The Modern Midwife's Guide to Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond

by Marie Louise

‘Marie Louise is a dream come true for any parent with her uncanny ability to simplify the most important and complicated questions’Emma Bunton, co-founder of Kit and KinWhether you are planning for a baby, just found out you are pregnant or well into your third trimester, this book will help you to feel confident, informed and inspired about your exciting journey ahead.Through years of work with families, Senior Midwife Marie Louise reveals the key things that will make the biggest, most positive difference to you and your baby as you navigate these life-changing months. As well as this, Marie Louise is renowned for bringing complex science to life. You’ll discover fascinating facts that underpin everything you and your baby will go through, including -- How your nervous system is synced with your baby and why baby already knows a lot about you when they are born- The unique process your baby goes through to pass through the birth canal and how you work together in labour- Incredible facts about breast milkPacked with the most up-to-date findings and expert insights, you'll find everything you need to prepare for motherhood and, most importantly, understand and appreciate just how amazing you and your baby both are!

Genres: Nonfiction, Parenting, Self Help, Health, Audiobook, Science

363 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 5, 2020

About the author

Sydney-based Marie Louise has been a mother, daughter, lover, friend, business owner, sister and wife. She had the fortune to wake up to her truth, which has exposed a self far different to the one she has perceived before. This truth has exposed her to the power of choice, being and the human potential. Marie now shares her insights and experiences so others can be exposed to their potential and personal power. She is a dynamic speaker and story teller, she lives from the heart with passion and that guidance proves to be contagious. Learning self-love for world peace is something she is passionate about and sharing that is what she loves to do.

Reviews

[Jade · Rating 1 out of 5]

As a first time mum at 31, I was excited to read a book that would give me a medical overview of the changes to my body, how to ensure baby and I are healthy through pregnancy and read up more on my birthing options. I like to look at things from a scientific perspective, as I already have lots of people around me who have been willing to share their diverse personal experiences.

It started well and I thought great, a midwife who allows the parents to explore whats best for them and gives them all the options.......no she doesn't.

There is a clear undertone of an agenda or a preference of this midwife, natural births, hypnobirthing and breastfeeding seem to be what she gravitates towards. There is only a page and a half on c-sections and barely anything on choosing to bottle feed your baby.

Reading this book actually made me feel guilty for the choices I'm making for me and baby. I don't want to breastfeed and I want an elective c-section, my body my choice. This book just made me feel more anxious that the medical profession is going to talk me out of those decisions and force me to do something I don't want to.

I'll be standing my ground, but I was really disappointed with this book.

Edit for context in 2024- Son was born by general anaesthetic c-section in 2021, 60 hours after my waters broke, and contractions remaining at 7 minutes apart for that entire time, just getting stronger.
My body struggled to initiate established labour on its own.
It wasn't until 30 hours in i was given gas and air (despite repeated requests), and it was at 54 hours that an epidural was authorised.

This is all after being refused by my ACTUAL midwife to allow me to go through the assessment/paperwork for a c-section.

Ladies reading this who are pregnant: firstly congratulations!! and secondly, its your body so its your rules. DO NOT let them talk you out of your decision. Advocate fully for you and your baby and ensure your partner does, too, just in case it's necessary. Good luck!

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really helpful and informative book, covering pregnancy, birth and postnatal life as a new mum. Time will tell how practically useful this book is, but for now I'd say it really covers all the bases you might need from a book like this. The tone felt non-judgmental and supportive throughout, which really appealed. A few typos here and there throughout the text which were a bit irritating, but other than that I really enjoyed going through this, and can see myself revisiting this quite a lot in the future.

[Helena Champion · Rating 5 out of 5]

Little bit different, I’m currently 26 weeks pregnant and have been slowly reading this book. So helpful for first time mums all about pregnancy, birth and motherhood. It’s made me feel at ease and more seen.

[Enci · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is informative and actually helpful. I found that some books focus on an agenda a bit too much and lack helpful advice or information. Not this one! It is packed with tips and tricks, other resources, and focuses on the most important stuff - no in-your-face sales pitch of any product. I'll keep referring back to the book throughout my pregnancy and will recommend to other new mums.

[maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not pregnant, BUT I am interested in birth, and I wanted to read (listen to) a book that would give me the basics. While it didn't provide the technical scientific explanations I was craving, it did provide a lot of fundamental information that expecting parents should know. -1 star for the excessive British slang (e.g. referring to the urethra as a "wee hole"). Also definitely very skewed towards all "natural" births- did not cover much about C-sections, which I think would've helped as they are relatively common.

[Emma Crichton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full of really useful information for all three stages of being a new mama. Will definitely be dipping in and out of this again for many weeks to come!

[Georgie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This took me aaaages to get through just because it's a bit of information overload when you're about to be a first-time mum🤣

Having said that I thought the information was great

[Lisa Petzold · Rating 4 out of 5]

Especially good for UK references.

[Hazel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really informative. Only complaint is I wish there were more chapters.

[Harriet Wheeler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bit of an information overload, and some things were really spelt out whilst others completely assumed you would know about. But a good starter.

[Emily Carhan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that now lives on my nightstand to keep returning to in this journey.

[Sherri Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the content wasn’t really applicable to me since this is a UK based book. Not too much in here that I hadn’t already read somewhere else in more detail.

[Sinead · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best pregnancy/motherhood book I have read so far. She's coming from a NHS perspective so not everything was relevant.

Easy to read through and a lot of very practical advise.

Dropping a star for the nutrition advice, this part seems a bit dated (lemon water first thing in the morning + organic only, etc.)

[Kate · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book includes a very dangerous story of a 'positive' birth where a mother ignores medical advice from two consultant doctors and has a home birth anyway. Thank goodness that story had a happy ending but this is a very dangerous message to be promoting and I hope others reading this book will follow medical advice from experts rather than being persuaded by tales like this.

[Sophie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn’t enjoy this book at all. I persevered until the end but found it patronising, waffley and peppered with judgement. Wouldn’t recommend.

[Charlie Newell · Rating 4 out of 5]

In case this shows up on a newsfeed to any of my friends, this is not an announcement, I am not pregnant. I am on contraception. I wanted to read this to help my understanding of pregnancy and birth and make an informed decision as to whether I would want to go through it myself or not…
This book was really informative. As someone who has never been pregnant, I learned a lot. The book was broken down into easily digestible sections and covered a lot of content. The author is clearly very knowledgeable. I had lots of pre-conceived ideas of what I would want if I was ever pregnant, that from reading this I know to be very naive and it has changed my mind about some of those things. An example being I’d always thought that if I had a baby, I would want them to be cleaned up before being passed to me because on TV they always look gunky and it makes me feel a bit ill. However, I now understand about the benefits of skin to skin as soon as possible and that also that gunky stuff is a protective barrier that helps build a baby’s immune system up and keep them safe, so now I know this, I wouldn’t want what I originally thought I wanted. Also, I thought maternity leave would leave me free to watch a lot of box sets, but that naive expectation has thoroughly been corrected. Reading this way before I plan on having any children has for me, been exactly right. I couldn’t imagine having to have these major adjustments around expectations in the midst of actually being pregnant or having a baby as it would definitely be too much of a shock to manage and I would expect it would be even more difficult to regulate emotions and overwhelm. I’m sure I’m still naive, but less so as a result of reading this book.
I’m quite fastidious about books and writing. For this reason, I don’t feel like I can give it 5 stars as there are quite a lot of typographical errors, at least 7. It feels like it’s not been proof-read properly which is disappointing. Also I found some of the modern-day references for the timeframe around its print date a bit tacky and not likely to age well if the book is read in 10 year’s time. An example being ‘#blessed’. I know it’s because the author is human and relating to her audience, it’s just not my preference in a book, and you can’t please everyone.

[Eve Richardson · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a first time expectant mother, I naturally have a lot of questions and anxieties about the impending birth of my child. I am a firm believer that every baby and birth is different and that no new parent can ever truly be prepared for how much their life is about to change BUT that doesn’t mean you can’t seek out healthy and reliable sources of information to help educate yourself before baby is born.

This is the thought process that lead me to seek out some audiobooks on the subject of birth and parenting and I stumbled upon this guide by British midwife Marie Louise. I was drawn to this book because it covered pregnancy, birth and the newborn stage - all of which I have lots of questions about.

The tone in which Marie delivers the information is very conversational and non-judgemental and, as a midwife, she is able to use both her own experiences and the real life experiences of other mothers to both reassure and to educate. She doesn’t sugarcoat anything but rather explains things in a very informative and realistic way. I found the chapters about birth to be particularly useful as she addressed many common fears.

This book didn’t just focus on the physical and medical implications of birth and motherhood, there was also a big push on the mental health and well being of both mothers and partners. I really appreciated the advice about managing time and visitors during the first few weeks and the role of partners during this time.

Overall, this was a very accessible book with lots of practical advice which I would recommend to any other expectant mothers out there.

[Stace Chidgey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read from Pg 92 onwards - by the point I started I was close to birth, so skipped the early chapters on pregnancy and my review doesn't reflect those.

I finally found the UK/NHS based, informative no nonsense guide to pregnancy and birth that I was looking for and that was right for me. I loved this author's style and out of the pregnancy and birthing books I have read this was my favourite. I found it just in the nick of time at a local charity shop about 2 weeks before birth. It was one of those serendipity moments as it had been on my wish list to get and recommended to me, but I'd just not bought it and then I saw it there on the shelf waiting for me. I would recommend picking it up sooner so you can digest it fully and make use of all the chapters, but even speeding through it as I did, it was invaluable. I was reading it the week of my induction and have only just finished the chapters concerning the 4th trimester/postpartum period.

It is written by an NHS midwife and I found that really helpful as it was much more applicable to my circumstances, the process and what's on offer than some of the US based books I've read. It was brief and simple to understand, but full of helpful tidbits.

Despite it being such an important topic, there was a certain lightness to the author's approach and writing and you can tell she cares deeply about the experience of mothers. I felt she had a way of making you feel as confident and prepared for birth as possible and I'm really glad I picked it up.

[Marc Sebastian Head · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spoilers for 2024 I guess! My amazing wife and I are expecting our first baby this year, and I immediately purchased a range of baby books to start swotting up.

They say a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, and while both my wife and I are doctors and have done obstetrics and gynaecology rotations (I even delivered a baby!), we have both since specialised in mental health and those trainee jobs seem a very long time ago.

Obviously I am not really the target audience for these sorts of books (although thank you for mentioning the birth partner role throughout), and I will always agree with new mums seeking out as much information as possible, so this book already gets a pretty big tick or two just for existing.

I wouldn't say it is perfect. There seems to be a slant towards hypnobirthing and pool births, there are some birth stories where the mum has ignored medical advice and followed her intuition that I'm sure are meant to be empowering but border on irresponsible, and there are typos and missing words throughout - a minor issue I know, but suggestive of half-baked editing and a lack of polish.

But it covers everything, from finding out you are pregnant through to post-partum, and the advice and information is both realistic and reassuring. I imagine anyone reading this will likely be reading several others, as shall I, so my score may go up or down depending on how the others compare. But I would recommend this one for what it is worth.

[Aoife · Rating 5 out of 5]

One I've been reading on and off my entire pregnancy journey, I highly recommend this as a comforting, friendly read for anyone who is looking at a positive test thinking 'omg, I don't know anything!'

From early pregnancy symptoms and tips, to a deeper dive into pregnancy care, labour and birth and what you can expect from it all, I found Marie Louise's voice throughout just really nice and calming, and I can truly believe she must be an excellent person to have in a birthing room with you!

While I can't say for sure yet what parts really helped me for birth, I do feel confident with what I've learned in this book as well as grateful for aftercare tips and some newborn care tips as well that I can flick back through when I'm on the other side. I also have found some of the dad books pretty terrible so I have marked parts of this book for my husband to read (though will he get through the sections in the next 6 weeks, we will see!) as I think there are segments on labour, birthing partner tips and just postpartum and newborn care he would really benefit knowing.

[Raggy · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me this book was written at the level I needed. Enough information for being first time pregnant, but not so much or too technical as is overwhelm me. I did still have some questions but I can ask these to my midwife or follow up on the helpful links at the back of the books.

Personally I find the core message of looking after yourself, trusting your instincts, and not comparing yourself to others as a helpful reminder and guide throughout this journey.

I did have one rather unfortunate/funny interruption to my reading of this book though. During my first trimester anything new from the outside made me feel sick, so I had to wait and come back to this in the second trimester. It is funny what the body decides it wants you to avoid :P

[Flo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful, positive book that spans from the beginning of pregnancy to the first few months with a newborn. I found the tone of this quite reassuring and would say that it reduced anxiety, rather than causing panic as some pregnancy books seem to! There was quite a lot of scary information about chemicals in products, food and the environment which isn't something that the NHS website seems too worried about and could perhaps cause more anxiety amongst pregnant women around something they can't really control. Overall though I found this really helpful and I feel more confident and knowledgeable about birth and babies!

[Neil Pearson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really useful reference for the uninitiated and definitely worth having a copy of if only to remind yourself of the useful checklists.
Does a great job of convincing the reader/parents and most especially the mum of their options and rights and how midwifery and pregnancy aren't closely guarded secrets.
There's a few sections that feel a bit too "new age/alternative" for my comfort but appreciate the thoroughness and how some may find those elements useful. The vast majority is based on science, medicine, evidence and psychology/mindset.
Definitely worth a read as I'd be surprised if you finish without learning something new or useful.

[Book Trail ASMR · Rating 5 out of 5]

Personally I feel like this is a book that every pregnant woman should read! It's so insightful, especially as it's written by a midwife in the NHS. It's really good at giving information without seeming preachy, biased or judgy, for all aspects of pregnancy and child birth.

As I move into my third trimester and closer to labour, I'll definitely be picking this up again to refresh my memory, and am sure i'll also be referring back once the baby is here!

I've already recommended this to my pregnant friends, and highly recommend this to anyone wanting to unpick the myriad of opinions out there!

[Anusmita Mazumder · Rating 5 out of 5]

When faced with complex situations, I often turn to books for guidance.
Yes, execution is a lot different than it seems on paper but approaching the situation knowing what to expect always helps in dealing with it in a calm and composed way.
Pregnancy was no exception. And this book was a gem 🥹 From the hows and whys of everything pregnancy and postpartum, to the comfort of assurances that every baby is different and there's no such thing as a bad mother, this book was like a friend along for the ride 🙂

[Molly Looby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a great read! Marie Louise writes in such an easy to understand way. I didn't feel overwhelmed or like there was too much to take in. It is written in such a friendly way too, no judgement. It was very comforting to read.
It was separated into three sections which made it so much easier to find what I was looking for. But it was so readable and interesting I ended up reading it cover to cover anyway!
I will definitely be re-reading this!

[Eleanor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the holistic approach that uses both scientific reason and other emotional factors too. I thought it was really well formatted and I found the postpartum section an interesting one. I feel like there could have been more checklists/easy to find section or possibly have these all at the back? Just because I know I’m going to be flicking through again at eat stage (a testament to how useful I found the book though)

[Ami Shirley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love it! Informative and really positive without being overwhelming.
Summarises the important information and recommends how to prepare in various ways without being too detailed, or old fashioned, like some other books I’ve read (= will be giving away What to Expect asap - hated that one, by comparison).
Easy to pick up and put down, with suggestions for resources and lists/diagrams for How Tos. Will be re-reading and using as a reference.

[Dannie Lam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I put off reading this book after seeing the very few negative reviews, but ended up reading it on someone’s recommendation. I enjoyed it! It felt like what I imagine you’d learn on an antenatal course. I made some notes and definitely took some things away from it. The only reason I’m giving it 4 instead of 5 stars is that I personally found the end chapters a bit irrelevant/non-specific, but I’d 100% recommend this book!

[Zana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very useful information for a first time parent. The tone is positive, educational, without being patronising. I also liked the fact that it paints a real picture of pregnancy and motherhood, without making it look perfect. A lot of the information was shared in our antenatal course, but reading the book is better as it’s more affordable.