A first look at conflict.

By Pat Thomas

This book looks at why people fight each other. It talks about differences of opinion and beliefs, and touches on the way some people use bullying as a means of forcing others to accept their opinions. It uses everyday examples of conflict, such as those from home and the playground, to help children understand conflicts in the wider world. It concludes by looking at conflict resolution.

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A first look at racism.

By Pat Thomas

This book spells out in simple terms why people may feel threatened by racial differences, what it feels like to be bullied because your skin is a different colour and why it hurts everyone to judge people by their skin or culture. It will encourage positive acceptance and openess about differences and suggest ways for children to celebrate their own cultural heritage without belittling someone else’s.

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by Pat Thomas

How weather and climate affect our health.

In our drive to achieve good health, we consult a variety of experts, but how many of us think of consulting the weatherman?

While the earliest physicians knew that the weather had a profound effect on health, this knowledge had been consigned to the dustbin of ‘folk medicine’ along with cures such as leeches and maggots.

But not any more.

Biometeorology is a new and expanding science that has shown our health to be inextricably linked to atmospheric conditions. Migraines can be triggered by cold and winds, stormy weather really does bring aches and pains and cholesterol levels rise as the temperature drops.

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by Pat Thomas

Are everyday toxins making you sick?

‘There’s something going around’. ‘It must be stress.’

These are the things we tell ourselves when we feel ill but can’t figure out why. In today’s world, lifestyle and environment are the two biggest threats to human health. They are also the most dangerous because, unlike the germs that give you a cold or ‘flu, they take years to build up in the body before producing symptoms.

Living Dangerously is a different kind of health book. Aimed at anyone concerned about the vague feelings of unwellness that are all too prevalent in modern life, it mixes recent quality research with practical advice about how to prevent environmental hazards from making you ill.

It speaks to readers directly about chronic health symptoms which are all too common – headaches, joint problems, vague feelings of depression – and of the environmental hazards we encounter in our everyday lives and encourages us to take symptoms seriously.

Bestselling author Pat Thomas presents a comprehensive picture of what really makes us ill – toxins in the environment, not germs. She explains what the symptoms and sources of toxic overload are, as well as positive suggestions about what we can all do to avoid them. It is destined to become an important sourcebook for health promotion for all the family.

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A first look at adoption.

By Pat Thomas

Children are sometimes upset to discover that they have been adopted. This book sensitively looks at the issue of adoption. It briefly explains the process of fostering and adoption, but the focus of the book is on exploring the fears, worries and questions that children have on this experience.

US title: My New Family

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by Pat Thomas

Everything you need to know for a healthy, natural pregnancy and birth.

Pregnancy is an immensely joyful time, but it is also a time of new experiences and seemingly unending choices. As more and more women adopt a natural approach to pregnancy it is vital that they understand what they can do for themselves and when to enlist the help of conventional medicine.

This beautifully written, authoritative guide provides information on alternatives to medicalised birth. It is a comprehensive gathering of the various natural therapies available that offers a balanced account of the treatments, outlining their benefits, limitations, and appropriateness.

It covers all the effective therapies, including aromatherapy, homeopathy, massage, nutritional therapy, Alexander technique, and yoga, general guidelines for a healthy pregnancy, including nutrition, exercise and rest, and special conditions, motherhood as a lifestyle issue, including relationship changes, spirituality and getting to know your baby.

Originally published by Thorsons in May 2000 this edition was published by Vega in 2003

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by Pat Thomas

The guide to alternative healthcare.

Disappointment with conventional healthcare has led to an unprecedented interest in natural alternatives. At the same time, holistic medicine and therapies have aggressively marketed themselves as safe and effective, and most of the time this is the case.

But enthusiasm for alternatives is not always justified – not every therapy can cure every ill, not every supplement enhances health. Alternative healthcare is big business. The opportunity for individuals to take greater control of their health has given scope to every kind of company to manufacture, promote and sell natural therapies and medicines.

Pat Thomas is passionate about the concept of alternative healthcare, but she is equally passionate about getting to the truth, and will not hesitate to criticise where appropriate in order to give the consumer a real choice.

Written from the point of view that choice without information is no choice at all, it is first and foremost a consumer publication and will become the bible of alternative healthcare.

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editors: Rosemary Mander, Valerie Flemming

Changes in the field of midwifery are of concern to those within the health care system, the academic world and those whose lives are touched by midwifery care. This text reflects on the current situation and questions whether it is the most appropriate way of providing care for the childbearing woman. The book discusses what is happening both within midwifery as well as to midwifery as a profession in the context of social change. Topics covered include:

• the evolution of the midwifes role
• women’s issues
• the functioning of the midwife within the health care system
• the effects of organisational change
• the relationships of the midwife with the woman she cares for and with medical practitioners.

All of the contributors to Failure to Progress are actively involved with the provision of care to the childbearing woman, and most are practising midwives. Together they build up a comprehensive picture of midwifery today which will be relevant to all midwifery students, practitioners and policy makers and not least to the consumers of midwifery care.

by Pat Thomas

A practical guide to better care in pregnancy and birth.

This guide enables mothers to make positive choices about pregnancy and childbirth, It encourages them to trust and act on their instincts rather than acquiesce to the many unevaluated routines and procedures used in maternity care. Clear, challenging, unsentimental and under-awed by the “miracle” of modern obstetrics, here is a book that women can use from the minute they know they are pregnant to become more than simply silent partners in one of the most important events in their lives.

Originally published in August 1996  by Thorsons – and my first book – this revised edition was published by The Women’s Press in 2002.

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By Pat Thomas

A First Look at Disability

A beautifully illustrated picture book that teaches children about a range of disabilities. It challenges the stereotypes that are often formed during childhood and explains how people overcome their disabilities and live happy and full lives.

Notes for parents and teachers at the back of the book provide valuable advice for how to share this book with your child or class.

Written by a trained psychotherapist, journalist and parent, and illustrated by an experienced children’s book artist, this title is part of an acclaimed and successful series of picture-book non-fiction for Early Years. Books in the series give advice and promote interaction between children, parents, and teachers on a wide variety of personal, social and emotional issues. They are excellent tools for teachers to use during classroom discussions.

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