What to Expect When You're Expecting, Third Edition (original 1984; edition 2002)

Factual, answered some of my questions but also a bit terrifying to read when you actually are expecting... ( )

Not pregnant.

But all the pregnancy advocacy books (and reviews of said books) I read reference this book in some way (clever pun, basic manual, etc.). So I figured it was the birthing bible was curious about it.

I came away with three thoughts.

1: There isn't much here that you can't find on Google. That being said, before the advent of google and Baby.com and all those other sites, this probably could have been helpful. Specific stats and studies would have been interesting. But, given the fact that this book has been through multiple updates, I can see where the writers were coming from.

2. It seemed like half of the reviewers of this book, the birthing bible, hated it. I guess one side-effect of pregnancy is anxiety? The set up of the book didn't help much. The long list of possible complications listed at the back should have been listed as an appendix. But then, given the current anxiety level of women rushing to hire OBGYN's instead of taking advantage of the largely-out-of-US-more-popular midwife, this probably wouldn't really help much anyway.

3. The authors are definitely lightly biased in favor of a hospital birth though, after reading the calm section on "how to give birth by yourself," I'm not sure why. It seemed like something that would be pretty easy, actually. Does that make me a hippie? Probably not because, as mentioned earlier, I also read the extensive list of possible complications that was listed after that page and am now convinced that I will die of preclampsia, giving birth to twins hideously deformed by mumps and the chicken pox. ( )

What to Expect When You'RE Expecting by Eisenberg (2002)

This is a great book for first and second time moms. It offers enough information that you can read it many times and glean something new each time. ( )

Has a lot of useful information and is easy to read. Unfortunately, it is way too long and repetitive. ( )