Book recommendations for fellow anatomy geeks

TheThornBird

Hey!

I've been reading these absolutely fascinating books on the pelvis & giving birth, and wanted to recommend them to anyone else who is interested in the whole crazy process of giving birth and what they can do to make it easier. 

The ones I've been studying are "The Female Pelvis" and "Preparing for a Gentle Birth", both by Blandine Calais-Germain, and "Pelvic Power" by Eric Franklin. The first two are birth-specific and are amazing. "Female Pelvis" is about the preparation you can do while pregnant, and "Preparing" is about how to actually give birth. As a caution, they aren't prescriptive, as in "do 3 sets of exercises XYZ and these four positions while you give birth". Rather, they go through the anatomy of the pelvis in great detail, and explain how different exercises, movements, and positions affect the various bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments, organs, and the baby itself. A lot of time is spent learning about your own pelvis in particular- feeling all the bones, isolating different muscles, seeing how different positions affect your own pelvis, etc. It's really, really, really cool stuff (if you're a nerd like me!). I highly recommend both if you can get them, but be prepared to do a lot of reading a work on your own. Like I said, it's way more comprehensive than just telling you which exercises to do. 

"Pelvic Power" isn't specific to birth- it's mostly written for dancers and other types of movement- but it has some good information on how the pelvis works. It focuses a lot on different visualizations (which is Franklin's thing, he develops visualization techniques for dancers) and how to move in every day life. Not absolutely crucial for pregnancy/birth, but I've enjoyed Franklin's other books and like this one as well. If you're into dance or any other type of movement (pilates, yoga, etc), you'll probably enjoy it. 

There are a ton more books on my wish-list (such as the ones by Frederick Leboyer), although I don't know how many I'll actually get through now that it seems to be crunch time. If I pick up anymore that are worthwhile, I'll be sure to post a recommendation. 

Any other dorks out there have books to recommend?

amberraysofdawn

Love this thread idea! I might have to check out those books. As someone who is both a pregnant person and a former dancer, I'm interested in all three.  

I have The Pregnant Body Book, which is an (extreeeeemely) illustrated guide detailing conception to birth. I love it because it gives me a very clear visual idea of what exactly is happening to my body as it's happening, and there is week-by-week information on both mom & baby (including in-utero pictures for reference!). It's not just illustrations - there's a LOT of reading involved - but it's more informative about a lot of stuff than some of the other pregnancy books I've read so far. 

The only thing I don't like about it is the section at the end, which has information about things that can potentially go wrong in pregnancy/l&d. It makes sense for it to be in there, and it can help you to be more prepared...but it might also be potentially triggering/anxiety inducing. I've mostly just ignored that chapter and stuck with the week-by-week updates and all that jazz, because reading about all the things that could happen just make me more nervous. 

There's also some (basic) information on things like birth control, various labor techniques, fetal testing, etc, but it's presented pretty straight up without being overwhelming and biased. 

I used to work in a public library, and this was the most checked-out pregnancy book we had (we seriously had to order like four extra copies and they were rarely on the shelf for very long), which is how it came to be on my radar. It's definitely been my favorite purchase so far in terms of pregnancy books. I've been keeping it on my nightstand so I can read each update on Tuesday night in preparation for my Wednesday ticker change. 

Am looking forward to seeing what anybody else may recommend!!