Pregnancy The Naked Truth - a refreshingly honest guide to pregnancy and birth

by Anya Hayes

the naked truth is a refreshing alternative to the medical pregnancy tomes. It is down-to-earth, funny and honest, guiding women through each stage of pregnancy in a practical and reassuring way. It deals with issues other books may avoid, and answers questions you’d want to ask your best

Aimed at ‘modern girls’ – women who may be concerned about the effect of a baby on their lifestyle, bodies and careers, as well as excited about the next step in their lives – the book supports you through your pregnancy journey.

Genres: Parenting, Nonfiction

290 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 27, 2016

Reviews

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been reading a lot of pregnancy books lately and I found this one as a good general pregnancy book. The book is broken down into 11 Chapters; You're Pregnant, The Joys of Pregnancy, Womb With A View, Care Instructions, Office Politics, Hit and Missionary, Delivery Schedule, Ready for Take-Off, Labour Days, Birth Stories and Hey, Baby!

This book goes through a lot of general information, from finding out you are pregnant and what to expect during your prenatal care to the symptoms of pregnancy and how to manage them. There are chapters on what to avoid during pregnancy, how to adjust to working while pregnant, labor and delivery and newborn care. This book is written by a UK author, so I would probably wouldn't recommend this book for women in the US because a lot of the information presented goes along with the NHS and doesn't apply to women here. However, all the general information on pregnancy and self care is obviously useful to anyone. Overall, a good general guide for pregnancy and delivery.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me an ARC.

[Liefie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was pretty much pregnant/breastfeeding in one big blur for four years when I had my 3 children. During the first pregnancy, I cursed the fact that pregnancy books were either too hippy dippy for me - not realistic at all about the negative sides of incubating a living being - or else they were just a non-stop barrage of facts and figures and official recommendations, with no real-life or common sense input. My other complaint was that it was difficult finding a book that centered around the UK in terms of antenatal/postnatal care. It is all very well getting your info from the NHS website, but reading about firsthand experience is so much more informative and useful.

I enjoyed reading this book. It is written in a very approachable conversational style and treats the reader as an adult who is perfectly capable of making informed decisions, and needs facts - not patronising. The non-judgemental, frank tone on topics such as feeding and birth method will be very helpful to expectant moms who will be subjected to enough of a barage of other people's opinions about what consitutes the "perfect" birth, etc. Simlarly, the way that miscarriage and traumatic birth is spoken about as something to be open about, is invaluable.

The information and guidance provided are clear and accurate - warts (and piles) and all. If you live in the UK, first-hand information is provided on the antenatal and postnatal care you can expect to receive. The contact information for various organisations provided at the back of the book is also very useful indeed and I liked the recommendations of further reading, such as Ina May's book, which I only discovered during pregnancy number 3.

My only criticism would be that the book could do with some graphics/pictures/illustrations as it is very text-heavy.

Thank you to the publisher, authors and netgalley for my copy. This is an honest review.

[Donna Maguire · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am currently 26 weeks pregnant and expecting my first baby, and its a little girl! I loved this book!!! Will definately getting a physical copy to keep and refer back too, I learnt a lot. I loved the layout, the real life experiences and comments from mums and the relaxed way it was written made me feel less pressure about the weeks ahead and the impending birth! Great book - 5 stars

[Belinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read a LOT of pregnancy and parenting books and I really liked this one. It was very informative but was very user friendly- like an experienced friend was giving advice about the ins and outs of pregnancy. Would definitely recommend this one to any woman who is pregnant or planning on becoming pregnant.

Thanks kindly to Crimson Publishing, the authors and Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book.

[Martha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is written in a clear and practical way and contains some helpful information that I think I would refer back to.

There were some things I wasn’t a fan of:
- it was horribly gendered. The baby was called ‘he’ far more than ‘she’ (there’s seriously nothing wrong with ‘they’ pronouns, why do we need to pick?!), and while ‘partner’ was used quite often in an effort to be gender neutral, it still defaulted into describing the stereotypical characteristics of male partners in most places (eg. pregnancy making you gassy so you’ll fart more than him etc)
- I didn’t love the whole premise of this book being presented as ‘truth’ - pregnancy is so variable because every pregnant person and every baby is different, so truth is pretty subjective here!
- In my opinion it tipped the balance from being ‘refreshingly honest’ to being pretty brutal in places. It’s helpful to understand a lot of what is likely to happen, but to be honest it got to the point of being an absolute horror show. Every different type of birth (spontaneous vaginal, induction, assisted, C-section) had so many horrible things about it, I was left feeling even more terrified of birth than I was before! Not to mention all the stuff that happens after. I don’t want to be treated with kid gloves, and I see the huge benefits of being aware of these things, but I think the framing could have been more supportive / gentle in places to help readers come away feeling a bit more reassured rather than absolutely terrified. Perhaps more statistics to contextualise how many people experience each thing (to tackle the fear that it’s all inevitable), more stories from people who had an easier pregnancy / birth to balance out the horror stories? Coupled with my point above about this book supposedly being the ‘truth’, it has the potential to really scare a lot of people - this book will be bought by people who are likely already pregnant, the baby’s already in there so it has to come out, so helping them feel safe and confident is pretty important at this point!

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

While clearly written for British expectant mothers because of the information about the NHS system, I found it really informative and helpful. Even as a second time mom, I learned more about pregnancy and childbirth. I liked the way it was broken down by topic. I read this book over the course of many months as I went through my pregnancy, reading one chapter at a time. While I'm not sure I'd recommend the book to an American mom, I would recommend it overall. *received free through NetGalley, opinions are my own*

[Tamara · Rating 4 out of 5]

On a second read (having gone through pregnancy already), I found this book less helpful. Still funny and informative nevertheless! (if I were to rate it again this time I'd go for 3 stars so I have updated my original 5 stars to a rounded 4).


A very honest, gritty look at pregnancy and birth. But also very informative from a UK based perspective, I learnt a lot from this book, I loved the case studies, focus on science and just good old fashioned up to date information about procedures and pregnancy approaches.