Take a photo of a barcode or cover
headstronggirlie's review against another edition
3.0
There was some good information here. The authors used a very approachable style. However, a good portion of the book is devoted to fertility problems. I was more interested in the preconception planning portion. The first half of the book is useful for that.
klutzykaela's review against another edition
3.0
I'm torn because on the one hand this book does have a lot of helpful information. On the other hand, the writing is very saccharine and chock full of puns you'd find in readers digest circa 1993. It also has some really gross passages - "females tend to excel at micromanaging"?? Really??!! I'd love to see this series revamped to keep the helpful info and ditch the generalizations, stereotypes, and acronyms.
kelseycooper's review against another edition
As a medical professional, I wouldn’t recommend this to my peers looking to better understand or prepare for conception. It is written in a very approachable (read: broad overview) way which may be appealing… but I’m far too health literate, detail curious, data/study-minded, and very altogether turned off by the author’s cheeky voice to find it particular useful on my shelf. Glad it was a library loan.
emilymaedilley's review against another edition
2.0
Rating this with 2 stars because that was what I came here to do, but after reading other reviews I can 100% see why people rate it even lower. I read this as someone who is not actively looking to start a family, but with the knowledge that I may do so in the near-ish future (read: couple of years, don't freak out, Mom). I was looking for things I can do to make sure that I am as healthy as possible when we decide to go down that road.
What I wasn't expecting out of this book was 30 pages of general nutrition advice that is basically "Quit your habits, drop weight, and use ~*~moderation~*~," followed by 200 pages of a college biology class. I found her numbers to be somewhat head-scratching, and there were studies referenced that I would have liked to read, but no citations to help me find them (because we all learned THAT means the information given is reliable, right?). I also question the author's credentials, because the only ones given are that she's the author of these books, and I at least expected an author of a book like this to have a background with women's health on some level. Using your popularity as an author to explain why you're qualified to give health advice sounds very "Facebook-says-vaccines-are-bad" to me.
A few other things of note:
Same-sex couples received exactly 2/3rds of a two-page spread in a 270 page book. That's not okay, nor is it representative of the challenges same-sex couples might have when trying to conceive.
You can find her summary of basic dietary info as an infographic on Pinterest, and that infographic might be more useful. There is information that is useful between 3 months prior to pregnancy (lose that weight!) and when you are actively trying (grown adults should refer to sex as the "baby dance," or even better, BD!). If you're looking for advice on choosing where to give birth, how to choose a doctor, or something along those lines, I'll save you the read: it isn't here.
I said this is like a college biology class, and I stand by that. You'll learn all about how to make a baby and the inner workings of your body. But you also will be given that information as a paraphrase that distorts key details. I don't feel like any of the ~*~ highly scientific ~*~ information she gave here was actually scientific at all.
Buyer beware. Glad I only checked this out from my library!
What I wasn't expecting out of this book was 30 pages of general nutrition advice that is basically "Quit your habits, drop weight, and use ~*~moderation~*~," followed by 200 pages of a college biology class. I found her numbers to be somewhat head-scratching, and there were studies referenced that I would have liked to read, but no citations to help me find them (because we all learned THAT means the information given is reliable, right?). I also question the author's credentials, because the only ones given are that she's the author of these books, and I at least expected an author of a book like this to have a background with women's health on some level. Using your popularity as an author to explain why you're qualified to give health advice sounds very "Facebook-says-vaccines-are-bad" to me.
A few other things of note:
Buyer beware. Glad I only checked this out from my library!
qtpieash3's review against another edition
1.0
A few things I learned from this book:
1. You should totally quit smoking before trying to get pregnant
2. That drinking habit you have should probably go, too.
3. And that other little ah, habit you have? Ix-nay on the rugs-dray.
Ugh - the beginning of this was SO bad. It got a little better as it went on, but still nothing earth-shattering. And the author has an awful habit of putting at least one thing (sometimes two, sometimes three - I guess she likes to mix it up) per sentence in parantheses (I actually had a mental game to going to see how many sentences were parantheses free - I never got above 2 or 3). It was endlessly distracting and made it feel like more of a ym (remember that magazine?!) or Seventeen article with all the little asides to make it more relatable (or whatever).
Needless to say, I can't recomend this one.
1. You should totally quit smoking before trying to get pregnant
2. That drinking habit you have should probably go, too.
3. And that other little ah, habit you have? Ix-nay on the rugs-dray.
Ugh - the beginning of this was SO bad. It got a little better as it went on, but still nothing earth-shattering. And the author has an awful habit of putting at least one thing (sometimes two, sometimes three - I guess she likes to mix it up) per sentence in parantheses (I actually had a mental game to going to see how many sentences were parantheses free - I never got above 2 or 3). It was endlessly distracting and made it feel like more of a ym (remember that magazine?!) or Seventeen article with all the little asides to make it more relatable (or whatever).
Needless to say, I can't recomend this one.
booksongbird's review against another edition
3.0
I knew most of this information already because I'm Pre-Med. That being said, for how (relatively) old the edition I read was, it was pretty accurate. I liked that they did not push alternative medicine so hard, but rather emphasized that it should be combined with "normal" science-based medicine. Alternative medicine does have its place, but imho should not replace traditional medicine.
The writing was a little bland, but it is sort of like reading a textbook, so that's to be expected.
I also wish they would have spent more time explaining natural family planning - it's a good thing to know, even if you use birth control/etc, because it teaches women and men how to recognize the different stages of their cycle, and makes it way easier to conceive once you are trying.
Organization could have been a little better - too many text boxes on one page oftentimes.
If you don't know much about conception, pregnancy, and general wellness, I would recommend reading this or a book similar to it. This is the only one I've read on conception.
The writing was a little bland, but it is sort of like reading a textbook, so that's to be expected.
I also wish they would have spent more time explaining natural family planning - it's a good thing to know, even if you use birth control/etc, because it teaches women and men how to recognize the different stages of their cycle, and makes it way easier to conceive once you are trying.
Organization could have been a little better - too many text boxes on one page oftentimes.
If you don't know much about conception, pregnancy, and general wellness, I would recommend reading this or a book similar to it. This is the only one I've read on conception.