Do you want real life, positive birth stories to help you decide what is important to you? Do you feel that pregnancy, birth and motherhood is a turning point in a woman's life?

This is not a week-by-week book about how your baby is developing, but a book focused on the inner journey that the expectant mum takes. The book focuses on how thoughts and feelings through pregnancy may positively affect the birth and how to prepare mentally for labour beyond simple (but important) relaxation. It's particularly suitable from the second trimester onwards and the longer you have to read and practice, the better. (Although women have also benefited even at 39 weeks.)

The real-life birth stories cover a range of birth outcomes, including homebirth, waterbirth, induction, breech baby, caesarean, and vaginal birth after caesarean (VBAC). The criteria for the stories to be in the book were that the parent looked back on the birth positively. The realistic approach to labour means that you can learn from these parents' experiences, and plan for the birth that is right for you.

The author is a mother of two and has been a pregnancy yoga teacher for over 15 years, teaching nearly 1000 women. Her insights on the physical body, the external environment, and the importance of addressing the mental journey towards birth are based on hundreds of birth stories that she has received from her clients. It's a book that you can refer to again and again, with key techniques, reflection and resources sections, and a relaxation track and handouts easily accessible from the website.

The book is also suitable for pregnancy and birth professionals like doulas and specialised yoga teachers, with reflections and further resources at the end of each chapter. The content goes beyond the possible flight, fight, freeze response to the labour itself, to look at deeper barriers to feeling safe and how to overcome them. Big topics such as body sovereignty are covered, and the chapters could be used for reflective practice in a reading group.

The book aims to help pregnant women feel less overwhelmed and alone as they find how they will approach the birth. The real birthing experiences are written in a positive way so that they are informative and not scary. They contain all the details that many expectant mothers crave, especially the first time, so that they go into this transformative experience with their eyes open and their hearts ready.