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A review by shelberino
Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom is Wrong—and What You Really Need to Know by Emily Oster
2.0
I seem to be at that stage of life where everyone I know is getting pregnant, so I wanted to see what all the fuss is about and hopefully get on better footing to not have to ask “what?” all the time when my friends share their experiences.
The idea of a book that gives you all the facts so that you can weigh the pros and cons yourself to come to your own conclusions about how to make decisions about your pregnancy and birth was very appealing. For advice from a friend, it would be comprehensive (and I’m sure it was to the author’s friends who are mentioned throughout), but it seems to hold itself to the same standard as a scientific literature review and it just doesn’t even begin to meet that standard.
For starters, the “bottom line” value judgements at the end of every chapter completely undermine the concept of letting their reader make their own judgments based on the “evidence!” I also found that the author, though loathing unclear language from her doctor (“very high chance,” or “not likely,” etc.) used this language ALL THE TIME in the book without following up with actual data (or in some cases without providing even a reference to the data!)
Also, there was no evidence or explanation of her review process beyond her credentials as an economist. How did she choose which studies to highlight and which were no good? Sometimes she gives insight into a specific study by sharing it had a large sample size or proved statistical significance, but more often it’s left to vague language about there being many studies and highlighting the one that makes her point.
In the end, I learned enough to have a conversation with my pregnant friends, but otherwise I think this book holds itself to a much higher academic standard than it truly meets, gives women a list of pregnancy do’s and don’t’s despite promising not to, and is potentially misleading in both method and the information chosen to present.
The idea of a book that gives you all the facts so that you can weigh the pros and cons yourself to come to your own conclusions about how to make decisions about your pregnancy and birth was very appealing. For advice from a friend, it would be comprehensive (and I’m sure it was to the author’s friends who are mentioned throughout), but it seems to hold itself to the same standard as a scientific literature review and it just doesn’t even begin to meet that standard.
For starters, the “bottom line” value judgements at the end of every chapter completely undermine the concept of letting their reader make their own judgments based on the “evidence!” I also found that the author, though loathing unclear language from her doctor (“very high chance,” or “not likely,” etc.) used this language ALL THE TIME in the book without following up with actual data (or in some cases without providing even a reference to the data!)
Also, there was no evidence or explanation of her review process beyond her credentials as an economist. How did she choose which studies to highlight and which were no good? Sometimes she gives insight into a specific study by sharing it had a large sample size or proved statistical significance, but more often it’s left to vague language about there being many studies and highlighting the one that makes her point.
In the end, I learned enough to have a conversation with my pregnant friends, but otherwise I think this book holds itself to a much higher academic standard than it truly meets, gives women a list of pregnancy do’s and don’t’s despite promising not to, and is potentially misleading in both method and the information chosen to present.