Reading Well for Families recommends reading to support parents and carers to look after their wellbeing in pregnancy and the early years (from conception to aged two). Some of the recommended books provide information and advice; there are also personal stories, illustrated books and poetry.
All these books from The Reading Agency are available to borrow with your library card.
The Little Book of New Mum Feelings
Anna Mathur
The Little Book of New Mum Feelings will share advice and support on issues that new mothers face, from A for Anger, to I for Insomnia, providing an empowering pep talk for those days when new mothers need it most.
Psychotherapist and mother of three, Anna Mathur, will support readers through the rollercoaster of feelings that come with being a new mum and provide expert advice based on her own professional and personal experiences. Whether you need some quick grounding, a note of compassion, or you want to untangle a feeling, flick to a page for a quick, uplifting moment of much-needed support.
Mindful New Mum: A Mind-Body Approach to the Highs and Lows of Motherhood
Dr Caroline Boyd
From birth to your baby’s first steps, this book will support you to open your heart to the highs and lows of mothering and adjust to your new role. It offers everyday meditations and visualisations, postnatal yoga, natural remedies, and nutritional advice to help you care for yourself with the same love and commitment you give your precious baby.
You the Daddy: The Hands-On Dad’s Guide to Pregnancy, Birth and the Early Years of Fatherhood
Giles Alexander
A modern-day parenting guide for dads-to-be, packed with insider tips, practical advice and honest accounts of dad life. Split into digestible chapters for readers who are short on time and need a helping hand, this book covers all the stages of pregnancy, birth and the early years of parenthood.
Autistic and Expecting: Practical Support for Parents-To-Be
Alexis Quinn
‘Autistic and Expecting’ is the first book of its kind to be written specifically for autistic parents, whilst also providing essential reading for health and social care practitioners, enabling them to provide reasonably adjusted care with the best outcomes for autistic people and their babies. Written by an autistic mother who experienced a mental health crisis following a poorly supported pregnancy and childbirth, she gives voice to the experiences of many autistic parents in order to address the issues they collectively and uniquely face.
OMG It’s Twins!
Alison Perry
This warm, reassuring book will guide you from the moment you find out, through the pregnancy, birth and beyond. Combining expert advice from midwives, psychotherapists, nutritionists, parenting experts and breastfeeding specialists and more with Alison’s own experiences, as well as relatable anecdotes from other twin mums, it addresses topics including accepting your changing body, the logistics of feeding two babies, and wondering whether you will ever sleep again! Filled with gorgeous illustrations and easy to digest chapters, this is the perfect gift for anyone who is expecting, or has just welcomed, two little bundles of joy.
Surviving Solo Motherhood
Emma Cotterill and Amy Rose
Whether you’re single by choice or not, becoming a single mother is mentally exhausting. And in a world where negative stereotypes are still rife, it can be difficult to ask for help. This is where ‘Surviving Solo Motherhood’ steps in, offering emotional support to single mothers of any aged child. Journalist Amy Rose and clinical psychologist Dr Emma Cotterill draw upon the lived experiences of the single parent community and look closely at the effect single-parent life can have on your mental health. Each chapter focuses on a different emotional state, and includes personal, lived experience an array of single mothers from various backgrounds, as well as psychological support and tools.
The Queer Parent: Everything You Need to Know From Gay to Ze
Lotte Jeffs and Stuart Oakley
LGBTQ+ people have more options than ever before when it comes to starting a family, but a lack of both focused information and mainstream representation can leave parents, prospective parents, friends and relatives in the dark.
Authors Lotte Jeffs and Stu Oakley spoke to dozens of experts and queer families, and this hugely-needed book is the product of those conversations and their own experiences of becoming parents through IUI and adoption respectively.
Nobody Told Me: Poetry and Parenthood
Hollie McNish
There were many things that Hollie McNish didn’t know before she was pregnant. How her family and friends would react; that Mr Whippy would be off the menu; how quickly ice can melt on a stomach. These were on top of the many other things she didn’t know about babies: how to stand while holding one; how to do a poetry gig with your baby as a member of the audience; how drum’n’bass can make a great lullaby. And that’s before you even start on toddlers. How to answer a question like ‘is the world a jigsaw?’; dealing with a ten-hour train ride together; and how children can be caregivers too. But Hollie learned. And she’s still learning, slowly.
Break Free From Maternal Anxiety: A Self-Help Guide for Pregnancy, Birth and the First Postnatal Year
Fiona Challacombe
Severe anxiety affects many women during pregnancy and after birth. This book will help you understand anxiety and guide your recovery using easy-to-follow evidence-based techniques. With clear examples and practical exercises to move through at your own pace, it provides the tools to help you move forward and enjoy parenthood.
Coping with Birth Trauma and Postnatal Depression
Lucy Jolin
Children are wonderful. That’s why we have them. But what about the negative feelings that are the flip side of motherhood? When you are bruised, battered or worse after the birth, and feel that life has been reduced to a cycle of feeding and changing; of lonely days and endless nights?
Many women feel traumatised by childbirth, with feelings of fear, guilt, anxiety, and symptoms such as flashbacks, nightmares and persistent memories of birth. This text explores how to cope with such feelings, and how to make a successful and happy adjustment to motherhood, even when it doesn’t come naturally at first.
How to Help Someone with Postnatal Depression
Dr Jenn Cooper
Specialist maternal mental health psychologist Dr Jenn Cooper first explains what PND is and what it might look like. In many cases, the initial challenge is identifying that your loved one is struggling with something more than the ‘baby blues’. Often mothers simply don’t have the capacity to notice that what they’re feeling is beyond the ‘normal’. So, that is where you, as their support system, come in – with the benefit of some distance and objectivity that will allow you to see more clearly whether mum might be struggling. Dr Cooper then moves on to equip you with practical strategies to help your loved one, drawing on insights from mums with lived experience of PND.
Hello Baby, Goodbye Intrusive Thoughts
Jenny Yip
Many parents envision pregnancy and birth as occasions for celebratory joy, but it can also be a difficult and demanding experience that leads many women to physical exhaustion, mental fatigue, and ultimately, chronic burnout. Yet, if you’re like many other women, you may also be struggling with fear, anxiety, and uncertainty. While women are regularly screened for and educated about postpartum depression at prenatal and postnatal care visits, most are not screened for anxiety or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). If you’re experiencing anxiety or OCD, this gentle guide can help you find peace from worry, get unstuck from scary thoughts, and start focusing on the beautiful journey ahead of you.
My Black Motherhood
Sandra Igwe
Black women are at higher risk of developing postnatal depression but are the least likely to be identified as depressed. Sharing the voices of other mothers, Sandra examines how culture, racism, stigma and a lack of trust in services prevent women getting the help they need. Breaking open the conversation on motherhood, race, and mental health, she demands that Black women are listened to, believed, and understood.
Sandra Igwe shares her journey as a young Black mother, coping with sleepless nights, anxiety and loneliness after the birth of her first daughter. Burdened by cultural expectations of the ‘good mother’ and the ‘strong Black woman’ trope, her mental health struggles became an uphill battle.
Why Birth Trauma Matters
Emma Svanberg
When we think about trauma and PTSD we tend to think about war and conflict. But around a third of women feel some part of their birth was traumatic. This experience can impact on their mental and physical health, their relationships and future plans. In this book, Dr Emma Svanberg, clinical psychologist and co-founder of Make Birth Better, explores what happens to those who go through a bad birth. She explains in detail how birth trauma occurs, examines the wide-ranging impact on all of those involved in birth, and looks at treatments and techniques to aid recovery.
Bonkers: A Real Mum’s Hilariously Honest Tales of Motherhood, Mayhem and Mental Health
Olivia Siegl
Born from Olivia’s post baby ramblings, her blog has now grown into something quite special, uniting thousands of mums worldwide; all supporting the ethos of not throwing another mum under the parental bus just because her choices are different to your own. If you are looking for a place you can rejoice in being your awesome mum self, a place to feel supported no matter what baby mess you happen to be covered in, a place to celebrate Motherhood no matter how ugly it gets – then you, my fabulous friend, are in the right place!
What Have I Done?: Motherhood, Mental Illness & Me
Laura Dockrill
Laura Dockrill had an idyllic pregnancy and couldn’t wait to meet her new baby. But as she went into labour things began to go wrong and Laura started to struggle. A traumatic birth, anxiety about the baby, sleep deprivation, a slow recovery – all these things piled up until Laura felt overwhelmed. As many as 8 out of 10 new mums struggle in the weeks after birth. In Laura’s case these feelings escalated scarily quickly into post-partum psychosis. She became paranoid and delusional and had to be institutionalised for a fortnight without her baby. Throughout this time she was haunted by a sense of: ‘What have I done?’. Laura’s experience was devastating but this is a hopeful book. Not only has Laura slowly recovered she has come out the other side stronger and more assured about parenting on her own terms.
Loving You From Here
Susan Clark
Loving You From Here explores the traumatic impact of losing a baby through stillbirth and neonatal death. It features the moving stories of multiple families; some affected recently, some decades ago, but still living with the loss. This book is a practical guide for grieving parents in the grips of tragedy, and those around them who want to be able to offer support. From managing those initial feelings of shock, grief, guilt and anger, this book will also show families how it is possible to grow around that grief and eventually form an enduring bond with their baby.
This groundbreaking book breaks through the suffocating silence that surrounds the death of a baby and gives a voice to all those affected by baby loss.
The Worst Girl Gang Ever
Bex Gunn and Laura Buckingham
Following pregnancy loss, it can feel like you’ve forgotten how to speak and need to learn a new language. You can tell your story to a room full of people but if no-one speaks this new language, they won’t understand. They will try but ultimately, they won’t fully grasp what you are saying.
We are here to tell you that you are entitled to grieve, and that your grief is not disproportionate to your loss. We are here to open up the dialogue around miscarriage, so we don’t perpetuate the shame, judgement and isolation so many of us feel following pregnancy loss. We are here to equip you with knowledge, tools and guidance to support and help you in whatever way you need.
No One Talks About This Stuff: Twenty-Two Stories of Almost Parenthood
Kat Brown
We hear from a stepmother who wrestles with infertility. A husband and wife each tell their experience of losing their baby. A lesbian comes of age at a time when gay people rarely become parents. A father finds loss to be his unlikely superpower. Complex post-traumatic stress disorder impacts a person’s choices about having a family. A black woman unpacks ancestral shame while finding renewed purpose. And each person shares how they lived through it. This captivatingly beautiful, profound and honest anthology opens a much-needed conversation about society, family and honouring the missing children we will never forget.
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