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A review by emilymaedilley
What to Expect Before You're Expecting by Heidi Murkoff
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!