As I mentioned in this post, I love reading about pregnancy, babies, and parenting (just to be prepared!), and this is the first post of three in which I'll share the books I've read over the past couple of years. Today's post is focused on books about conceiving and pregnancy while other posts will focus on newborn care and parenting. Many of the books I've read were mentioned by Sara either through her blog, where she keeps a great list of books about conception, pregnancy, and parenting, or her online course, Purposeful Conception (which I highly recommend!). 

My intention in sharing these titles is in no way to suggest that anyone needs to read these books in order to be prepared to have a baby or to be a good parent. In fact, I'm married to someone whom I know will be an awesome parent but isn't very interested in reading about babies. Chris is excited to figure out his parenting and baby care-taking style more organically and I completely respect that. For me, big changes always seem less scary when I'm armed with as much information as possible. Having a baby will definitely be a big change!

The only book I purchased from this list is Taking Charge of Your Fertility because I find it to be a good reference book for understanding what the heck my body is doing. All other books were read for free through my local library. I heart you public library.

Books I've read about pregnancy:

Maybe Baby - several writers talk about how they decided whether or not to have a baby or if they're stuck on the fence. Even though I've always been pretty sure Chris and I would want to have a family, I've also considered the possibility that we won't. This book was interesting to me because I found I just couldn't relate to any of the essays from people who decided not to have a baby.

Taking Charge of Your Fertility - details the Fertility Awareness Method (FAM), which is based on basal body temperature and cervical fluid and can be used for trying to be pregnant or avoiding pregnancy.  Even if you don't plan to use FAM, there's such good information in this book about women's biology in general that I would recommend every woman read it.

Misconceptions - the author openly discusses the difficulties she faced during pregnancy and childbirth, her post-partum depression, and the challenges that women in general can face in their relationships and careers when they become mothers. I found this book a bit negative but did appreciate the perspective.

Birthing from Within - a holistic guide to childbirth that focuses on natural childbirth. This book tends towards a more spiritual approach and some of it I did not envision myself relating to when I'm pregnant. But, there was still a lot of good information and I liked the author's very positive tone.

From the Hips - this book bills itself as "a comprehensive, open-minded, uncensored" guide to pregnancy and parenthood. It covers a lot of material and doesn't go into a lot of detail on any one subject but I did like that it presents information from several perspectives and is very non-judgemental.

Baby Catcher - a memoir written by a former midwife. I really liked reading the accounts of actual births.

I know there are many more books on conception and pregnancy; if you have recommendations please share! I have a library card and I definitely know how to use it.