Books

Dr Sara Wickham is the author of seventeen books about birth and midwifery.

My most recent book is an updated and expanded third edition of What’s Right For Me? Making decisions in pregnancy and childbirth.

The decisions that we make about our pregnancy and childbirth journeys can shape our experiences, health and lives for years to come, as well as those of our children and families.

But many of those decisions are complex, confusing and made harder by the fact that we live in a world full of options and opinions that can feel overwhelming.

What’s Right for Me? helps make pregnancy and birth-related decisions feel less daunting.

The latest, expanded and updated edition was published in September 2022, and you can buy it here:

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What’s in What’s Right For Me?

Where several of Sara’s other books guide you through the evidence on specific topics, this one helps you understand the bigger picture and learn about tools and ways of thinking which will help you make any decision you face with confidence.

In it, Sara covers everything from ideas about risk and different perspectives on birth, to how to interpret and consider information about tests, interventions and birth decisions.

You’ll find out about what the childbirth decision making landscape looks like, and why you’ll be better equipped if you have some tools to help you.

Discover how spending an hour or two thinking about your existing knowledge and previous experiences can help you make the decisions that are right for you.

Learn about easy to remember ways to help you work through the different aspects of the interventions you might be offered. These aren’t just for birth, either. They can be used to help you make health-related decisions for the rest of your life.

Dr Sara Wickham’s easy-to-understand explanations, real-life examples and top tips are like having a friendly expert by your side, helping you to understand your options, your rights and ultimately why your decisions should be about what’s right for you and only you.

My most popular book is In Your Own Time: How western medicine controls the start of labour and why this needs to stop

In 2021, Sara wrote a brand new book to help parents and professionals better understand the issues and the evidence relating to the current induction epidemic.

“This is a book in which I tell the story about how western medicine has sought to control the onset of labour, and in which I look at what the evidence really says about induction and how this affects women, babies and families.

I share the mountain of evidence discussing the benefits of going into labour spontaneously, or in your own time.

I also share and analyse the evidence in some other important areas.

Women and families need to know what the evidence really says about due dates, about induction for suspected big babies, and for women who are older or larger than average.

And we need more understanding of why induction isn’t the answer to the higher perinatal mortality rates experienced by Black, Brown, Asian and mixed-race women, babies and families.”

It’s available now, from Amazon UK, Amazon Australia and Amazon.com, and from a whole load of other popular ebook retailers.*

There’s loads more info and links to buy it on the book’s web page. Or click here to go straight to Amazon.

*We have affiliate accounts with some of these retailers. Any profit goes to the Birth Information Project.

Also published in 2021 … Anti-D Explained

Dr Sara Wickham discusses the issues and the evidence relating to Anti-D, a medicine made from blood which is offered to rhesus negative pregnant women.

Rhesus negative pregnant women are offered an injection of Anti-D (or RhoGam) at several points during pregnancy and birth. This book has been written to explain the issues, answer key questions and share information about what we do and do not know about Anti-D and the pros and cons of this from research evidence and current thinking. Click here to find out more or go straight to the book’s page on Amazon UK.

Here are Sara’s other recent books:

Inducing Labour

Group B Strep Explained

Vitamin K

Birthing Your Placenta

101 tips for planning, writing and surviving your dissertation

Visit Sara Wickham’s Amazon Author Page

See Sara Wickham’s books on Kobo

An important note about older books

Please be aware that some people are selling out-of-date paperback and kindle versions of the books that Sara has written on topical issues such as induction of labour and group B strep. We have asked them to stop doing this but unfortunately have no control over it. If Sara has brought out an updated book, it’s because the evidence and/or guidance has changed. We will always direct you to the newest versions on this website.

Sara’s classic books

Anti-D in Midwifery: Panacea or Paradox? was the very first book I wrote. it was first published in 2001. It has now been superseded by Anti-D Explained. For a long while, Anti-D in Midwifery was the only book that looked at anti-D (RhoGAM) and related issues. I asked why, if women’s bodies are designed to give birth without intervention for the majority of the time, anti-D was necessary? The book explored the paradox between physiological birth and the routine ‘need’ for anti-D. It highlights some interesting evidence which may throw light on this paradox. I often post updates on this topic on this website. In 2021, on the twentieth anniversary of this first book’s publication, I brought out Anti-D Explained. It’s not an update of Anti-D in Midwifery, but a brand new book which explains the issues for parents, professionals and birth workers.

Appraising Research into Childbirth: An Interactive Workbook is designed to help midwives, students and others to be able to navigate the maze of evidence-informed practice. It helps people make sense of the very different kinds of research that are published in midwifery, medical and related journals. The book includes the text of eight previously published research articles that present both qualitative and quantitative research studies. Chapter authors take the reader through the papers in a step-by-step fashion. This helps increase understanding as notes and questions on all elements of the research are included. We discuss everything from the methodology to the interpretation of the results. Tips, tools, discussions and checklists and a guide to statistics help to further demystify research.

Midwifery Best Practice

I edited the Midwifery Best Practice series for several years. We produced five volumes in total. And, to answer the question I am most commonly asked, all contain completely different material and are not updates of the same book! The books contain articles that were originally published in popular UK and US midwifery journals. These articles are grouped into themes. They are then supplemented with original articles and reflective summaries and questions written especially for these volumes.

Midwifery Best Practice 1 – 3

Each of the volumes contains sections relating to pregnancy, labour and birth and the postnatal / neonatal period. There is also a lovely varied collection of articles which come under the heading of ‘stories and reflection’. Each book then contains ‘hot topics. Midwifery: Best Practice, Volume 1 (pictured above) contains articles on choice, antenatal education, the third stage of labour, abuse and alternative therapies. In Midwifery: Best Practice, Volume 2, we included articles looking at normal birth, domestic violence, elements of risk and parenting.

The ‘focus on’ sections in Midwifery: Best Practice, Volume 3 include articles on the subjects of families, spirituality, alternative therapies and loss, bereavement and grief. Again, the core sections cover the key areas: women, midwives and choice, pregnancy, labour and birth, life after birth and stories and reflection. There is still so much to be learned from slightly older practice-based articles, especially for those who are learning midwifery or seeking knowledge to help them gain entry to a midwifery course.

Midwifery Best Practice 4 & 5

Some of the articles in these volumes have also become classics, and they were written at a really interesting time in the development of the midwifery literature. Midwifery: Best Practice, Volume 4 includes sections on diversity, building communities of women and birth centres. This volume includes articles by Ina May Gaskin on cervical recoil, Judy Mercer on umbilical cord clamping and Mavis Kirkham on birth centres.

Last but not least, we have Midwifery: Best Practice, Volume 5. This final volume contains collections of articles on the core topics. It then has collections of articles on the birthing environment, women, midwives and risk, holistic health and international working and stories.

A request from us

Please support creators It isn’t legal to lend books if you’re running a business, and it can harm the ability of artists, writers and other creators to make an income from their own work if you do. If your clients can’t afford to buy a book, please ask them to borrow it from a public library, as public libraries pay authors when they loan their books. Loads more info here.

Book FAQs

If you want to discuss buying multiple copies of one or more of Sara’s books, contact us by replying to any of our newsletter emails. We we will try to help or put you in touch with someone who can.

Many of our website pages share links to buy books from Amazon. These are affiliate links. If you buy books using these links, Amazon gives us a few pennies each time at no additional cost to you. Any money that we receive from this goes towards our Birth Information Project.

We totally understand that some people don’t want to use Amazon. Many other online bookshops carry Sara’s books too. You can also ask any indie bookstore to get one in for you, by giving them the ISBN, which you can find on Amazon or anywhere online that sells the book.

You can also visit Sara’s Amazon Author page.