BABYCENTRE PREGNANCY
From preconception to birth
Publisher: DK

DK books are very easy to love. The books are well packaged with nice photos, illustrations, boxed up tidbits and even varying sizes of fonts that are all easy on the reader's eye.

This one is no exception. The book goes through the three trimesters and week by week. It explains what is happening to your pregnant body and what you can expect – changes, health problems and issues faced.

It is divided into several sections – Getting ready for pregnancy, Staying safe and healthy, Your pregnancy diary, and Birth and beyond.

Getting ready for pregnancy deals with wanting to get pregnant, health and lifestyle choices, pre-existing medical conditions, how conception happens, choosing baby's sex, multiple births, fertility treatment, miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy.

Staying safe and healthy is all about what to eat, exercising through pregnancy, safety at home and at work, environmental hazards, grooming, weight gain, hormones, sex, maternity wear, bras, beauty treatments, travel, bonding with baby and preparing the nursery.

The Pregnancy diary provides a week-by-week guide and common concerns in pregnancy.

Birth and beyond covers labour, birth and even life with your new baby.

I like the tidbits written by parents on what they faced during their pregnancy.

I also liked the lists of helpful stuff like natural sleep remedies and eating tips.

The book explains everything very well – even how to choose the sex of your baby, what not to eat, your weight gain and essential baby buys.

In addition, there is information on birth defects, multiple births, breech baby and genetic disorders.

This book really prepares you well, especially if you are going through your first pregnancy.

Something this book covers that is usually glossed over in other books is the part on labour. Babcentre Pregnancy covers false labour, options for labour, first stage of labour, coping with backache labour, positions for labour, second stage of labour (when the cervix is fully dilated) and even delivering the placenta.

Something helpful are the little sidebars titled Parents Ask .... Interesting questions peppered in the different pages under this sidebar are what will my recovery be like; what are the chances that my twins will be born prematurely; I'm 34 weeks pregnant and my breasts are leaking. Is it normal?; and are there any safe and proven methods available for turning a breech baby?

Dads are not left out. There are sidebars titled Dad's Diary that give the father's perspective throughout the pregnancy. I found these entertaining as well as enlightening. We so seldom read about what dads think of what they are going through.

BabyCentre is Britain's leading website for new and expectant parents and this book combines expert content from the site with voices of real mums and dads.

Ultimately, this is a reference book. You can keep it lying around and refer to it whenever you have problems or a question in your mind.

But, as I said early in this review, this is also a very well packaged book. I found it highly informative and educational; it kept me turning the pages and even gave me lots of ideas for articles.

Those expecting their first child will gain a lot from reading this book. It is an easy read. You should be done in a few days – make it your reading material at breakfast and lunch.

I'm not sure if those who are expecting their second or third child would still need a reference book like this. But, you never know; each pregnancy is different and you always learn new things when reading different books.

This is worth buying and keeping, too.