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Baby Love: Everything You Need to Know about Your New Baby
Expert advice from a registered nurse-midwife on caring for baby from birth through the first year of life.
630 pages, Paperback
First published October 7, 1999
About the author
Robin Barker
16 books4 followersRobin Barker, retired registered nurse, midwife and child and family health nurse, is the author of Australia’s baby care classics, Baby Love and The Mighty Toddler. Close to Home is her first book of fiction.
Robin lives surrounded by her family in Sydney, near a famous beach where she swims out beyond the break several times a week.
Robin lives surrounded by her family in Sydney, near a famous beach where she swims out beyond the break several times a week.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
July 10, 2015
I am the author of this book. I am only giving it one star because this is the US edition published in 2002 and is seriously out of date.
Baby Love was first published in Australia in 1994 and since then I have done 6 editions and many revisions. The last edition was in 2013.
I was persuaded to do a US edition in 2001 a decision I now regret as Baby Love has not sold well in the US. Consequently, this edition keeps being dumped on the Australian market for a cheaper price. I know that many Australian readers end up with this edition not realising what they are buying.
My US publishers, Rowman & Littlefield, will not agree to publishing a new edition but nor will they let it die. It seems it ticks along enough for them to keep reprinting it.
This is extremely frustrating for me and I advise all potential purchasers of my books to look for the Australian 2013 print book edition of Baby Love, published by Pan Macmillan, Australia or the 2014 e-edition published by Xoum, Australia.
Baby Love was first published in Australia in 1994 and since then I have done 6 editions and many revisions. The last edition was in 2013.
I was persuaded to do a US edition in 2001 a decision I now regret as Baby Love has not sold well in the US. Consequently, this edition keeps being dumped on the Australian market for a cheaper price. I know that many Australian readers end up with this edition not realising what they are buying.
My US publishers, Rowman & Littlefield, will not agree to publishing a new edition but nor will they let it die. It seems it ticks along enough for them to keep reprinting it.
This is extremely frustrating for me and I advise all potential purchasers of my books to look for the Australian 2013 print book edition of Baby Love, published by Pan Macmillan, Australia or the 2014 e-edition published by Xoum, Australia.
September 1, 2011
A major flaw with this book is that it is not up to date with safety information. For example, it recommends a quilt on an infant's bed, which goes against Sids and Kids advice (http://www.sidsandkids.org/safe-sleep...). This means that I would not use the book as my sole resource.
The other thing that that I disliked was the inherent sexism. The author states at the beginning that she will not refer to the parent, but only to the mother, because in her experience dads don't do as much as mums, and surveys show that women still do more housework than men. Surely this means that men should be encouraged to do more rather than left out entirely?! Ironically, my beautiful partner is more excited to read the baby books than I am, because he plans on being an extremely hands on father.
Yes, the book contains no-nonsense, straight forward advice, but sometimes life is more complicated than that. Sure, if you're a midwife for 25 years, there may be absolutely no difference between nappies, but if you have one baby with terrible nappy rash or eczema, it could make all the difference in the world. Sure, many women have safely drunk alcohol while breastfeeding, but why encourage it when its so easy to express milk or even not drink?
Even with these flaws, the book contains some excellent and thorough advice, such as the guide to breastfeeding problems and guide to how long you can keep expressed milk for, so I will definitely keep it and refer to it again.
The other thing that that I disliked was the inherent sexism. The author states at the beginning that she will not refer to the parent, but only to the mother, because in her experience dads don't do as much as mums, and surveys show that women still do more housework than men. Surely this means that men should be encouraged to do more rather than left out entirely?! Ironically, my beautiful partner is more excited to read the baby books than I am, because he plans on being an extremely hands on father.
Yes, the book contains no-nonsense, straight forward advice, but sometimes life is more complicated than that. Sure, if you're a midwife for 25 years, there may be absolutely no difference between nappies, but if you have one baby with terrible nappy rash or eczema, it could make all the difference in the world. Sure, many women have safely drunk alcohol while breastfeeding, but why encourage it when its so easy to express milk or even not drink?
Even with these flaws, the book contains some excellent and thorough advice, such as the guide to breastfeeding problems and guide to how long you can keep expressed milk for, so I will definitely keep it and refer to it again.
July 1, 2025
Nice and informative, it was recommended by my doctor and is one of the two books I’ve bought on the subject. It’s not the most fun, easy, or light read, but it’s definitely detailed and practical. I found myself highlighting a lot throughout, and I hope it’ll be a helpful reference when the time comes to actually put all of it into practice.
March 2, 2010
Brilliant. No nonesense straight forward advice. Reminding me of everything I've forgotton.
August 15, 2010
Invaluable!
May 22, 2012
This book saved our sanity in the first 4 months
we have the fully revised updated version and it is fantastic
we have the fully revised updated version and it is fantastic
October 29, 2017
This book is fantastic. What strange-arse thing is your infant doing... look up index, find page, read that it's normal. Move on.
February 1, 2023
A friend living in Australia gifted me the 2013 Australian edition of this book when I had my first child, and this book is such a useful, reassuring, comprehensive, and practical guide that I'm re-reading it after having my newest newborn. This is partly because I'm so sleep deprived that I can't remember things from the first time around and partly because I forgot to write a review for this book when I read it the first time and want to write an accurate review this time.
I like this book's general philosophy that there are many ways to raise a healthy, happy baby, and the key is finding what works best for you and your specific baby. The author is honest about situations where there isn't a straightforward solution (like how to settle a crying baby) and sets some realistic expectations (e.g., newborns have to learn how to sleep for long stretches and different babies learn this skill at different rates), so you're not stressing yourself out about being a "bad" parent because your baby keeps crying no matter what you do, isn't sleeping through the night by 12 weeks, etc. It's well-organized so it's a helpful reference for when I'm trying to figure out very specific things (like how many ounces of breast milk should I pump if I'm going to be away for a certain number of hours). Yes, it's a bit outdated in terms of its gender pronouns and safe sleep (e.g., newest guidelines recommend no loose blankets), but for a book that came out 10 years ago, the majority of the info is still relevant.
I like this book's general philosophy that there are many ways to raise a healthy, happy baby, and the key is finding what works best for you and your specific baby. The author is honest about situations where there isn't a straightforward solution (like how to settle a crying baby) and sets some realistic expectations (e.g., newborns have to learn how to sleep for long stretches and different babies learn this skill at different rates), so you're not stressing yourself out about being a "bad" parent because your baby keeps crying no matter what you do, isn't sleeping through the night by 12 weeks, etc. It's well-organized so it's a helpful reference for when I'm trying to figure out very specific things (like how many ounces of breast milk should I pump if I'm going to be away for a certain number of hours). Yes, it's a bit outdated in terms of its gender pronouns and safe sleep (e.g., newest guidelines recommend no loose blankets), but for a book that came out 10 years ago, the majority of the info is still relevant.
November 2, 2024
I am writing this review based on the most recently published version of this book in 2013.
Here’s the thing, as a general index or list of things that might occur during your baby’s first year of life I think this book can be helpful and an okay place to start. However, there is still even newer information since 2013 that contradicts some of the advice given in this book therefore still making the 2002 and 2013 version absolutely out of date.
Some things I noticed:
- recommendation of blankets in cribs
- suggested solids as early as 4 months
- suggesting changing a baby’s (!) diet if they are “heavy”
- saying that co-sleeping is unsafe which is not true
Further to that, the way it’s written feels very much like opinion and not fact with very little being cited or even referenced in scientific way. While I know there is suggested reading and citation it doesn’t feel like the presenting of facts but rather opinion.
I think if you’re reading ONE parenting book don’t let it be this one. If you’re looking for a general place on where to start and what to possibly expect before diving into those topics more deeply with a more up to date secondary book, it’s possible this could still be helpful.
Here’s the thing, as a general index or list of things that might occur during your baby’s first year of life I think this book can be helpful and an okay place to start. However, there is still even newer information since 2013 that contradicts some of the advice given in this book therefore still making the 2002 and 2013 version absolutely out of date.
Some things I noticed:
- recommendation of blankets in cribs
- suggested solids as early as 4 months
- suggesting changing a baby’s (!) diet if they are “heavy”
- saying that co-sleeping is unsafe which is not true
Further to that, the way it’s written feels very much like opinion and not fact with very little being cited or even referenced in scientific way. While I know there is suggested reading and citation it doesn’t feel like the presenting of facts but rather opinion.
I think if you’re reading ONE parenting book don’t let it be this one. If you’re looking for a general place on where to start and what to possibly expect before diving into those topics more deeply with a more up to date secondary book, it’s possible this could still be helpful.
August 11, 2021
I haven’t yet found THE perfect baby book but this one would be my pick for most Australian parents, grandparents and carers from my reading so far. Regardless of your style or philosophy of parenting this book is filled with practical information based on science and concrete examples. The author debunks all the myths and nonsense and gets straight to the (latest) facts. She also tries to make her advice broad and flexible to fit parents with alternative parenting styles. She explains where the limits are so parents don’t do anything dangerous and/or illegal. I adored that she doesn’t judge parents while reiterating that many different styles of parenting can work as long as it suits you and baby is loved, safe and healthy.
October 9, 2019
This book was an excellent read and reference for the first year of my baby's life. What I liked was that the author tried to make her advice broad and flexible as possible, without being held to any one parenting philosophy, yet she also provided concrete examples of what to do, if you so desired. In particular, I found her meal plans to be useful when trying to figure out what to feed my baby, and also the discussions about sleep. I liked how a lot of advice for specific problems essentially went 'I've never found this to be useful, but there's no harm in trying it if you wish'.
October 25, 2017
I haven’t found the perfect baby book but this is my pick for Australian parents. It has good information regardless of your approach to parenting and I particularly liked the parts on “all the weird things about your baby that you don’t need to worry about because they’re normal” - otherwise I would have worried!
November 11, 2017
Kept getting sucked in to referring to this one because everyone swears it's the Australian baby bible. But I found it sexist, old-fashioned and outdated. It gave me the sads. Also, it's complete bullshit that baby is not in pain when teething.
August 23, 2019
The Only baby book I finished
I tried reading a few baby books and found them all so boring.
This one was very good and straight to the point.
I started reading it when my baby was 3 months old and found it very useful, especially around weaning and starting solids.
I tried reading a few baby books and found them all so boring.
This one was very good and straight to the point.
I started reading it when my baby was 3 months old and found it very useful, especially around weaning and starting solids.
February 22, 2021
5 stars for the Australian version of this book. This was the most helpful and accurate book I've come across to help me take care of my baby as a first time parent. It's clear, realistic and compassionately written. I recommend it especially for other first time parents out there.
March 28, 2021
Excellent, encyclopedaic in its breadth
July 1, 2021
Very useful guide for parenting in the first year!
May 8, 2023
Was gold for my first child
March 27, 2026
Well collated information, great for FTM or parents looking to get better comprehension of caring for their baby.
October 18, 2016
This was my bible when my boys were little. So much helpful and gentle information.
July 6, 2016
NB This review is of the sixth edition published in 2013. I initially started reading an earlier edition published in the US, but switched to this version instead to ensure the information was up to date and relevant to Australia. I would recommend that Australian women make sure they are reading the latest Australian version. This review is also based only on part 1 of the book (covering birth to three months) - I'll certainly be reading the later sections but my baby hasn't arrived yet and I don't want to confuse myself!
I'm currently 38 and a half weeks pregnant with my first child, and reading this book has helped me to feel much more prepared for my baby's arrival. The author provides matter-of-fact guidance about what to expect and is upfront about potential difficulties, but also provides extensive practical advice and strategies that may assist. While there is a wealth of information available online, I am the kind of person who would prefer to turn to a reliable book for guidance in the first instance, and I can tell that I will be regularly checking the index and dipping into this book throughout my baby's first year. I feel better informed and more confident after reading this book.
I'm currently 38 and a half weeks pregnant with my first child, and reading this book has helped me to feel much more prepared for my baby's arrival. The author provides matter-of-fact guidance about what to expect and is upfront about potential difficulties, but also provides extensive practical advice and strategies that may assist. While there is a wealth of information available online, I am the kind of person who would prefer to turn to a reliable book for guidance in the first instance, and I can tell that I will be regularly checking the index and dipping into this book throughout my baby's first year. I feel better informed and more confident after reading this book.
March 19, 2013
I found its book helpful and reassuring to read alongside my baby's development. It gave me strength and courage through the difficult and confusing times, like growth spurts and the afternoon/evening witching hour that some - mine - young babies go through and it reinforced some of my choices and decisions.
The tone was not militant or dogmatic like some (cough Gina Ford) books I'd skimmed and the advice always deferred to what feels right to you and your baby. It was comforting more than instructional and for that I'm glad I had it with me for the journey.
The tone was not militant or dogmatic like some (cough Gina Ford) books I'd skimmed and the advice always deferred to what feels right to you and your baby. It was comforting more than instructional and for that I'm glad I had it with me for the journey.
September 6, 2007
This book is my must-have manual. Pretty comprehensive, although you won't find many pictures in it. Robin Barker is pretty detail oriented and knowing that she is a mid-wive reassures me. You will find everything you need to do step by step, from newborn to 3 months, 3 to 6 months, 6 to 9 up to 12 months. Everything from growth development, breastfeeding, milestones, safety, baby appliances to babyfood recipes.
August 7, 2007
If you've got to read parenting books, then this one is awesome. It is written so that you come away armed with all the info you need to make your own decisions - you're not being told to follow anyone else's ideas of parenting. It is really comprehensive and up-to-date. I have referred to it so many times and continue to do so.
October 13, 2011
I've found another great parenting manual, if there is such a thing. I found this book very informative and it has a large, comprehensive chapter on breastfeeding. I'm just hopeful that I can use the information next time.
September 11, 2013
Highly highly recommended - most useful first-time parenting book I have found. Sensible and down-to-earth advice, not pushy or extreme in its philosophies like many other resources. Comprehensive and Australian as well.
January 24, 2015
There is a reason this book has been around so long and revised so many times. The advice is practical and helpful. Its an easy to read reference book that I think covers just about everything you need to know about your baby.
November 9, 2016
I read the 6th edition of this book which was excellent and up to date with a lot of useful, non-judgmental information and suggestions. A very well balanced and accessible book on the first 12 months, with a wealth of information.
November 25, 2017
I am reading the Australian 2007? edition and love it. such calming, practical advice. I only wish there were more pictures. I have the feeling I will 'currently reading' this book for at the next few months 😄
June 22, 2007
everything you need to know, without being condescending or trying to be too funny. No nonsense advice that will leave you feeling relieved you had it on hand just for reassurance.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews