If you only read one pregnancy and birth book, I’d start here.It’s a brilliant confidence boost for anyone who is pregnant, and an even better one to read with your partner! Milli Hill has a brilliant way of taking what can feel like a completely overwhelming mountain of information and making it accessible, warm, funny and  most importantly - empowering.The Positive Birth Book covers choices, rights, birth preparation, different types of birth, interventions, caesarean birth, breastfeeding and the early weeks. The updated edition also includes information around postnatal mental health and your rights in pregnancy and birth.What I particularly love is that it doesn't tell you that you need to achieve some mythical “perfect” birth. Instead, it encourages you to understand your options and think about what a positive birth means to YOU. And that is exactly where I want you to start.

Particularly good if you're feeling anxious about birth or want some practical techniques to practise during pregnancy. If the word ‘hypnobirthing’ makes you picture someone whispering “you are a beautiful floating cloud” while you breathe through a contraction…stay with me.Siobhan Miller's approach is much more practical than that.Her book explores how understanding birth physiology, reducing fear, using breathing and relaxation techniques, and preparing your mind can help you feel calmer and more confident going into labour. And here's the thing- You don't have to be planning a particular type of birth to benefit from these tools.Breathing, relaxation, visualisation, understanding what is happening in your body and having practical tools for coping, are useful skills whatever your birth ends up looking like.Take the bits that work for you. Leave the rest.

Oh, Sara.If you have ever found yourself thinking: “But what actually IS the evidence for this?”You'll probably love her! In my opinion, any resource from Dr Sara Wickham is essential reading for anyone who wants to feel more confident asking questions and making genuine informed choices.‘What's Right For Me?’ is all about making informed decisions around maternity care rather than simply being handed a list of recommendations and expected to nod along.And this is a REALLY important distinction.Being informed doesn't mean refusing everything. It doesn't mean accepting everything.It means understanding your options, considering the evidence, thinking about your own circumstances and values, and then making a decision that feels right for YOU.Because your maternity care isn't a conveyor belt. You're a person.

This one is going to make some people uncomfortable. Good.‘In Your Own Time’ looks specifically at induction of labour, the evidence surrounding due dates and “post-term” pregnancy, and the way modern maternity care can influence when labour begins. It is particularly useful if you're approaching the end of pregnancy and suddenly find yourself hearing phrases like:“Your baby is getting too big.”“We don't want you going over.”“We need to get this baby out.”This book helps you understand the evidence so that you can have much more informed conversations about induction and waiting for spontaneous labour.Read it before you desperately need it, because it is much easier to make decisions when you're calm, informed and not standing in a hospital corridor at 41+6 feeling like the clock is ticking.

This is an oldie but an absolute goodie, and a brilliant reminder that informed consent isn't a nice extra- it is fundamental.‘Am I Allowed?’ is all about rights and options during pregnancy and birth, and the title itself says SO much about the culture surrounding maternity care. “Am I allowed?”-  Why are we asking that?Why are so many women made to feel that they need permission to make decisions about their own bodies? AIMS has since replaced this book with The AIMS Guide to Your Rights in Pregnancy & Birth, but Beverley Beech's work remains hugely important in understanding the bigger conversation around autonomy, consent and maternity rights.

If ‘Am I Allowed?’ makes you question your rights, this is the updated version to reach for.AIMS describes this guide as a resource to help people understand their rights, choices and informed consent within maternity care. It also explains how to navigate decisions and, where necessary, the complaints process.This is one of those books I would genuinely love every pregnant person to have access to.Because knowing what your rights are before you're in a pressured situation is very different from trying to work them out in the middle of it. Read it. Highlight it. Give it to your birth partner.It’s not exactly a fluffy bedtime read- but a bloody important one.

Birth partners: THIS ONE IS FOR YOU!Don't just turn up with snacks and a phone charger. (Although snacks and a phone charger are still excellent.)‘The Birth Partner’ is a practical guide to supporting someone through labour and birth, covering what happens during labour, comfort measures, pain relief, caesarean birth, breastfeeding and newborn care. Your partner doesn't need to be the person who “fixes” birth. They need to be the person who understands what is happening, knows how to support you, knows your preferences and can advocate for you when you're busy doing the enormous job of giving birth.I would strongly recommend that pregnant people read it with their birth partner, not just hand it over and hope for the best.

An absolute classic.Originally published decades ago, Grantly Dick-Read's Childbirth Without Fear explores the relationship between fear, tension and the experience of labour, alongside his ideas around physiological birth. It is historically fascinating and worth reading as part of the wider conversation about how you understand birth.It is particularly interesting when you look at how ideas about fear, pain, confidence and the mind-body connection have influenced birth preparation over generations.

One for the physiology nerds.Dr Rachel Reed's work is brilliant for anyone who wants to understand birth as a physiological process rather than simply a series of medical events.Her work challenges some of the assumptions we've absorbed about what labour “should” look like and encourages us to think about how the environment, hormones, support and interventions can influence the physiology of birth.If you've ever wondered: “But what is my body actually trying to do here?”- this is your kind of reading.Particularly good if you're interested in physiological birth, midwifery and understanding the bigger picture rather than simply learning a list of interventions.

Now we're moving beyond birth.Because here's something we don't talk about nearly enough: Having a baby doesn't just change your life. It changes YOU.Matrescence explores the profound physical, psychological, social and emotional transformation that happens as we become mothers. Lucy Jones draws on research, science, sociology, philosophy and her own experiences to explore this enormous transition. And I really  wish we'd talk about this more!Because sometimes women are told they're struggling because they're not coping well enough. When actually… perhaps we're expecting someone to go through one of the biggest transformations of their entire life and then casually “get back to normal” in six weeks. There is no normal. There is becoming.Read this one during pregnancy, but particularly keep it for postpartum.

Don't read these books because you're trying to guarantee a particular birth.Read them because you deserve to understand your options.Read them because knowledge can make you feel less frightened.Read them because your birth partner needs to understand what you're talking about.Read them because your postpartum experience deserves just as much preparation as your labour.Read them because you are not a passenger in your own maternity care.And please, please remember:An informed birth isn't necessarily a birth where everything went according to plan.Sometimes the most informed decision is to change the plan. Sometimes birth takes a  completely unexpected turn, sometimes intervention is exactly what you need, and sometimes- it isn't.Sometimes you will make a decision with the information you have at the time and later think, “I would do that differently now.” - That doesn't make you a failure- It makes you human.So, I encourage you to- read, ask questions, get curious, talk, challenge things. Understand your rights, and know your options.And then go into your birth confident that you deserve to be heard, respected and involved in the decisions about your own body.