Useful From Day One

You have just found out you are going to be a father, and you have no idea what happens next or what you are supposed to do. This book takes you from the positive test to the day your baby is six weeks old, and at every stage it tells you three things: what is happening, what your partner's body is going through, and what your job is.

It is written for the father or partner, not as a pregnancy book with a chapter for dads at the back. It assumes you know nothing: not what a trimester is, what the scans are for, what labour looks like hour by hour, or how to hold a newborn. There are no clueless-dad jokes. A lot of it is shown as well as told.

What you will be able to do

• Follow every appointment and scan, in the US or the UK, and know which ones to be at.
• Tell practice contractions from labour, time them, and know exactly when to call.
• Be useful in the delivery room at each stage, including a caesarean, and speak up for what she wants.
• Hold, feed, wind, change, bath, swaddle and settle a newborn.
• Set up safe sleep and fit a car seat properly.
• Know the warning signs for her and for the baby, in the health authorities' own words, and what to say on the phone.
• Look after her recovery, run the house, split the nights, and notice low mood in her and in yourself.
• Handle leave, insurance, birth registration and the other paperwork deadlines.

Inside the book

• Start here: what the book is, how to use it, and the whole ten months on one page.
• Part 1, The news: the first 48 hours, how pregnancy is counted, who looks after her, and a US-UK word translator.
• Part 2, The pregnancy: each trimester in three lanes (the baby, her, you), every appointment mapped for both countries, scans and screening, food and drink, bleeding and miscarriage, growth and kicks, leave and money, vaccines, what a newborn actually needs, safe sleep, the car seat, the bags and birth preferences.
• Part 3, The birth: is this it, early labour at home, a life-size 0 to 10 cm diagram, your job at each stage, positions and hands-on comfort, pain relief option by option, the birth and the first minute, induction and assisted birth, caesarean birth, and the checks in the first days.
• Part 4, The newborn: twelve hands-on skills with photographs and diagrams, including feeding cues and nappy counts, bottles and formula, nights, visitors, and an outline of infant choking first aid and CPR.
• Part 5, Her recovery, your head, the two of you: her body week by week, recovery after a caesarean, baby blues and depression, fathers' own mental health, and your relationship.
• Part 6, The first six weeks at home: a week-by-week map, a real 24 hours with a two-week-old, paperwork and deadlines.
• Three red call-now pages, a numbers and helplines page for both countries, and three pages of sources.

For the US and the UK

The book is in US English with the British word given where it differs (diaper and nappy, OB and midwife). Where American and British guidance differ, on appointment schedules, vaccine timing, food lists, breast milk storage, blankets, bed sharing, car seat harness fit and the order of CPR, both are shown side by side and named.

Where the facts come from

Every health statement was checked on 13 October 2026 against published guidance from the NHS, NICE, ACOG, the CDC, the American Academy of Pediatrics, The Lullaby Trust and the other bodies listed in the book, and each page names the sources it used. No medicine doses are given. Leave, pay and deadline rules are those in force in October 2026. The book does not replace your own midwife, doctor or pediatrician.

Your files

• The book: a 67-page PDF, 8 x 10 inches, with selectable text and bookmarks.
• Print-outs: 11 sheets, supplied in both US Letter and A4. Three fridge sheets of warning signs (pregnancy, after the birth, the baby), the week-36 board, bag checklists, a blank birth preferences sheet, a contraction log, a first-week feed and nappy log, a night plan, a numbers sheet, and a safe sleep and car seat check card. These are for printing and writing on by hand; they are not fillable forms.
• A ZIP with all three PDFs and a short start-here note.

The couple in the worked examples is fictional. Photographs and illustrations show the techniques described. This is a digital download; no physical book is shipped.