I think “Heading Home with Your Newborn” was much more helpful.

I’d like to throw it out the window. My midwives refuse to even have copies of this book in their library anymore. (They do, however, have a copy of your book there.) It seems to me that it is very alarmist and it represents only one point of view on giving birth and handling pregnancy. I do not like any book that refuses to acknowledge that there are different ways and women have choices. If the book wants to tell me “the only right way,” then I don’t want to read it.

#Angelica– I LOVE Let’s Panic About Babies. Also, have any of you heard of “The Panic-Free Pregnancy” by Dr. Broder? It’s really good but it may be a little out of date.

And @Kate, that’s nice to hear about From The Hips :)

i could not agree with you more if i tried. the begining of pregnancy, after going to all the women in my whole life and none of them remembering pregnancy all that well i went to books and websites. And then shortly after, i went crazy…. that book made me feel like there was everything to fear and everything could hurt me and my baby. it was just WAYY too serious for me!

Sing it sister! After reading What to Expect ( I read Your Pregnancy Week By Week first. Really liked it. ) I vowed to never read any more non-humor pregnancy books. I’ve never been a hypochondriac and didn’t appreciate the book trying to convince me to be.
I spent the rest of my pregnancy trusting my doctor who said “your body knows what to do even if you don’t.” and reading books that made me giggle like Belly Laughs, Baby Laughs and I’ll never have Sex with you again.
BTW my doctor was right my body knew what to do and did it well and no amount of reading pregnancy books would have made it do anything better.

I read Your Pregnancy Week by Week and liked it. The stuff that was “scary”, I asked my doctor about at our next visit but there didn’t seem to be anything in there that was focused too much on the scary stuff (it’s been a couple years since I read it, though). I really like the BabyCenter pregnancy app for my iPhone and used that for this last pregnancy – it’s super portable and had a lot of the same info as the Your Pregnancy Week by Week.

Someone let me borrow it, but it was the old version that tells you that cake is the devil. I read the first chapter and promptly abandoned it. I agree with Sam re: “Let’s Panic.” It offers a much needed (for me) dose of humor and perspective, especially when you read those birth boards a little too often and constantly read how many people consider c-sections, epidurals and OB’s to be evil.

I respectfully disagree. I like my copy but it definitely was not the only book I read on pregnancy. I went on to buy the next 2 volumes on 1st year and toddlers. I read a lot so I’ve always taken everything with a grain of salt.

THANK YOU! I’ve had so many clients say this book scared the crap out of them and I agree! Wrote a similar article on it just a few days ago.

http://www.empoweredbirthdoulas.com/blog/2011/06/05/Whats-so-wrong-with-What-to-Expect.aspx

Wow. Thanks for the love of From The Hips (& the Babble week-by-week I contributed to). We really wanted to write a book that reflected the many ways one can be be pregnant/become a parents. It’s amazing to get feedback! Now I am inspired to write a post now about the books I love, because there are so many of them. Some mentioned here, so thanks and stay tuned.

As a mother of three and expecting the fourth. I learned early on that this book was just not right. In my first pregnancy almost every page of it gave me a new reason to worry. I freaked out and called my doctor at least once a week. You have the first signs of pregnancy and the wonderful do’s and donts, then its all this about what should be happening and how you should be feeling all that fun stuff, you soon start to question OMG am I doing everything that is best for my baby, or is my baby going to get everything him/her needs. If I cant care for them now how will I ever care for them. Its was scary!! My OB no longer gives this to patients, no longer even has it in his office, and tells all moms this is not a good book for them to read. So many women take this book and use it as their guide through pregnancy, but really its a guide to a break down/ nut house. If someone can read this book and not fear every choice they make I envy them. I do have to say after having all three of my girls I do however read back through this book, because one it reminds me of how much I freaked out and everything with my first and its a constant reminder I can do this and everything is ok no matter what this book tells me.

I read it and enjoyed it. I found it informative mostly about the stages of pregnancy and fetal development. I definitely felt the “scare” vibe they were giving off, but I didn’t let it get to me. I knew it was just a guide and I took it as that. You do have a point though, too many women have tried to follow it word for word and been scared to death when their baby didn’t move as much as it should or as often. Sadly for me WTE was the only book I had at my disposal and only learned of other humor based pregnancy books after I didn’t need them anymore. I also like the daily emails from ivillage.com about pregnancy.
I found the WTE the First Year to be useless though. That one would send even a seasoned vet into a panic. Besides, who has time to read a book when they have a newborn at home?!

I actually enjoyed reading what was happening to the baby week by week, but never read more than that. Glad i didnt!

I’m not ashamed to say I like WTE and the other two books. It presents some realistic information about what can take place during those times. As someone who likes to be prepared for both the good and the bad (as well as the very bad), I didn’t find the book over the top. I didn’t follow it word for word of course (following a specific diet while pregnant?! HA!), but it was one place I referenced when looking into something on top of other sources, and I weighed WTE’s information with those other sources before making a decision of what to do. But at the same time I had been a dancer in my younger years, and do yoga, so I already had a natural awareness of my body and trusted it, so maybe that’s why WTE didn’t (and doesn’t) freak me out. But even with the other two books, I didn’t freak out. My son had a speech delay and I read the information in the toddler book over and over, but I didn’t overreact to the whole situation. I simply spoke to his doctor at check ups and followed her advice. But each to their own!

My main problem with What to Expect is that it doesn’t give incidence rates. So, sure, you could eat uncooked lunchmeat or cookie dough and potentially get food poisoning, but what are the odds? How often does that happen? What is the likelyhood that it will actually injure your child? So, sure, it’s “low” risk, but what does that mean? It happens to 10 women per year and their kids have yellow teeth because of the antiboitics mom had to take? It happened to a mom once and she lost the baby?

Give some real data about the risks and let mom make the choice. Don’t just give a list of proscribed foods/activities/whatever. That doesn’t empower a woman to make the choices that are right for her, even if there is some risk involved. It tells her that she doesn’t know enough to make her own choices, so the authors will tell her how to behave. Life is full of risks how we manage them is up to us. Some of us are comfortable with more risks, some are comfortable with fewer. We each get to choose what is best for ourselves and the only way to do that is with real information, not with a list of “thou shalts”.