Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong--and What You Really Need to Know (The ParentData Series)

This approachable, entertaining, well-researched book provides clear and useful summaries of medical studies on a wide range of important pregnancy-related topics: the pros and cons of various pre-natal tests, epidurals, induction, doulas, and home birth; foods that are best to be avoided, and those that are less dangerous than conventional wisdom might have us presume. It is an excellent resource-- it's like a friendly encyclopedia of pregnancy- and childbirth- related medical research! The author emphasizes the fact that medical recommendations come from studies, not from thin air-- and that with a little guidance (which Oster provides), women and their partners can understand those studies, and how to interpret the results in the context of their own lives. Oster shares her own choices (with much self-deprecating humor), but makes it clear that this book is about providing information, not prescriptions. I greatly appreciated her discussions of the origins and evolution of different recommendations (eg. pre-natal testing after 35, bed rest, fetal heart monitoring during labor, episiotomies); it's really informative to see how best practices change from one generation to the next, and how sometimes practices lag behind research. The introduction is available online at the Huffington post; I'd suggest checking that out to get a feel for the book. It's a lot less controversial than many of the reviews below would have you believe. Edit: All the hoopla around the "pregnancy vices" chapter is overshadowing some of the other important contributions of this book. In the interest of helping you decide if the rest of the book is something you might find valuable: One of the main themes of this book is that if you want to act in the best interest of your child, you need to figure out what "best" is. Your doctor can guide you, but you can and should have responsibility and agency in these matters. To a lot of pregnant women, choices about alcohol, coffee, and food are easy-- err on the side of utmost caution. Yet one thing Oster highlights is that most pregnancy-related choices aren't so easily dealt with-- in part because the costs and benefits aren't always clear, and in part because even when they are, the alternatives *all* have costs and benefits worth weighing. Expectant parents have to make choices, choices that involve real tradeoffs for both baby and mother. Non-invasive prenatal screening, amnio, or CVS? Schedule the induction, or not? Epidural, or not? Home, or hospital? This book does fantastic job of presenting the most credible, up-to-date estimates of the costs and benefits associated with each of these choices, and pinpoints particular things about your situation that that might make you weigh the costs and benefits differently than your friend, your OB, or Emily herself. I think this is where the book excels, and really fills a void: chapters about topics that are less inherently buzz-worthy than booze, but perhaps even more difficult to navigate in a sea of murky data and misinformation. The prenatal testing chapter is particularly good.

This was exactly the kind of book I needed. I have a biology degree, so I hate it when doctors talk to me like I don't know anything about how science or the human body works. Some doctors are better about that than others. Unfortunately my obgyn is one of the usual kinds that just gave me a list of drugs I'm allowed to take and foods I'm not allowed to eat with no explanation. My husband and I immediately started wondering how they arrived at this list. Are these drugs that have been proven to be safe, or ones that haven't been proven to not be safe? Are these foods especially dangerous during pregnancy, or just foods they think are unhealthy in general (my do-not-eat list even included pasta, refined sugar, fast food, etc.). So this book gives you the actual evidence for all these recommendations. I found the section on drugs especially interesting, because they're actually put into several categories based on how much evidence they have for their safety. Class A and B have evidence showing they are safe, Class C don't have much evidence one way or the other, Class D have evidence they are unsafe, but they treat a serious condition that is also unsafe for your pregnancy so it might be worth taking them if you have that condition, and Class X are drugs that are unsafe and not worth taking under any circumstances. And it turns out that some of the "forbidden foods" aren't any more dangerous to eat when you are pregnant than when you are not pregnant, while some of them really are more dangerous when pregnant. Maybe my doctor doesn't think that's an important distinction, but I do. The book didn't even mention pasta, but when I had morning sickness, starchy foods like pasta and bread were some of the few things I could easily eat, so I think my doctor just had pasta (and sweets, and fast food) on the list because eating too much might make me gain too much weight. I can't find anywhere else that says that pasta is especially dangerous to eat when you are pregnant, and then this book even goes on to say that gaining a little too much weight isn't that bad, so I'm still eating pasta. I am avoiding the foods that are on the list because they are more likely to contain bacteria that can make you sick, even though the book says Salmonella isn't any worse for you when you are pregnant than when you aren't (but Listeria and toxoplasmosis are). Salmonella poisoning is no fun, and I don't need that extra stress on top of being pregnant, so I'm avoiding those foods even though the book says I'd probably be OK if I ate them anyway. I also gave up alcohol completely, even though the book said an occasional drink is probably OK, but I just couldn't give up coffee, so I just cut back. As others have said, this book is great if you want to make your own informed decisions, instead of being treated like you are stupid and incapable of understanding nuance and uncertainty. It's also reassuring to know that if you drank that one class of wine, ate a little blue cheese, took a Class C drug, or gained 5 pounds above the recommended amount, you probably haven't done serious harm to your fetus. Being pregnant is stressful enough already without having to add any unnecessary worry on top of that. After reading this book, I'm definitely ordering Cribsheet next, before the baby arrives.

Es el único libro que me he leído para embarazadas porque está completamente basado en datos. Esta bien para desmentir algunos mitos y ayudarte con consejos importantes

acquistato per la mia prima gravidanza da un sacco di informazioni basate su papers scientifici dandoti la possibilità di prendere le tue decisioni in modo informato. raccomandato ai genitori che ne sentono una più di mille da parte di tutti

Adorei esse livro - nos deixa muito mais seguras a respeito de várias decisões durante a gestação. Também é bem escrito, de fácil leitura.

I found this book to be invaluable as I made decisions in my pregnancy. I felt confident and informed in the choices I have made.

Uno de los mejores libros de embarazo, ya que te da todos los argumentos para que tú tomes decisiones en tu embarazo basadas en miles de estudios realizados en todo el mundo.