This is the week-by-week guide that prepares you for a relaxed and confident birth. "Need to know? Pregnancy" gives a complete overview of baby development through pregnancy and birth. Its combination of conventional mainstream and complementary medical info reflects the way most pregnant women approach their care today. It is full of lots of quick tips and realistic info, so is practical and undaunting to use. It also includes web resources for checking on specific tests or finding decent maternity clothes, for example: week by week overview, with details of growth: mother and baby; checking your health and wellbeing: tests, scans, antenatal appointments; eating well: nutrition, portions, weight gain, etc; exercising and relaxing: exercise; yoga; safety; staying fit; relaxation; labour and birth: preparation; home birth; hospital birth; what happens in labour and birth; birth partner; caesarean section; relieving pain; your baby at birth: apgar test; reflexes; feeding; A-Z of common problems: overview of common problems in pregnancy and labour. Harriet Sharkey takes an easy-access, upbeat approach throughout, combining mainstream complementary treatments with conventional medical information. There's plenty of acknowledgement of the expectant father too.

Author Biography

Harriet Sharkey currently writes about health for the Viveka Women's Health Centre, and has written on pregnancy issues for numerous magazines including Pregnancy and Baby, Babygro, Prima Magazine, and the Independent on Sunday. She was co-author (with Yehudi Gordon) of Birth and Beyond (Ebury, 2002), and The Journey into Parenthood. She has two young children.