Jessica Worland—jessicaworland.com

Editor’s note: This article first appeared in Midwifery Today, Issue 131, Autumn 2019.
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Go Ahead, Stop and Pee by Kate Mihevc Edwards and Blair Green. 2019. (Self-published, $22.99, 272 pages, softcover.)

Whether you are a runner who is pregnant or thinking about getting pregnant, or you have clients who like to run, this is the book to answer all of your questions. Written by two physical therapists, and using the stories of real people, the book covers pregnancy and the postpartum period. According to the authors, women who are active find recovery from pregnancy easier than those who are not. The book includes descriptions of the changes the female body goes through during and after pregnancy, useful exercises, breathing, myths about running during this time, when to start running again, potential injuries and how to avoid them, and much more. The exercises for preparing to run and geared to regaining strength would be helpful for any postpartum woman, running or not.

Titles of Note

A is for Advice (The Reassuring Kind): Wisdom for Pregnancy by Ilana Stanger-Ross. 2019. (New York: William Morrow, $16.99, 144 pages, hardcover.)

Billed as a feminist guide to help new mothers-to-be and their partners enjoy the experience of becoming parents, this small, humor-filled book is a good tonic. The midwife author takes us through the alphabet with good advice on various topics that come up during pregnancy, birth, and parenting. There is even an attached bookmark and room for notes in the back.

Mother: An Unconventional History by Sarah Knott. 2019. (UK: Penguin, £14.99, 336 pages, hardcover.)

Whether you choose to read from cover to cover or just randomly open to a page, this book covers a wide-ranging number of topics that fit under the umbrella of “mother.” The author compares her experiences of mothering with how mothering was done in past eras and in different locations and finds a great diversity of opinions and lived experience.