Here to Maternity. Or does she? A look inside the life of a first-time mother who is not only facing the enormous challenges of motherhood, but the juggling act of career, baby, breastfeeding, sleep deprivation and dating to top it all off. Sophie initially makes a noble transition into motherhood while maintaining business ventures, but all the while one foot remains firmly implanted in her old, pre-baby world. Drinking seems to be the consumate passtime with friends, and the baby features secondary to her copious consumption of alcohol. Not at all iconic of today's modern woman; she seems a paradox of sorts, independent and strong one minute, drinking herself into oblivion the next. Initially showing potential as the independent thinking, strong, powerful professional businesswoman in the throes of single parenthood (and we do admire her ability to go it alone there for a minute, making the better decision to be a single mother than cling desperately to a man for other purposes)...she does, if but for an instant, encapsulate the power women have today to choose their own life paths - independent of relationships and men. However, the ending disappoints - the once strong, independent woman returns to her more familiar doormat status, choosing the "white picket fence life that wasn't" in my opinion. Enjoyable, but only if you are after a light, fluffy, giddy, "mommy-lit" read that goes nowhere.

From Here to Maternity (clever name!) was your typical chick lit book. Lots of angst, mixed in with comedy and light writing style.

I did enjoy reading the book. It was a very easy read. I was a little disappointed by the ending (no, I won't give it away...)

This book was an average chick lit book.