My Birth Favorites

Part of a letter I wrote to one of my husband's co-workers. Stuff I'd recommend to anyone.

What qualifications do I have? Experience as a labor and delivery and postpartum nurse, birth assistant at homebirths, childbirth education in a medicaid clinic and hospital series, given birth two three children at home and freestanding birth centers with NO medication and NO complications, breastfed a cumulative 5.5 years.

Here are the books I have found most practical:
Sears and Sears The Pregnancy Book and The Baby Book.
Encouraging, detailed month by month, very helpful. The baby book you want in the middle of the night when a kid is sick. The book you want to prepare you for baby to come.
http://www.amazon.com/Pregnancy-Book-Month-Month-Everything/dp/0316779148/sr=8-1/qid=1168559693/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-5701533-8218507?ie=UTF8&s=books
Nursing Mother, Working Mother Gale Prior
http://www.amazon.com/Nursing-Mother-Working-Essential-Breastfeeding/dp/1558321179/sr=1-6/qid=1168559767/ref=sr_1_6/102-5701533-8218507?ie=UTF8&s=books
Birthing from Within by Pam England
Taking this class and this book totally prepared me and I had seen/helped @ 200 births. Makes you really think about what you want out of birth and what you are worried about.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b/102-5701533-8218507?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Birthing+from+Within&Go.x=11&Go.y=17&Go=Go
Ina May's Guide to Childbirth Ina May Gaskin
If you want to really know how it is, this gal tells the truth. Just good for the chapter on sphincter law...nobody else tells you this.
http://www.amazon.com/Ina-Mays-Guide-Childbirth-Gaskin/dp/0553381156/sr=1-2/qid=1168560355/ref=pd_bbs_2/102-5701533-8218507?ie=UTF8&s=books
Belly Laughs by Jenny McCarthy
So much funnier than girlfriends guide without the useless extras
http://www.amazon.com/Belly-Laughs-Naked-Pregnancy-Childbirth/dp/0738210072/sr=1-1/qid=1168562199/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-5701533-8218507?ie=UTF8&s=books
Websites I regularly visit:
www.drjaygordon.com Really EXCELLENT pediatrician, practical sleep ideas
www.kellymom.com can't go wrong with this breastfeeding information, could be easier to navigate, but it is up to date, research based and practical.
If you want to breastfeed, you will simplify your life and set yourself up for more success if you take a class or attend a few La Leche meetings before you have the baby. Take a class from someone who has actually breastfed, the more kids the better :) here is something to encourage you to give that baby your milk:
http://www.kellymom.com/newman/risks_of_formula_08-02.html
www.babycentre.co.uk
http://www.sheilakitzinger.com "She is the Earth Mother, or Birth Mother of the nation. If Britain is now one of the most progressive countries in obstetric practice, it is largely due to her"

Polly Toynbee, The Guardian

Things I would avoid:
Girlfriends guide to pregancy. Negative, bitchy, certainly not well researched.
What to Expect when you are Expecting (or, how to be psychotic about your diet and nervewracked about every choice you make)
Breastfeeding books written by doctors.
Lists of what you need to buy for the baby. Formulate your parenting philosophy first and don't let anyone tell you what you absolutely Have to get. Just like the advice in this little diatribe, it may not be right for you.