We’ve got your summer reading list sorted! Here’s the Baby Project’s pick of the best beach reading…
Eat Yourself Pregnant: Essential Recipes for Boosting Your Fertility by Zita West (Simon and Schuster, $29.99)
They call her the midwife to the stars (apparently Stella McCartney and Kate Winslet have all sought her advice), and one of the first pieces of advice Zita West gives her patients is that nutrition can make a huge difference to your fertility. In Eat Yourself Pregnant, she explains how equipping your body with essential nutrients can help your reproductive system prepare for a successful pregnancy. There’s a detox plan to cleanse your body of chemicals that can prevent conception, as well as a 10-week fertility-boosting program and delicious recipes. Shop the book here.
Mother Zen by Jacinta Tynan (Harlequin, $29.99)
In 2010, news presenter and journalist Jacinta Tynan sparked a media storm when she dared suggest in an article that parenting can be – gasp! – easy! For weeks, the parenting community was locked in passionate battle with many agreeing and others arguing that motherhood is an arduous and thankless task.
In Mother Zen, Jacinta opens up about her own experiences of motherhood, from being so sick with her first pregnancy that she was throwing up in between her on-air segments to her doubts about her ability to cope, as well as her struggle to parent ‘consciously’, using meditation and attempting mindfulness. Shop the book here.
Outback Midwife by Beth McRae (Random House, $22.99)
In Beth McRae’s 40 years as a midwife in the Australian outback she’s seen it all – and in Outback Midwife, she shares the stories of the women and the births in one of the most remote and dangerous regions in the world. Outback Midwife is fascinating not just because of the personal stories, but because it gives us a unique insight into how the business of birth in Australia has changed over the decades. Shop the book here.
Flesh Wounds by Richard Glover (HarperCollins, $29.99)
Think your family’s a little odd? Richard Glover’s favourite dinner party game is ‘Who’s Got the Weirdest Parents?’ – and it’s a game he reckons he will always win. In Flesh Wounds, we meet his mother, a deluded snob, who made up large swathes of her past and who ran away with Richard’s English teacher, a Tolkien devotee, nudist and stuffed-toy collector, as well as his father, a distant alcoholic, who ran through a gamut of wives, yachts and failed dreams. And then there’s Richard himself. Flesh Wounds is a beautifully crafted family memoir, and an insightful snapshot of 1970s Australia. Shop the book here.
