Expecting Better
Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom is Wrong and What You Really Need to Know
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4.4 • 81 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
FREAKONOMICS meets WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU'RE EXPECTING in this groundbreaking guidebook. Award-winning Emily Oster debunks myths about pregnancy to empower women while they're expecting.
Pregnancy is full of rules. Pregnant women are often treated as if they were children, given long lists of items to avoid-alcohol, caffeine, sushi- without any real explanation from their doctors about why. They hear frightening and contradictory myths about everything from weight gain to sleeping on your back to bed rest from friends and pregnancy books. In EXPECTING BETTER, Oster shows that the information given to pregnant women is sometimes wrong and almost always oversimplified.
When Oster was expecting her first child, she felt powerless to make the right decisions for her pregnancy so Oster drew on her own experience and went in search of the real facts about pregnancy using an economist's tools. Economics is the science of determining value and making informed decisions. To make a good decision, you need to understand the information available to you and to know what it means to you as an individual.
EXPECTING BETTER overturns standard recommendations for alcohol, caffeine, sushi, bed rest, and induction while putting in context the blanket guidelines for fetal testing, weight gain, risks of pregnancy over the age of thirty-five, and nausea, among others.
Oster offers the real-world advice one would never get at the doctor's office. Knowing that the health of your baby is paramount, readers can know more and worry less. Having the numbers is a tremendous relief-and so is the occasional glass of wine.
This groundbreaking guidebook is as fascinating as it is practical.
Customer Reviews
Helpful but at times concerning
As a doctor myself I cannot flaw Emily on her thoroughness and dedication to hard facts from the medical literature, this was very helpful for me personally as a soon to be mum and as a clinician. I do have occasional concerns that at times she makes medical recommendations (sometimes encouraging women to not follow their physicians advice) that while in theory can be based on raw evidence I think it’s important to remember your physicians have seen a huge number of births including the best and worst outcomes and at the end of the day all doctors just want the best for you and your baby. It’s important to make sure the care you’re receiving is evidence based but it’s also important to have trust in your doctors, Emily has not attended many if any births and I encourage you to value both experience and evidence in your decision making process.
Exactly what I was looking for
This was the first book I read during pregnancy and it was exactly what I needed. I’m an over thinker and evidence obsessed, so I totally related to the author’s frustration at the vague “do this” “don’t do that” of pregnancy guidance and was so relieved to have the data to make my own informed decisions.
Best pregnancy book EVER!!
This book has changed my thoughts on so many things that I didn't believe could be changed. It is well researched and educated. I have read many other pregnancy books, blogs and boards and was always left with the thought of 'but why?' Emily has very thoroughly done the work for me in answering this questions in a very unbiased way, Just facts laid out so expecting parents can then make up their own minds about how to proceed with their life while waiting for a baby to arrive!