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A baby is on the way, or a pregnancy is pre-visioned. In either case, this is THE book. It is even good for expectant grandmas (present company included) who want a reminder of what is was like to give birth so they can empathize with waiting daughters.
Written by Tracy Gaudet, OB-GYN, who is Executive Director of Integrative Medicine at the Duke University School of Medicine, with a helping hand from North Carolina freelance writer Paula Spencer, this is an all-encompassing look at pregnancy and childbirth that takes into consideration such off-screen matters as “what if you didn’t plan to get pregnant?” and “how am I supposed to feel about this new pregnancy after going through a previous miscarriage?”
Encouraging mothers-to-be to engage in “dreamagery,” Gaudet invites them to “see” the baby in the womb, to imagine what it must be experiencing, and to mentally practice positive outcomes. Dreamagery is part of an up-to-the-minute take on modern medicine that goes under the general title CAM – complementary and alternative practices. While not solely focusing on CAM, the author makes it clear that she has worked with patients who were glad they accessed “the wider world of CAM.” Gaudet asserts that CAM “can often help with the garden-variety aches and pains of pregnancy in ways that go beyond the limitation of the average obstetrician’s tool bag.” CAM includes everything from massage, acupuncture and hypnosis, as well as dreamagery and whole foods nutrition.
Body, Soul, and Baby starts before pregnancy, with advice about getting there, earliest signs, the first doctor visit, to the postpartum enjoyment of mother-baby interaction. In between, the nervous mom and dad-to-be will find the latest scientific and medical facts to guide them in their thinking about what to eat, what sort of team to assemble for the baby’s birth, how to treat each other in this era in which couples customarily say “we’re pregnant.” Do you need a doula? What about sexual relations during pregnancy? Is “eating for two” a myth? What’s prenatal depression?
In the introduction, the author reminds us that “pregnancy is not a disease state…it is a wholistic experience.” Gaudet advises expectant couples to go on weekly dates where the anticipated birth is a focus for both partners. She thinks expectant parents should take at least 15 minutes a day to generate spiritual sustenance in whatever way suits them, right along with scheduling physical exercise and nutritional selection. Add such mindfully wholistic practices to the mass of knowledge this comprehensive book offers – kick counts, Apgars and the “seven cardinal movements” of the labor curve – and you have in Body, Soul, and Baby the makings of a baby-making bible, possibly the best book of the 21st-century generation of parents.
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Body, Soul, and Baby: A Doctor's Guide to the Complete Pregnancy Experience, From Preconception to Postpartum