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What To Expect Before You're Expecting (2009)

by Heidi Murkoff(Favorite Author)

3.35 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

076115552X (ISBN13: 9780761155522)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Workman Publishing Company

review 1: The painful writing style makes it so hard to take anything the author says seriously. Furthermore, she emphasizes the importance of each point, and then in the summary at the end of each small section turns around and says something along the lines of "but either way is ok, it's up to you!" It's as if she is so anxious to make everything overly positive, she will sacrifice the point she just made.Possibly worth reading for those completely in the dark on all things conception, or who need their hand held, but any educated readers who hate corny jargon should skip on to one of the many other options.
review 2: 2.5 stars. I read this book because my husband and I are thinking of trying to conceive in the near future. I had very mixed feelings about it.Because it... more was the first book I read, and because I do not have many close female friends who are mothers nor any siblings, even some of the basic information about what you should and should not do when trying to conceive was useful. (This includes such obvious advice as getting your weight under control, taking your vitamins, and a reminder about some things you might not be able to eat when pregnant.) I have read other reviews that have said an hour of Google research might provide the same information as this book, and perhaps that is true. Still, I find books to be comforting and realistically, part of reading this book was to deal with some of my own anxieties (precisely because I'm a "planner" and having children is nothing if not an exercise in the unexpected).Because that was part of why I wished to read this book, however, it made large swathes of it really superfluous and perhaps they could have been even more anxiety-inducing had I not skipped them. A great portion of the book is about problems with fertility, which is of course something we have not yet been established to have. Additionally, the book is solely focused on the body, but does not discuss anything regarding mentally preparing for a baby, which I hoped it might have. Finally, the language used is eye-rolling at best; the author revels in bad puns and cutesy metaphors that are distracting.Ultimately, if one truly needs a baseline primer on the bodily aspects of conception, the first few chapters of this are useful. If one wants some questions to help one mentally prepare, however, this book offers none of that. Overall, though, this book is perhaps more useful for those who have been trying for a while but have not yet conceived. less

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