Books for Babymakers

We're well past the "top 10 gifts" list season, I know.

Good thing this list only has 4 entries then, huh?

Once again demonstrating their many similarities to puppies, babies aren't just for Christmas, so these books are as relevant now as they were two weeks ago or will be in 6 months. They're books for people planning babies, growing babies, birthing babies and raising babies to be the healthy, happy, robust little dirt-eaters they deserve to be. Personally I think this list of titles would make an outstanding wedding gift (you know who you are!).

1. Informative, entertaining, not too scary for the Real Food/ancestral health newbie, Deep Nutrition is my most recommended book for anyone, any time, babies or no. It talks about how food is the language with which our environment speaks to our bodies, and how we can optimise what it says to improve our health.
2. Probably the most out-there book on this list, I found Ina May Gaskin's Spiritual Midwifery to be extra-super hippyish when I read it while pregnant, and indispensible during labour. It's half textbook, half anthology of birth stories, but any book that can cut through the overwhelming physicality of childbirth to bring clarity of thought is a pretty amazing thing. Particularly if that clarity allows a natural birth to proceed in the face of proffered surgical interventions.
3. Food Renegade refers to Nina Planck's Real Food for Mother and Baby as "honest, witty, wise and optimistic". It covers pre-pregnancy through first foods, translating traditional fertility foods and breastfeeding practices into modern, attainable terms, including sound advice on how to avoid some of the common complaints of pregnancy by eating a traditional pregnancy diet. Is avoiding swollen ankles worth the price of the book? I say absolutely yes.
4. What to do with the wee things once they're eating, you know, food food? Nourished Kitchen just posted about this blogger book by Mommypotamus, and I've just ordered the PDF copy.

Ramiel Nagel has written two books of relevance to the parents of young children, and I understand that they are paradigm-shifting but I have not read them myself. For those who are interested, keep an eye out for Cure Tooth Decay.

Finally, if you're really ready to geek out on the ancestral reproductive health thing, or just prefer a more interactive delivery format than books can provide, I can't recommend the Beautiful Babies ecourse enough. It uses video, readings, and activities to pull together ecological, historical, nutritional, anthropological and physiological evidence on healthy baby making. For those who have well-thumbed copies of the books on this list sitting on their shelf or bedside table it may be mostly recap, but there will likely be something new, or a reminder of something forgotten. For anyone else, it's an accessible and comprehensive introduction to the subject.

You may have noticed that the links go to author websites wherever possible. I do not have affiliate links, and no one even knows I wrote this, let alone paid me for it. The opinions are my own.

Readers, what would you add to the list of essential resources for the newlywed or TTC real foodie in your life?