5^th Edition Published 2015

By Catherine Nelson-Piercy

Published by CRC Press

ISBN: 978-1-4822-4192-1

Price  £49.99

https://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781482241921 

There are many books that claim to be a handbook and sometimes they are very slim volumes which are low on facts and information. On other occasions, these handbooks are in fact chunky textbooks that are far from portable or accessible. This book gets it just right and is a true handbook, easy to read, accessible and is not too large but packs in a lot of useful and relevant information. Most importantly, this is a book which will help a number of clinicians in a large number of specialties-in essence anyone who needs to deal with a pregnant woman with a medical problem. It is ideal to dip into and look up a particular problem that you have to deal with and rapidly read around a subject area. It is now in its fifth edition and has single UK based author who is a professor of obstetric medicine at King’s College London.

Most of the text is broken up into short paragraphs and bullet point sentences. This means that a topic area can be quickly read up and a fuller understanding quickly gained by the reader. There are also points to remember boxes and the book is laid out in a logical and sensible format. There is no doubt that this book clearly demystifies areas and quickly provides the reader with the correct information to manage the medical problems of the pregnant patient, irrespective if that healthcare professional is a GP, specialist or midwife. It is clear that the author knows her subject and this is clearly reflected in the excellence of the book. Like all good handbooks, they are ideal for patient orientated problems and as such should be accessible in an outpatient clinic or GP surgery. Unfortunately there is no digital edition bundled with the price of this edition. But that should not be a major drawback. It is not cheap but it exudes quality and despite its relative slimness at just over 350 pages, it packs in a lot of information and should be sufficient to manage most medical problems in pregnant women.

Special mention should be made of the excellent appendices the back of the book, about prescribing in pregnancy and normal laboratory values in pregnancy and non-pregnancy states. They are short and so they can be easily and quickly read. They are informative and of great practical use which probably neatly sums up this excellent book.

Dr Harry Brown

June 2015