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Summary: What to Expect When You're Expecting
Review: I live in Germany and since the language is different I was very nervous about having a Baby and being able to communicate well with my Doctor. This book was perfect, exact, helpful and informative. It helped answer my questions when I was worried at 2 a.m. in the morning. I was able to make a good list of questions when visiting my Doctor and made sure I knew exactly what to expect even though it was difficult for me to understand the German language. Living in the U.S.A. or Germany, I can't imagine having another Baby without this book by my side.
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Summary: A Complete Reference on Pregnancy
Review: This book is a one-stop reference on everything one needs to know about pregnancy. I appreciated the fact that the book was written with the consultation of a doctor in order to ensure its accuracy. I felt I could trust the information in the book as it was written from a medical aspect, rather than an individual's opinion. I was able to find many questions that I otherwise would have called my doctor about answered in this book (which prevented my playing phone tag with the doctor's office). I especially liked the month-by-month chapters detailing the growth of the baby and the mother's symptoms. A must have for the expectant mother!
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Summary: A Pregnancy Reference Book
Review: Whatever you do, don't read it cover to cover. You'll be paralyzed with fear. However, it's good when you feel a pain, or have a rash, or anything else that makes you panic, because you can easily find your symptom, and see the benign problems that could be causing it. However, it also mentions several terrifying conditions that have that symptom, so be sure to keep in mind that it mentions many incredibly rare diseases.
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Summary: Pregnancy Bible during middle of the night!
Review: To me, this was the source to turn to when nobody else was around (especially during the middle of the night!) and also a book to turn to in anticipation of what my unborn daughter may/may not be doing as she grew. Let's face it, at 2:00 a.m. when you start feeling little "beats" in your stomach and are convinced your baby is having convulsions, it's nice to be able to turn to someone/something in the middle of the night to discover that it's probably only the baby's hiccups. Okay, so the Best-Odds diet is slightly extreme, but for people who have that discipline, it is very informative. While you may not be able to follow the entire best-odds plan, it is useful information when making food choices. Adapt it to your own lifestyle. And if it makes some of you feel guilty, GOOD! This is a life that you are carrying and you are responsible for giving it the best possible chance of everything (in utero and out!). I also loved the beginning of each chapter so that I could follow along with my baby's growth and determine how I may be feeling that month-physically and mentally.It was also extremely useful to my husband, who was able to read up on things I was experiencing that maybe I couldn't explain. This book is the first thing that I buy for everyone I know who becomes pregnant!
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Summary: It's All Right, But...
Review: There are better books out there. I personally recommend the Unofficial Guide to Having a Baby, which is not nearly as doctor-centered. The authors seem to imply that no educated woman would have a home birth, use a midwife, or do a lot of other things that are known as "alternative" choices. Instead of presenting real facts, they quickly dismiss these options and definitely try to scare the reader into feeling an ob/gyn and hospital birth is the only way to go.I did enjoy the section at the beginning of each chapter that showed what the baby looked like and listed its development for that month. You can also get a newsletter detailing these developments from many baby websites, though, so to me that didn't make it worthwhile to buy the book. I didn't feel particularly guilty after reading the sections on diet (which, by the way, are outrageously difficult to follow and seemed designed for women who can sit at home and make marks on a dietary checklist). However, the part that scared me was reading the "baby roulette" section. I had a migraine for three days and didn't take anything for it because I was afraid it would hurt my baby. Now, looking back, I think the huge amounts of stress hormones that were released in my bloodstream from the pain were probably just as bad as a few Excedrin would've been. In short, this information is available in far more friendly formats in The Unofficial Guide To Having a Baby and The Pregnancy Book by the Sears. I recommend them.
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Summary: It's Not So Bad
Review: The book has been around for a while now. It does have a lot of good information. Many of the "stars from Beverly Hills" have bought it and said so on TV. The public realtion of the book has been pushed to the limits. Is it worth it? After giving birth to four children, I'd say it's worth reading. Don't take it too literally and don't listen to everything that is mentioned on food and diet. If you're already overweight, it will scare you and make you feel sad. If you've already lost and kept off weight it might make you mad. In my family we are all pretty small and my doctor said to ignore most of the "food focused" sections. Don't take it too personally. It might be tough to do. Don't beleive everything for it most likely won't happen to all of us. We're all very different. Keep this in mind and "in check" when reading. Take it to your OB/GYN for any questions..........he'll counsel you better for your individual situation. We're all different. As soon as you get a chance to catch your breath, I'd recommend another book my pediatrician told me and my husband about: Mommy-CEO (Constantly Evaluating Others) 5 Golden Rules, by Jodie Lynn. It's from birth to teens. Unlike this prengancy book, she will touch on topics on parenting for a wider spectrum of ages. Similar to this book she will have points to ponder on keeping yourself and your family healthy without leaving out dad. What is helpful about What to Expect is it gives a pretty good rounded idea of what could happen during your nine months. For first time moms I think it's not so bad. "To your own self be true."
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Summary: This used to be my pregnancy bible....
Review: But it's not anymore. Even though the book was revised during the 1990s, it's still very much a product of the 1980s, with dated information, passe attitudes about pregnancy, and a simplistic format that is reminiscent of the Dummies books! I won't talk about the preachy and condescending tone that the authors use, since virtually every other reviewer has already pointed that out that major flaw. What I will say, however, is that this book barely scratches the surface on a lot of important topics, like planning a pregnancy, what drugs are safe to take during pregnancy and which ones aren't, the debate about the use of caffeine during pregnancy, coping with a high risk pregnancy, dealing with the loss of a baby, and other issues that every pregnancy book owes its audience to tackle in an intelligent manner. It's time for the authors to either rewrite the book from scratch or to gracefully allow it to go out of print. Don't waste your money on this book. Pick up a book that will treat you like an intelligent, thinking woman by arming you with the facts you need to make the best possible choices for your baby. I highly recommend THE UNOFFICIAL GUIDE TO HAVING A BABY by John R. Sussman and Ann Douglas; THE PREGNANCY BOOK by William Sears et al; and--if you're expecting multiples--WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU'RE EXPECTING TWINS, TRIPLETS, OR QUADS by Barbara Luke and Tamara Eberlein. Any one of these books will provide you with ten times the information you'll find in WHAT TO EXPECT.
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Summary: wanting get in touch with the authors(from China)
Review: I'am a reader from mainland China. I read the Chinese translation of the 1991 edition of "What to Expect When You're expecting", published in Taiwan.It's the best book concerning pregnancy I've ever seen. My wife and I read it carefully and did what the authers told us, now our baby is growing healthily. I want to introduce this book to a publisher in mainland China. I found the 1996 revised edition of the book from Amazon, I think it would be better han the 1991 edition.
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Summary: Preachy, puritanical about food, and downright silly
Review: If you want your pregnancy to be monitored by a group of control freaks, then this is the book for you. While every pregnancy book will encourage you to eat a healthy, well-balanced diet, this one goes further, urging you to develop "discplined" and "virtuous" eating habits. With _every_ bite that goes into your mouth, you should be thinking of the health of your baby. But it is not simply, or not merely, a question of health. You should also be worrying about your figure. In the section dealing with father's concerns, they print the following (real or hypothetical) question, "As petty as this might seem, I'm afraid my wife's going to get fat and flabby during pregnancy, and stay that way afterwards." Do they tell this father-to-be where to go? No. They reassure him that his concern is not "petty," since it's a question of health. And they offer a list of suggestions for the father-to-be who wants to keep his wife trim and slim post-pregrancy. "Lead her not into temptation," they write. "Practise what you preach" but "don't be too preachy" -- for example, "signal her quietly when in public, rather than making a pointed announcement to all within earshot about her ordering chicken breaded and fried". I am not making this up, I am quoting directly from the book. This is a new form of puritanism.
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Summary: What Every New Mother-to-be Should Know
Review: If there is one thing I wish I had been told when I first got pregnant and would share with any newly pregnant woman, it would be not to buy or read this book. This is a book full of "advice" which is designed to make any woman feel inadequate. The recommended "best odds" diet is just that, a diet. It is overly focused on avoding fats and sugars and establsihes ridiculous standards for the amount of food one "should" be eating. For example, the authors' idea of a "special" treat is to allow oneself a bagel once a week. It utilizes scare tactics which can give a new mother the feeling that if she does eat ice cream, white flour, or refined sugar, her precious baby will be forever damaged. The advice on washing fresh fruits and vegetables with dish soap is similarly ridiculous. In addition the advice on avoiding pollutants and other supposed but unproven toxins--preservatives, all cleaning fluids--is incrediably biased toward middle-class, suburban, married women. For example women are advised to exercise outside but to avoid all exhaust fumes; not practical for those of us who live in cities. Likewise we are advised to stay inside during high pollution days, also not practical for most people who have jobs/responsibilities. The same goes for the advice on leaving the cleaning to someone else; what about women who don't have partners and can't afford housekeepers? The worst aspect of the book is that it is written in a tone that suggests that if a woman does not follow the book's dictates that she is a negligent mother-to-be.
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