10 Best Pregnancy Books In 2018

When you have your first child, you can have a lot of questions and calling your baby’s pediatrician at all hours of the night can make you seem pretty annoying to their Doctor, even if they won’t say it. With Baby 411: Clear Answers and Smart Advice for Your Baby’s First Year by Ari Brown, you can have a guide to what your child may be going through during their first year.

At a little over 600 pages, Dr. Ari Brown, official spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics, offers new parents a guide book to help them through the first year with their baby. Covering topics from how to pick a pediatrician to detailed nutrition information that you can use as a step-by-step guide to achieve successful breastfeeding, the introduction of solid foods and formulas as well as some simple steps to help you avoid food allergies in your child.

Why we love it – With its valuable knowledge and recommendations from celebrity moms, such as Chelsea Clinton, the Baby 411: Clear Answers and Smart Advice for Your Baby’s First Year by Ari Brown is one pregnancy book that should be one every parent’s bookshelf.

Touted as America’s Pregnancy Bible, What to Expect When You’re Expecting by Heidi Murkoff has become one of the most trusted pregnancy books on the market. With the book in its 5th edition, it has only increased in the amount of information and benefits that it can provide and expectant parent.

With over 650 pages of in depth knowledge to help any expectant mom to be, the latest edition includes advice for dads, newly updated medical coverage information, including information on the Zika virus, prenatal screenings and medication safety during pregnancy. With a brand new section that covers postpartum birth control and current lifestyle trends including juice bars, e-cigarettes, health food fads and GMOs to name a few, this book has you covered.

Why we love it – There is a very good reason why What to Expect When You’re Expecting by Heidi Murkoff is seen as the Pregnancy Bible for Americans. With its ever expanding wealth of knowledge and coverage of topics that are important to parents expecting a child now, it is very easy for us to say this is the top rated Pregnancy Book on our list.

Once your baby comes home, there can be a great deal of joy flowing throughout your home. But when it’s time to go bed for the night, its may not be as easy as some new parents think it should be. With the book On Becoming Baby Wise: Giving Your Infant the Gift of Nighttime Sleep by Robert Buckman, M.D., parents can learn to synchronize their cycles so the whole family can sleep through the night.

Co-authored by Gary Ezzo, he and Dr. Buckman are two of the world’s leading experts in infant management concepts. With early chapters focusing on the exploration of everyday aspects of your little ones daytime activities including feeding time, wake time and naptime. By helping parents develop a plan to both meet the needs of your new bundle of joy and the entire family, which when applied can work wonders for your growing family.

Why we love it – Now in its 5th edition, On Becoming Baby Wise: Giving Your Infant the Gift of Nighttime Sleep by Robert Buckman, M.D. has been printed in 16 different languages around the world helping new families create a routine to help manage their child’s routine throughout the day.

Having a newborn baby in the house can be one of the most magical things that any new family can experience, until it’s time to go to bed. Newborns, who have spent the last nine months or so inside mommy’s womb can be very cranky when it comes to going to bed. With the book, The Happiest Baby on the Block by Harvey Karp, parents can learn his techniques to help soothe them off into a deep, restful sleep.

The newest edition, fully revised, has been updated to include the latest insights on issues that may affect your little one’s sleep behavior such as bed sharing, breastfeeding, swaddling and the risk of SIDS. Based on 4 concepts, Dr. Karp’s method can be successful for your child as well. These concepts include discussions on why your child still looks for a womb like sleeping area, even after birth, the “off switch” that all babies are born with to help calm them and the five easy steps to turn on their amazing calming reflex.

Why we love it – With its novel approach to helping your little one get some sleep and stay asleep through the night, the book The Happiest Baby on the Block by Harvey Karp is definitely worth a look by any parent who has a child struggling to sleep through the night.

When the time to give birth gets closer and closer, having a plan on how you want things to transpire on the big day is very important. For some women, they may opt to have a childbirth as natural as possible. With the book, Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin, moms to be can have a guide on how to accomplish this if they so choose.

The nation’s leading midwife, Ina May Gaskin, tries to share the joys that come with giving birth to a child naturally and show women how to trust in the wisdom of their own bodies for a healthy and fulfilling experience. Providing any expectant mother comprehensive information on a wide variety of topics including reducing the pain without using drugs, whether or not an episiotomy is really necessary and common methods for inducing labor. With her book, an expectant mom can be prepared for what may happen while they give birth to their little one.

Why we love it – For some parents, going through childbirth as naturally as possible is very important to them. With Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin, any parent interested in doing so can have a guide to walk them through any question or concern they may have.

A lot of pregnancy books on the market portray pregnancy and childbirth as this magical journey. And it is. However, there is a lot of other things that those books tend to gloss over instead of telling it like it is. In the book, Belly Laughs by Jenny McCarthy peels the curtain back on those things that the other books won’t tell you about.

McCarthy, a mother herself, uses her in your face personality to peel back the veil on the magical aspects of pregnancy and childbirth. With her traditional type of humor, while at times, she can be a bit crass, those looking for a no holds barred account of the dirty little things that the other pregnancy and childbirth books won’t tell you, but they should. All in all, the bluntness and brashness of the book’s material is refreshing in a market of stagnant, sometimes boring books.

Why we love it – With its brashness and no holds barred look at the reality of being pregnant and giving birth to your child, Belly Laughs by Jenny McCarthy offers parents a no holds barred look at what the other books don’t tell you and is a great book that any first time mom may want to read.

Debates on the best way to raise a child have raged on and on for centuries. Every generation or parent thinks that they know the best way to do so. Bringing Up Bébé by Pamela Druckerman take a look at the way that children born in Paris differ from those raised in America. In her journey, she sparked a national debate that any parent should read and will enjoy.

Druckerman, an American journalist, gave birth to her own child while in Paris and noticed subtle differences between infants in France, compared to those in the United States. Ever the journalist, she started to research why and how French children started to sleep through the night at two to three months of age or played by themselves while their parents relaxed and had a coffee. The book offers a night and day look at the differences on how we raise our children. The discoveries that the author makes about why French children are raised, makes the book hard to put down.

Why we love it –.For any soon to be parent or new parents, reading Bringing Up Bébé by Pamela Druckerman can offer a glance at how other parts of the world raise their children and give us a glimpse of what we may be doing right and what we may be doing wrong.

The Mayo Clinic, one of the most prestigious hospitals in the world, works to help people live the healthiest lives they can and of course, that can apply to your pregnancy as well. With their book, Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy, they have provided a handy guide to any soon to be parent a reliable source of information that can be used every step of the way.

Featuring a week-by-week updates on how your little one is doing inside mommy’s womb as well as month-to-month changes that mom’s body will go through as well as a 40-week pregnancy calendar, symptoms guide and an important pregnancy decisions review, the Mayo Clinic Guide is a book any parents will be coming back to over and over again.

What we love it – With its weekly and monthly breakdowns to help moms and dads keep track of where their baby is, the Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy by Mayo Clinic is easily one of the best pregnancy week by week books on the market today.

Many women can have trouble after their child is born with learning how to breastfeed. Whether its positioning or their child just isn’t latching on correctly, it can cause a lot of stress for a new mom to go through. With the book The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding by Diane Wiessinger, learning to breastfeed comfortably can make it a much more rewarding experience.

Now in its 8th edition, the dedicated and internationally respected La Leche League works to support nursing and expectant moms and had set the standard for the education and empowerment of mothers using this natural art for countless generations. With their guide retooled and updated for today’s moms and lifestyles, any mom will benefit from the range of valuable knowledge presented in the book. From how to prepare for breastfeeding during pregnancy to expressing and storing breast milk, it can offer a multitude of beneficial information.

Why we love it – With it’s real-mom wisdom and new insights about the subject of breastfeeding, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding by Diane Wiessinger can help make the process of breastfeeding once your baby has arrived a much easier and rewarding concept.

When you become pregnant, it feels as though right along with the good news of having a little one on the way, you’re also given a list of the things you cannot consume without ever really getting a clear explanation as to why? In the book Expecting Better by Emily Oster, the author takes a look at why to see if they are truly valid or not.

While she was pregnant, Emily Oster was given the same don’ts as any other parent and evauated the information behind some of the most accepted rules when it comes to pregnancy and found some to be misguided and others to be completely wrong. Explaining everything in detail from the real effects of caffeine to the strange dangers associated with gardening, the author debunks the myths that have been followed forever so that moms to be can relax and have a glass of wine every once in a while.

Why we love it – Taking a fresh look at the standard accepted rules of what not to do while pregnant, Expecting Better by Emily Oster is a breath of fresh air to any expectant mom feeling a little constricted by what she is being told she can’t do.