What makes us the way we are? Some say it's the genes we inherit at conception. Others are sure it's the environment we experience in childhood. Bu...
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Nov 28, 2010
Elizabeth
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The information in this book was pretty fascinating. I picked it up after listening to this story by the author on NPR a few weeks ago. Although I think the book could have been much better organized and edited to avoid excruciating repetitiveness (Dutch Hunger Winter: I'm looking at you), I enjoyed it overall.
The book details the emerging scientific research showing that the fetal period can be a powerful source of influence over who we are as people -- focusing in particular on th More...
The book details the emerging scientific research showing that the fetal period can be a powerful source of influence over who we are as people -- focusing in particular on th More...
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Jun 12, 2011
Ningerbil
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This is a fascinating (and occassionally disturbing) read for those interested in childhood development and epigenetics. The author parallels her own thoughts and experiences with her second pregnancy with the growing bodies of evidence that are showing the incredible impact of the environment, nutrition and other factors on the unborn child -- effects that can be felt and documented even decades later. Two examples that struck me:
One was a study of children and adults who were in-utero More...
One was a study of children and adults who were in-utero More...
Mar 18, 2011
Stephanie
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A book written for the masses that attempts to distill some interesting research. It has a catchy one-word title (in the vein of "Bonk") and an Upper West Side Manhattanite's perspective on her own life and pregnancy mixed in with the reporting bits (a la Michael Pollan).
So: the research is interesting, though I've seen most of it already in the science and medical news, and I find the pop-science way of describing studies distracting, since there is never quite enough informatio More...
So: the research is interesting, though I've seen most of it already in the science and medical news, and I find the pop-science way of describing studies distracting, since there is never quite enough informatio More...
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Feb 06, 2011
Ciara
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a really interesting & engaging (in my opinion) book about fetal origins. that is to say, how the prenatal environment affects a person after s/he is born.
the author was pregnant while writing the book, so it is split into nine chapters, each of which represents one month of gestation, from conception to birth. the chapter breaks don't really have anything to do with anything. "chapter five" didn't really have anything to do specifically with the prenatal environment in month More...
the author was pregnant while writing the book, so it is split into nine chapters, each of which represents one month of gestation, from conception to birth. the chapter breaks don't really have anything to do with anything. "chapter five" didn't really have anything to do specifically with the prenatal environment in month More...
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Jan 21, 2011
Kat
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I sought this book out after reading the chapter in "YOU: Having a Baby" about fetal programming and epigenetics, which I find fascinating, especially now as I do preliminary research before preparing to get pregnant. The author compiles various studies that you may have heard about before in other books or documentaries, such as the biological effects of famines and trauma on future generations, the links between environmental toxins and various developmental disorders, how maternal b
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Jan 01, 2011
Dora
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I thought there was interesting information in this book-- a lot of cutting edge research being done in this field, and I liked learning about the various effects of the mother's lived experience on a fetus. Unfortunately, the tone was absolutely unbearable.
First of all, I appreciate that the author gave a nod to how there is a terible cultural policing of women's bodies during pregnancy these days, and how much that bothers her. Then she tries to explain that her book is different! S More...
First of all, I appreciate that the author gave a nod to how there is a terible cultural policing of women's bodies during pregnancy these days, and how much that bothers her. Then she tries to explain that her book is different! S More...
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Dec 27, 2010
Jill
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Well, this book certains give a pregnant woman a lot to contemplate. First my pet peev: Why does every part-memoir, part-nonfiction writer live in New York? Also, is there a new category for this type of contrived non-fiction memoir? It isn't exactly memoir since the authors know going in that they will be relating their interesting factoids to their personal experience.
Anyway, Annie Murphy Paul cites plenty of interesting studies and references to allow the book to stand on its More...
Anyway, Annie Murphy Paul cites plenty of interesting studies and references to allow the book to stand on its More...
Nov 29, 2010
Megan
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If you have been pregnant recently, a fair amount of the information in this book will not be completely new-- a lot of this is what appears in the average book that you would pick up to read while preparing for pregnancy. Some of the more recent epigenetics is outside of the kind of content that those "when you're expecting" books cover. That being said, many of the examples that Paul covered are examples that I had read about in the news.
Paul weaves the scientific informat More...
Paul weaves the scientific informat More...
Oct 18, 2010
Angela
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In Origins, Paul attempts to explain how intrauterine influences - dietary, emotional, hormonal, epigenetic, etc. - affect the futures of the people fetuses become. It's an interesting premise, hinted fascinatingly at in one of my favorite environmental books, Theo Colburn's Our Stolen Future. While the research has certainly progressed in the ten years since, Paul's book still feels a bit light.
The book is nominally structured into nine month-based chapters, but these aren't used to More...
The book is nominally structured into nine month-based chapters, but these aren't used to More...
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Oct 15, 2010
Laura
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For the most part, I found this one riveting and strangely empowering. It's the total opposite of the evil "What to Expect" empire: Paul writes for smart readers, and explores ways women can potentially positively influence the adulthood of their child while it's in utero. I appreciated reading, "Eat sardines and chocolate, to maybe make your baby smarter and smile more" rather than "DON'T eat [huge list of stuff] or else your baby will be deformed." Positive sugges
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Jan 23, 2012
Sara
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The positive: This book starts out with the idea that pregnant women get blamed for literally everything that ends up being wrong with their children, and that this state of affairs is both unfair and unrealistic. Which is great! The writing is generally good in that pop-science-confessional way, and this was a quick and easy read. Don't worry, the last thirty pages or so of the page count are the notes and bibliography; the book proper is right around 200 pages.
The negative: Unfortuna More...
The negative: Unfortuna More...
Dec 26, 2010
Kelly (happyklamb10)
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As is typical of my current pregnant state, I was hot and cold with this book. It's introduced in such a way that it makes you believe you WON'T be reading a diatribe about all the terrible things that you could do during pregnancy to ruin your child. This seems to be accurate at first, but honestly, by the end of the book I just felt overwhelmed with all the potential disasters I could be inflicting upon this fetus. I know that Paul occasionally reiterates the fact that fetal origins researc
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Feb 07, 2011
Erin
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I really wanted to like this book, and in fact, I was looking forward to reading it. I had heard of the author from her "Tiger Mother" article in Time magazine on 1/31, so when I learned about her subject expertise (fetal origins), I thought it would be a perfect "pregnancy reading" for me. I guess I just had really high expectations (and hopes).
The book, itself, is a pretty quick read. She weaves into her research tales and anecdotes of her own pregnancy (#2), More...
The book, itself, is a pretty quick read. She weaves into her research tales and anecdotes of her own pregnancy (#2), More...
Jan 06, 2011
Asha Tenbroeke
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It is always nice if an accomplished science writer takes on a subject that hasn't really been covered extensively before. Fortunately for us, that is exactly what Annie Murphy Paul does in Origins. She covers the subject of outside influences on the development of the growing foetus with ease, and even takes it one step further when she links the scientific research she encounters with her own experiences during her second pregnancy (Paul is pregnant while researching and writing the book). Thi
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Oct 07, 2010
Carolina
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If women skip breakfast, they are more likely to get pregnant with a girl? Morning sickness has been said to be a psychological response of "secretly rejecting" your baby? This book is interesting, but most points are theoretical only. I doubt the intrauterine environment is really more influential than epigenetics. So if a mother is depressed during pregnancy, are her hormones REALLY going to make the fetus more likely to develop depression later in life, or is the mother just passing
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Apr 08, 2011
Alison
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This was a good compilation of current research into prenatal experience and how those might affect the grown adults. It's by a NY Times science writer who also happened to be pregnant at the time so some of her personal story was woven in to the narrative. Here are the things I disliked: The table of contents was so vague (one month, two months,...) as to be completely useless. The subjects in each month had nothing to do with whether it was one month or seven and there was no way to even guess
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Feb 06, 2011
Sarah
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This book is full of fascinating facts based on research into fetal origins. Some things I found especially interesting include:
* According to some researchers, about one-third of gay men are gay because their mothers had more sons before them. The researchers hypothesize that this is because the mother's immune system manufactures antibodies directed at proteins secreted by male fetuses. When she becomes pregnant with another son, these antibodies allegedly affect the baby's developin More...
* According to some researchers, about one-third of gay men are gay because their mothers had more sons before them. The researchers hypothesize that this is because the mother's immune system manufactures antibodies directed at proteins secreted by male fetuses. When she becomes pregnant with another son, these antibodies allegedly affect the baby's developin More...
Jan 03, 2011
Alex
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Using her own second pregnancy as an outline, Paul writes about the science of what she deems “fetal origins”—the science of how conditions inside the womb can affect a fetus long after it is born. This included the ideas that stress during pregnancy can affect the later child’s response to stressful situations, that lack of a nutritious diet can lead to obesity, as the fetus learns to hold onto calories; etc. This is part of a science called epigenetics—how gene expression is influenced by envi
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Dec 16, 2010
Karen
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This is just about equal parts fascinating, guilt-inducing and annoying. Fascinating because there really are lots of tidbits I didn't know about. For example, pregnant mice fed junk food produce baby mice who are way more likely to prefer junk food over rat chow and eat way more calories. And most of the crack babies from the 80s are doing just fine - seems it is much worse to have an alcoholic mother than a crack-addicted one. Guilt-inducing because I didn't know some of this stuff when I wa
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Apr 16, 2011
Kristen
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Interesting accessible-science read. Perhaps a few too many personal touches by the author (who was pregnant while she was researching the book), but overall a good mix of science and anecdote. There isn't a clear organization to the book, almost as if it was just written in the order that she researched it. But as it tries to prove the genre of fetal origins as a whole, it does a good job. She really delves into many different scientists work, and I was impressed by the depth and breadth of
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Nov 08, 2010
Roy
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The book encouragingly begins with a whistle-stop tour of fetal development/developmental origins research. Unfortunately, it quickly turns into a melodramatic and personal narrative about motherhood. A significant chunk of the book is dedicated to historical drama and ideas regarding motherhood/pregnancy and it's impact on the child. Although, these historical detours are peppered with current data regarding environmental impacts on pregnancy and child development. All this leaves very little
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Jan 05, 2011
Lynn
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This book was great for me personally b/c I am a nerd and I liked the listings of findings from scientific studies, but the book was poorly organized and not particularly well written. I also appreciated the seemingly unintentional irony that the author describes her scheduled c-section birth at the end of the book where she admittedly feels uninvolved. After writing an entire book about how the fetus' experience during pregnancy influences the rest of its life and in light of reputable resear
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Mar 19, 2011
Kristin
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An interesting overview of the emerging study of the fetal origins of adult conditions, written while the author was pregnant. When my neighbor described the book to me, I wrote it off as more post-feminist prescriptive suggestions for women, but I was (mostly) wrong. Also included some minor references to epigenetics, a field I had just heard of and want to learn more about. (It's the study of how and why certain genes are activated or deactivated.) I was disappointed in the last chapter,
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Dec 23, 2010
Peggy
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I enjoyed this book, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to all "parents-to-be". I think you have to set expectations with this book first. It's rich with information and research about the 9 month development process, but it's not a step by step guide of what to do and not to do. In addition, I think you have to realize that it's developing research, not dogma. I loved it as a reservoir of new research that shines light on how the 9 month incubation period affects the next 80
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Jan 03, 2012
Darrell
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Nov 29, 2010
The fifteen books from the NYT 100 notable books of 2010 list that I picked to add to my reading list:
Bound -- Antonya Nelson
Mr. Peanut -- Adam Ross
The Spot -- David Means
The Privileges -- Jonathan Dee
Fun With Problems -- Robert Stone
The Ask -- Sam Lipsyte
The Tenth Parallel -- Eliza Griswold
The Promise -- Jonathan Alter
Empire Of The Summer Moon -- S. C. Gwynne
Secret Historian -- Justin Spring
The Mind's Eye -- Oliver Sa More...
Jan 14, 2011
Andrew
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Low birthrate a major factor in late-life heart disease. May be because heart develops anticipating a low-resource environment.
What mothers eat/do while pregnant may turn certain genes in the fetus on/off.
Mothers now experience first 'real' signs of life through ultrasound technology, rather than feeling (quickening).
Fraternal birth order may affect sexuality - The more older brothers a boy has, the greater his chances of being gay.
Thalomide was remedy fo More...
What mothers eat/do while pregnant may turn certain genes in the fetus on/off.
Mothers now experience first 'real' signs of life through ultrasound technology, rather than feeling (quickening).
Fraternal birth order may affect sexuality - The more older brothers a boy has, the greater his chances of being gay.
Thalomide was remedy fo More...
Sep 11, 2011
Jennifer
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Fascinating stuff that I came across in my research on pregnancy literature and preeclampsia. It didn't fit into that research, but when I found for cheap during the Borders clearance sales I bought it. It covers a relatively new area of scietific inquiry into what makes us who we are. It adds a wrinkle to the nature/nurture argument by positing that the 9 months of pregnancy play an important role in determining our health and personality. Raises more questions than it answers, but I think that
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Oct 07, 2011
Stacy
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I really found this book completely fascinating. There's a LOT they still don't know about the fetus, but it's amazing what they do know and how something that happens to you in the womb can affect your entire life and your children's lives and possibly even their children's lives. A must read for any women who is of childbearing age or anyone who is fascinated by the miracle of life. And I maintain the belief that we all are created equally, but now believe that pregnant women should always
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Jun 11, 2011
Gayle
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I picked up this book - NOT BECAUSE I'M PREGNANT! - but because a psychologist friend and I got into a discussion about adult life being influenced by the emotions/state of mind of the mother during a pregnancy. Origins, while a very well done study, didn't quite satisfy my interest. I was hoping for it to be more psychological in nature, but it was not. If you are already well versed in the environmental impacts of our world on the yet-to be born baby, much of this book will be old news. If
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