Linda Geddes

The basics: Linda Geddes, a British author and journalist, wrote the New Scientist column entitled Bumpology. It now continues on her website.

My thoughts: Since the moment I found out I was pregnant, I've eagerly explored the non-traditional pregnancy books. I'm more interested in the how and why than in the strict, traditional rules. I'm more interested in exploring the experiences of real pregnant women than the advice of the experts. I'm most interested in learning about pregnancy across show more the globe, so Bumpology was right up my alley. I'm continuously startled at the differences between the pregnancy and birth experiences in the U.S. and Europe (and Australia): "Around 58 percent of U.S. women have an epidural, while in the UK, it is closer to 20 percent."

Much of what I read in the early sections of Bumpology I had already learned in Emily Oster's excellent Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom is Wrong--and What You Really Need to Know (review coming next week.) I won't fault Bumpology for that, as there need to be more sources, particularly for U.S. women, exploring the truth behind the rules we're given without evidence. Still, what reading these two books close together made clear is that while many of the ideas are the same, the two authors take dramatically different approaches. Different readers will have different preferences.

Bumpology is essentially a collection of Bumpology columns. One big pro to this approach is the breadth of topics covered. Bumpology begins with pregnancy, continues with birth, and ends with babies. I will definitely pick it up to re-read those sections when the time comes. One big con, however, was how little information was included about some topics. With 150 sections in just over 300 pages, very little is explored in depth. For some topics, the amount of information was just right, but for others, I wanted more. I wish Geddes would have expanded some columns. I also wish she would have done some more revising for this U.S. edition of the book. While I welcomed her British perspective, there were numerous opportunities to play up different policies and results.

The verdict: There's a lot of good information in Bumpology, but it left me wanting more of many vignettes and less of others. As a reading experience, it was uneven, but as a resource to refer to as I get closer to birth, and as my baby grows after s/he is born, I think it will prove a helpful one. show less

The sun rises every single day and has done so for the past few billion years. This source of energy has played a pivotal part in the development of life on Earth and not unsurprising, it has been a focus of our collective attention for time immemorial. Many cultures have worshipped it or have tracked its regular path through the heavens and tried to elucidate meaning from it.

As the sun has been a central part of almost all the Earth’s inhabitants, lots of creatures have evolved in tandem show more with it, including us. Research has shown that the sun is key to our mental well being, sleep, immune systems and circadian rhythms. Too much sun is bad for us as it can cause skin cancers but then so is too little, those that rarely see the sun do not generate enough vitamin D that is essential for their health.

One of the biggest disrupters to our health in the modern day is artificial light. Ever since the light bulb was invented, cheap affordable light has been available to all so we have retreated indoors turning pallid in the glow of the modern screens. Office lighting is a good example. The output from the ceilings lights is fairly poor, you only get a fraction of light, around 200 to 300 lux, which is nothing when you compare it to the amount light on a bright day which can reach around 100,000 lux. All of these effects are cumulative, and if you live in northern Europe, then you are much worse off in winter because of the very short days.

I liked this book a lot, it does what a good popular science book should do, gives you a good overview of the subject and touches on lots of different subjects without becoming too academic. On certain elements, for example, on our body clocks and how to improve lighting for those on shift work, in particular, Geddes explores them in a little more depth. Worth reading. show less

This book was something of a mixed bag.

On the positive side, it was full of interesting information, and it was fact based.

If the book had a takeaway, it was that a lot of the things parents stress over have little real impact. This makes sense. When there actually is compelling evidence, then there's not much to debate.

Geddes frequently used relative risk to make it easier to assess the impact of different choices during pregnancy and early parenting. I liked her way of saying "what this show more means is that X parents would have to change behavior Y to result in 1 improved outcome". This sort of perspective made it clear that, for the most part, the relative risk of the two options was not worth stressing over.

What I didn't like about the book is that it ended up being a set of unconnected factoids. There was nothing to tie everything together. After reading [b:Expecting Better|16158576|Expecting Better How to Fight the Pregnancy Establishment with Facts|Emily Oster|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1363559083s/16158576.jpg|21998992] I really felt that I had gained information that would help me make more informed decisions about the birth experience I wanted. After reading this book, I felt more ready for a trivia contest.

The other thing I disliked was that Geddes would sometimes jump from what a study actually said to broader conclusions, even though she criticized other studies for doing the same thing. She didn't do this too often, but often enough to be annoying.

Overall, this was an interesting book but not what I would recommend if you wanted to learn about pregnancy, birth, or infants. show less

Decent Exploration Of The Topic. A couple of caveats to this review up front: This book was released in 2019, and I've read at least a handful of books on the same general topic of human circadian rhythms both before and since. I also read it via Audible, so I have no way of knowing if its documentation is adequate or lacking. These caveats noted, to me this book was more a decent introduction to the general topic than a truly in depth or ground breaking look at it. Most of the things it show more covered were things I was already generally aware of and even knew a bit of the specifics of due to those other books. So to me, there truly wasn't much "new science" here at all. And yet, the book was very much approachable and enjoyable, and indeed seemed great for someone less read in the subject at hand. Geddes herself reads the Audible version, and it is quite clear she both knows her subject well and is genuinely passionate about it, so those are definite bonuses in my take on the book. Overall a truly solid introduction to the topics at hand, told in a very approachable manner even for those less familiar with them. Very much recommended. show less