The Prenatal Prescription

Rating:
Summary: A great read. Incredibly helpful for anyone who's expecting.
Review: Easy to read. Very informative and well written. I enjoyed it immensely.

Rating:
Summary: prioity for pregnancy
Review: The Prenatal Prescription should be read by all pregnant women and by their families. It helps everyone to prepare and plot their way through the crucially important period of pregnancy. Professor Nathanielsz explains exactly what happens to the foetus, and more importantly, what is essential for the good health of the unborn child and its mother. The guidelines which he presents here are of inestimable importance. The book is immensely readable, presented for the general reader: the science does not obstruct our understanding of the extraordinary, exciting story of pregnancy.

Rating:
Summary: prioity for pregnancy
Review: The Prenatal Prescription should be read by all pregnant women and by their families. It helps everyone to prepare and plot their way through the crucially important period of pregnancy. Professor Nathanielsz explains exactly what happens to the foetus, and more importantly, what is essential for the good health of the unborn child and its mother. The guidelines which he presents here are of inestimable importance. The book is immensely readable, presented for the general reader: the science does not obstruct our understanding of the extraordinary, exciting story of pregnancy.

Rating:
Summary: Great information AND great writing
Review: There aren't many books out there that address ways you can prepare BEFORE conception to promote the health of your child. The Prenatal Prescription carefully details the ways in which you can prepare your body, both before and after conception, to provide a healthy environment for your developing baby.

There are two things that set this book apart from other preganancy prep books. The first is that Peter Nathanielsz has carefully surveyed the research literature to answer some of the questions that every parent wants to know during pregancy (e.g. Can I exercise? Is caffiene okay?). He sifts through the evidence to evaluate the current thinking on prenatal development. It's very helpful to have access to this information in a pregnancy book. He also addresses topics that the reader may not even know are pertinent to pregancy; the chapter on stress and its effects on fetal development is fascinating, and the chapter on exercise is worth the cost of the book alone.

The second thing that sets this book apart is its tone. Nathanielsz writes with clarity and with great respect for the mother-to-be. He presents complex information in a way that is easy to process and absorb. This is a nice balance point between overly cutesy popular press and the too-technical-for-laypeople scientific literature. Finally, he manages to convey the need to provide a good prenatal environment without terrifying the reader, frequently putting the information back into the context of the 'big picture'.

This is an excellent book for anyone just thinking about when to plan a family; some of the recommended changes may take time to put into place.