When a Researcher Gets Pregnant...

So when I found out I was pregnant, I immediately invested in a TON of books and collected research on pregnancy and child-rearing topics. Even though I graduated with a doctoral degree in Developmental Psychology from Yale, I specialized in preschool and beyond. I remember learning about babies, thinking "how boring...babies." Oh how 10 years will change you!

Since I studied with Ed Zigler and Matia Finn-Stevenson, I knew how important the years in utero and zero to three are for all types of development: cognitive, social-emotional and physical. These years can literally change the entire course of your life; interestingly, you typically do not even remember these years, but they have such a huge influence on your life. Once I amassed a large collection of borrowed and purchased books and articles, my husband looked at me one night like I was truly insane. He said, "I think you are preparing for this like it's one of your research presentations!" I responded, "Well, it's one heck of a presentation!!"

I didn't love all the books I read; for example, I found "What to Expect When Expecting" pretty horrific. Others were good, but didn't resonate with me completely. I did, however, particularly like the books that had references to well-done research, were corroborated by research articles that I independently found and also were consistent with my education and intuition. So below I will share the ones I loved with you in the hopes that you might find something that helps you as well.


Book on Pregnancy

I read a few books, but my favorite was The Completed Illustrated Pregnancy Companion. It is written by a pediatrician and a doula, so it is a nice balance between natural and medical. Other great things about this book are the week-by-week discussions and weekly affirmations. Early on when I would be anxious, these affirmations helped me focus on the present and stay positive. I also took my time with this book, only reading 1 week ahead, also to stay in the moment.




 Book on Birth

 I read a few books on birth and really enjoyed them. However, this one, Hypnobirthing, stood out, as I not only took the class, it resonated with the image of birth I wanted. I didn't take everything from this book, but I felt it was a great introduction to understanding the history of birth and cultural influences, as well as a way to see birth differently. I'll talk about my experiences in the class in another post and let you know how the method works out after I give birth!





This book, Ina May's Guide to Childbirth, is the quintessential book on natural childbirth by the woman who almost single-handedly brought back modern American midwifery. A great guide to understanding the process of birth and looking at it differently than our pop culture represents birth to women. She shows why she is so well respected in both midwifery and medical fields. Her attention to research, history and a holistic model of midwifery care is amazing. She shows you that the scary part of birth is really the unnecessary medical interventions; as she convinced me when I read it, "Your body is not a lemon." It was meant to give birth and she shows you why. A must read for anyone pregnant.


Books on Newborn Care

 The two books I read that I loved for newborn care was The Baby Book by William and Martha Sears and Heading Home with Your Newborn: From Birth to Reality by Laura Jana and Jennifer Shu. The Sears book is great - William Sears is a Pediatrician and Martha Sears, his wife is a Nurse. Together, they have 8 children. The book is a nice combination of medical information, research and qualitative stories about their children. He uses the research that shows a more attachment-driven style of parenting is what is linked to the best developmental outcomes. I love his style of writing and they do a good job of helping alleviate fears of parents, rather than cause more anxiety.

The heading home with your newborn book is really about basic physical care. Mostly review for those who have taken care of infants, but a worthwhile read to make you feel more confident about caring for your baby!









Parenting Books

I read the Vaccine Book by Robert Sears (William's son, also a Pediatrician) after I first went to my chiropractor (who is awesome by the way!!). I assumed that vaccinations were basic, consisting of only a few safe vaccines that were supported by research. My chiropractor who had chosen not to get vaccinations for his children and let me know that he encourages all to-be parents to become educated about the research and make any decision that makes sense for them. This sounded reasonable, given that not only am I a researcher, but I say the same thing to my students about research. I'll talk about this in another post, but what I found in my research on the topic was 1) this is a very complex issue (the number of shots that children get today number 49 before age 6, whereas it was only around 5 when I was young), 2) the research from both sides of the vaccination issue is incredibly flawed and 3) it is hard to find someone who just gives you the facts without bias. This book is a nice middle ground; he is skeptical of the research on both sides and attempts to give a balanced approach given his background in education, his understanding of public health issues and concerns as a parent as well.

If you read one book at all preparing for parenthood, read this one: Baby Hearts. This is a book that is written by two renown developmental psychologists on social and emotional skills for zero to three. AMAZING. This research is not intuitive for parents in our culture; we think we are doing babies a favor having them "cry it out" and creating independence in young infants. But the research is clear; young infants need attachment and to develop trust for healthy development. The other thing that is great about this books is that the authors explain how your parenting styles need to change with each child's different temperament. Not every baby comes into this world the same way. A lot of future behavioral and emotional problems in children can be prevented by focusing on social and emotional development from zero to three and paying attention to temperament. This is the only book I asked Mike to read and he enjoyed it as well. I can't say enough: READ THIS BOOK.

Written by the same authors is Baby Minds. This is a great one for understanding cognitive development. The final one in this series is Baby Signs, which presents the NIH-studied system of using simple baby signs to help infants and toddlers communicate before they can do so verbally. The well-done research on this program show that using baby signs encourages earlier communication (including verbal abilities), lower frustration for both parents and children, better relationships with parents and higher IQ scores at follow-up (8 years of age). The program and research was so convincing that I am actually training to become an Instructor. Great stuff!

This book, Itsy Bitsy Yoga, includes simple poses to help babies (newborns up to toddlers) sleep better, stop crying, digest better and develop physically. Great stuff and a way to bond with baby if you love yoga!

The final book I read, Baby Buddhas, gave some great ideas on meditating with young children. Fun way to connect with your children while teaching them compassion, spirituality and kindness.








I learned so much from these books and follow-up research; they helped me envision a meaningful pregnancy, birth and parenting experiences. I felt more educated, empowered and prepared than I thought I would be at first.