What to Expect When You're Expecting discussion

Feeling like the information herein is unecessary at times. It is problem obsessed- almost to the piont of hysteria, with all the things that could go wrong. The writing is also over-the-top! Like the advice to husbands to try to urge their pregnant partners to maintain their weight by reminding then to orde their chicken grilled, not breaded, at dinner time? I don't think I'd appreciate that kind of "help" or "reminder" from my partner. Comes off as pretentious to me, touting orders, but offering no help on how to live up to standards it lays out. Barking "no caffeine", but with no suggestions for stopping a daily addiction cold turkey. I don't know. My copy is going back on the thrift store shelf.

I agree- it's all about scare and it's inconsistent. It says that back-lying is one of the worst for labor, but then when it talks about labor in emergency situations tells you to lie on your back! Dumb dumb dumb. The editor obviously wasn't looking for logical consistencies.

Everytime I meet someone who's expecting there first baby I tell them not to read this book, because they'll just worry about the things in the book! I hate this book!! It literally kept me up nights when I was pregnant, I could've been sleeping!!!

When I found out I was pregnant, a friend of mine sent me a copy and swore by it. After skimming over it as I got more pregnant, I realized that if I close the book and just let my body do what it is doing, I'll be fine. I found more comfort in books that focused more on the positive aspects of all the things that were happening to me.

I think the Pregnancy Journal is a much better idea of what to expect without the fear. All pregnancies are different. If laying on your back is good for you, do it!

I always glanced at this book when I was pregnant thinking I should pick it up. I'm glad now that I didn't!

I just thought that it was a waste of money, because you can get all the same info online for free. Erica

My wife was given this book when we learned she was pregnant and she actually found it fascinating and reassuring, loaded with information she knew to take with a grain of salt, checking everything out with her own experience and her doctor's advice. She appreciated it so well she bought What To Expect The First Year and found that even more helpful.

Algernon - well, bully for your wife. I'm glad it helped someone.

I can't stand any of the What to Expect books, all of which we've been given, and which I promptly posted on Paperback Swap.

I do recommend Happiest Baby on the Block - what books did you all find helpful /after/ getting rid of What to Expect?

I agree with Algernon... If you take What to Expect with a grain of salt and discuss your questions with your OB/midwife, it's a great resource. I'm a "soak up all the available information" type of person, so having LOTS of info suits my style. I like the indexing so that you can find information on a particular topic if you need it. I also like hearing that I'm not the only one who has crazy dreams or drools a lot or gets funny red bumps on my abdomen. I'm not worried about these things, but I sure like hearing that I'm not alone.

A lot of people are saying they thought it was out to scare them. No, I think Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care is out to scare you. What to Expect is out to cram your head so full of information you can't expect to remember, let alone use, even half of it. But that's OK by me! I'm happy to go back an re-read the section on what drugs to take for your cold and how to have sex when you're the size of a blimp when I need to. And when my Internet connection is down and i'm feeling sick or sexy, that's handy information to have.

adding my voice to the pro-expecting crowd. because this book felt like it contained everything, i was able to relax every time i was thrown a curve-ball in my pregnancy. many of the other books felt like they were leaving out the bad stuff, or glossing over things, which made me anxious. others also focused on the "what" of pregnancy and not the "why" (like this one). being able to understand the reason behind issues was an incredible source of comfort and also helped me make my own decisions when it came to what advice i would follow.

cross referencing the friendlier books with this book and my ob/gyn set my mind at ease.

When I was pregnant I didn't sit down as my pregnancy progressed and read EVERY single page of this book. I don't think that's what you should do. I more used it as a reference. If I was having a problem I would look it up, go straight to that page, and read what was causing it. I thought reading the entire thing would make me worry for no reason. Overall I found it helpful.

Please remember....this book first came out a long time age. my son was born 20 years ago and I read this book while i was pregnant. I am assuming that they update it with new info as the years have passed. when i read it was actualy very helpful. internet was not what it is like today...it wasnt in homes yet. I found it quite helpful. Things that happened to my body and things that i was feeling were mentioned in the book. I was happy to have it.

I read this book when I was pregnant with my daughter who is now 24 yrs old. I found it very helpful. Everything that I experienced with my pregnancy was exactly the way the book said it would be.

I found it fear-producing as well....

I found it helpful as well just to know how the baby is developing. But I skimped and only read the parts that I want. I actually found the information on the internet scarier because you start to visit the forums. Every forum I visited had someone posting about the problems with their pregnancy that generated a lot of anxiety for me.

It's def one of those books that you take what you want and ignore the rest. Parts of it were very helpful for me. Some people think it's to be treated like the prego bible, I simply used it for general info.

Algernon wrote: "My wife was given this book when we learned she was pregnant and she actually found it fascinating and reassuring, loaded with information she knew to take with a grain of salt, checking everything..."

I also found it very helpful. If something didn't apply to me, I skipped that section. But, overall the information was sound and well written.

I too read this book when I had my first child, 29 years ago, and loved it. I got the whole series. I used it more as a reference type book and my daughter used it with her children, I think she used it the same way. I never found it scary. I would assume it would have been updated since I first read it.

I just added this to my read book list and wrote about the same thing! I was overwhelmed while reading this and am sure I had my house childproofed before my first trimester was even over, my husband still misses our toaster.

As a reader, I relied on it a lot with both my first and second babies many years ago and also bought the follow up What to Expect in the First Year. I think good quality information (as long as it's not overwhelming) can go a long way to alleviating those first-few-years anxieties.

As a writer, I used it as a reference in my own book but by that time I was also aware of some of the criticisms so it was useful from both a "what to" and "what not to" point of view.

i think this book can help especially first time moms, However, I was given this book as a gift from my sister I came to realize not all pregnancies are the same. When you have any doubt about what's really happening the best thing to do is to call you doctor you can really confuse one thing for another.

I do not think this book was not necessarily out to scare, in fact I think it addressed a lot of myths with pregnancy on what you should and shouldn't do.

I did enjoy this book, but I also felt that it was addressing an inappropriate audience. It just assumed that you were married, had a boyfriend, decent income etc. I felt like the book needed to broaden who they were communicating to.

I also loved this book. It was a reliable source of information, and I prefer to know what could go wrong ahead of time, so I can recognize it early if it happens. I read most of it up front, except the parts that definitely weren't written for me, and then continued to use it as a reference.

I think Mary makes a good point though. It would be beneficial to widen it's intended audience base.

I read this book when I was pregnant...having a mother that had 8 children....I got the best lesson in what to expect...and my mother trained one of daughters and I trained the other one.....my sister and I used to laugh, because every yardsale has a copy for sale...one year I bought it for her as a gag gift...she was well passed having a baby....I kind of thought the book was a joke