How to Be a Dad: The ultimate guide to pregnancy, birth & dirty nappies

by Oscar Duke

- The first doctor-written guide to becoming a dad
- Combines the medical knowledge of a healthcare professional with real-life experience
- Step-by-step - from conception to caring for your newborn baby
- Honest, humorous and engaging, this book answers the questions you've been too afraid to ask

At this crucial life-moment, knowledge is power, but you probably know less than you think: What's a cervix? Can we still have sex? Why's the midwife doing that? How do I make up a bottle and is that poo normal? Dad's role is more important than you might ever have imagined, so what can you do to help?

'I hope that as a doctor and a new dad, I will go some way towards answering those "man questions" that never quite make it to the pub, locker-room, water cooler or any other locations where men might find themselves having meaningful chats with another guy. Think of this as a papery man hug in what is a potentially treacherous world of terminology, hormones, social change, sleep deprivation and finally dirty nappies with tiny feet attached.'

Genres: Parenting, Nonfiction

208 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 13, 2019

Reviews

[Lizzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read and took notes for my husband who is currently too busy to read a whole book. Now he just has to go to the bookmarked pages for the important bits. Easy to read, useful for the medical side of things, but a little biased with his opinions.

[Andopoulos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very clear info from the perspective of a father and doctor - he has a nice, personable writing style and this will come in very handy as a resource as my baby goes through his first 6 weeks.

I feel the book would be especially useful for men who are the first of their siblings/friendship group to have a baby. I've heard a lot at this point in my life from others so the advice is less eye-opening than I know it would have been.

[Alex Salo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent practical summary of the ~18 months around the baby birth for dads who want to know the useful facts without much drama and noise.

The book is short, well organized, and contains the main scientific facts (and myths), and nice practical advice for each stage of the process of becoming a father. It's written humor and passion.

Highly recommend as both a preview and a place to revisit for each concrete step of the process.

[Ankush · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this to be the perfect book. It's got all the info you could need, but written in an accessible, engaging, and humorous tone, as well as a personal angle as the author is also a dad, so felt relatable as well. Read it a few times, and felt a lot more confident and prepared as a result. Strongly recommend!

[Peter Gal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mediocre read, unfortunately it wasn't so engaging, didn't provide the unique perspective I was expecting from the author from his background as a doctor and while it was trying to be, it wasn't particularly funny unfortunately.

[Mark Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would highly recommend this book to any would-be dads out there. Both informative and personal, the book splits each chapter into advice from the author as a doctor and as a new dad. This book made me feel very prepared and I've referred back to many chapters over the past few months.

[Garrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is for new dads or soon to be new dads and mostly deals with things leading up to the birth and few doctor visits after.
Still good information just not for someone at the stage of fatherhood I’m at.

[Serge Huybrechts · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an absolute great book. Since I live in Belgium, there were some UK specific items that didn't make sense (hence the 4 stars instead of 5). Still, all in all a must read for dads to be!

[Peter Howarth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly useful. Would have been even better if I still lived in the UK but this became my safety net. A lot.

[Emma Rosen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really good book - for any partner (or pregnant person to be honest). Comprehensive and not condescending

[Denis Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent and concise. Should be sent as a README.txt for every potential dad as an essential reading

[Ben Day · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic. Like streetlights along this unknown road towards parenthood…

Advice and information given in two forms: “from the doctor” and “from the Dad”. This format really worked for me.

[Jason Yeung · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.14

[Gabby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative from the medical, fatherly and a little from the motherly side. The three point out look on what is to come through pregnancy is well thought through informative and at times funny. There is a lot of information so take it in stages and really use it as a guide as what to expect. Aimed more at the fathers it holds a lot of information and changes perspectives.