VUl<br >Foreword<br >I first considered writing a book on pregnancy in New Zealand as long<br >ago as 1985， when I was pregnant with my second child. The idea was<br >suggested to me， and I was immediately taken with it， remembering how<br >many things I had wanted to know when I was pregnant for the first<br >time. But it got put to one side as I struggled with the nausea and<br >tiredness which always accompanies my pregnancies， and it was not until<br >my third baby was three months old that I seriously reconsidered the<br >proposal. By then I had had several years experience as a doctor， and as a<br >mother， as a worker and as a home parent， and I found myself<br >increasingly fielding requests at work and telephone calls at home from<br >women seeking advice about pregnancy.<br > How do I get pregnant? What books can I read? Could you suggest<br >some doctors to choose from? Will I be able to keep working? Can I try<br >milk for morning sickness? Should I have an amniocentesis? How many<br >nappies will I buy? Is it worthwhile buying a front pack? Is orgasm all<br >right during pregnancy? Am I in labour? Do you think the waters could<br >have broken? No subject was immune from the list. Sometimes I was<br >surprised that women didn t know some of these things， but more often I<br >was surprised that they felt that they needed to come to me for an<br >answer. Was there no written material， no handbook in which all this<br >information was made available?<br > And I remembered where I had looked for the answers to some of<br > these questions myself. Medical textbooks certainly had information on<br > anatomy and physiology， but were no help when it came to dealing with<br > the tiredness of early pregnancy， or clothes for a new baby. Antenatal<br > classes provided some written leaflets and booklets， but they were<br > piecemeal， often dealing with only one subject， and they were easily lost<br > or mislaid. Books written by overseas authors were recommended， and<br > some of them were very good. But they could offer no advice on choosing<br > antenatal care in New Zealand， or on using a sheepskin in a bassinet.<br > Since that time， the Department of Health has put out a booklet called<br > Your Pregnancy， which is available to every pregnant woman m New<br > Zealand. l~~is good， but necessarily brief， including only the most basic<br > information.<br > I still felt there was a need for a much more comprehensive book for<br > New Zealand women - and that if I was going to do it， I should do so<br > while the world of pregnancy， breast feeding， and small children was still<br > part of my immediate experience. So， I started writing， not literally on<br ><br >