Ellen's review
What to Expect When You're Expecting, Third Edition
by Heidi Murkoff, Arlene Eisenberg, Sandee Hathaway
I do understand your feelings on this book Ellen, but I'm also surprised. I thought this book was indispensable. I really appreciated it at my first rodeo! I had no partner & my life was in total chaos though, so maybe it seemed like a calm centering force.
I just feel like the tone was so condecending and judgemental. And I feel like they are so insane with their advice on medications and diet. When I was pregnant with Steven, my OB actually told me she hated this book becuase it made her patients feel bad. :) Anyway, with this pregnancy, I have not touched this book and instead gone with common sense and advice from my doctor in areas that are grey.
And also, maybe it is a frame-of-mind thing. Both my pregnancies have been crazy and non-reassuring and always end up with me worrying that I am going to die (weird ultrasound findings with the heart and preeclampsia last time, bleeding and placenta previa this time) and I am a neurotic mess the whole time. Once the baby is born and we are both fine, I am in a much better place. I DID really like the What To Expect The First Year and it is written by the same people...
I found this useful because it is so exhaustive and so easy to look up something and find it instantly the moment you are concerned about something, but I agree it was a bit condescending, and if I had tried to eat EVERYTHING on that diet, I would have gained about 20 more pounds than I already did.
Ellen's review
What to Expect When You're Expecting, Third Edition by Heidi Murkoff, Arlene Eisenberg, Sandee Hathaway
Ellen's review
rating:
If you have to read one book on pregnancy, do yourself a favor and pick a different one than What to Expect. If you have lots of time on your hands and want to read several books, go ahead and read this one too. The general tone of this book is alarmist and condescending. Unless, of course, you planned the conception perfectly (Why, you and your partner didn't even take Tylenol while trying to get pregnant!), your diet during pregnancy is a model that the USDA would be proud of, you wouldn't dream of medicating your cold, you exercise daily, your desire to experience unmedicated birth is overwhelming, and you beleive that anything other than wearing your baby 24/7 to promote attachment is akin to child abuse.
I'm not quite sure how to explain how this book makes me feel other than this analogy - it felt like going to your doctor to ask for the morning-after-pill to only receive a lecture on the dangers of multiple sex partners from the old-school nurse. While sitting on a cold exam...more
I'm not quite sure how to explain how this book makes me feel other than this analogy - it felt like going to your doctor to ask for the morning-after-pill to only receive a lecture on the dangers of multiple sex partners from the old-school nurse. While sitting on a cold exam...more
I do understand your feelings on this book Ellen, but I'm also surprised. I thought this book was indispensable. I really appreciated it at my first rodeo! I had no partner & my life was in total chaos though, so maybe it seemed like a calm centering force.
I just feel like the tone was so condecending and judgemental. And I feel like they are so insane with their advice on medications and diet. When I was pregnant with Steven, my OB actually told me she hated this book becuase it made her patients feel bad. :) Anyway, with this pregnancy, I have not touched this book and instead gone with common sense and advice from my doctor in areas that are grey.
And also, maybe it is a frame-of-mind thing. Both my pregnancies have been crazy and non-reassuring and always end up with me worrying that I am going to die (weird ultrasound findings with the heart and preeclampsia last time, bleeding and placenta previa this time) and I am a neurotic mess the whole time. Once the baby is born and we are both fine, I am in a much better place. I DID really like the What To Expect The First Year and it is written by the same people...
I found this useful because it is so exhaustive and so easy to look up something and find it instantly the moment you are concerned about something, but I agree it was a bit condescending, and if I had tried to eat EVERYTHING on that diet, I would have gained about 20 more pounds than I already did.