Before Your Pregnancy: A 90 Day Guide for Couples on How to Prepare for a Healthy Conception [Paperback]

Amy Ogle (Author), Lisa Mazzullo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 3, 2002

Before Your Pregnancy is a breakthrough book for prospective parents—a completely detailed resource that prepares mothers and fathers-to-be to conceive the healthiest baby possible, to make pregnancy and delivery easier, and to foster the mental and physical well-being of their infant child. Created by two experienced health-care professionals, this unique handbook not only discusses virtually every aspect of preconception that affects a healthy baby, it tells you how to handle each one. The authors spell out what each parent needs to do, starting at least ninety days before conception (the minimum time needed for sperm to mature). The hundreds of topics covered—many for the first time in any book—include

• Men’s Health: Building healthy sperm before conception (nutrition, fitness, and medical influences)
• Women’s Health: Gynecologic well-being, preexisting medical conditions, genetic legacy, boosting fertility, becoming a mother at an older age
• Becoming an Informed Patient: Choosing a doctor, what a complete preconception exam includes, important questions and how to ask them, insurance coverage
• Nutrition: Improving the health of future generations, preconception meal makeovers, ethnic Food Guide Pyramids, avoiding food-borne illnesses, vitamin and mineral facts, pre-pregnancy body weight
• Fitness: Preconception fitness evaluation and exercise prescription, safety tips and motivational anecdotes, preconception strength and flexibility workout
• Medications/Herbs: Baby-friendly ones and ones to avoid
• Personal Readiness: Emotional, financial, and environmental issues
• Romancing the Egg: Tips for success when ready to “start trying”
Plus: Separate questionnaires for the prospective parents to fill out in preparation for their preconception medical visit.

This warm, intelligent, and completely informed reference gives aspiring parents exactly the knowledge and support they need to insure the best of everything for their child-to-be.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This valuable pre-pregnancy resource should be welcomed by prospective parents. Ogle, a dietician, exercise physiologist, and personal trainer, and Mazzullo (OB-GYN, Northwestern Univ. Medical Sch.) recognized that while the importance of optimal health during pregnancy is widely acknowledged, relatively little information is available to consumers about the significant 90 days that precede conception. Stressing that preconception counseling is relevant for all couples, not just those who may be "high risk," the authors present clear and realistic advice about a range of subjects relating to the smooth delivery of a healthy baby. Among the topics covered are women's health and gynecological well-being, nutrition, fitness evaluation and exercises, men's issues, medications and herbs (which are "baby-friendly"?), and emotional, environmental, and financial issues. Interspersed throughout the readable text are numerous checklists, tables of important facts and practical advice, and patient vignettes. Parents-to-be who read this book will approach parenthood with increased knowledge and self-confidence. Highly recommended for all public libraries and consumer health collections.
Linda M.G. Katz, Drexel Univ. Health Sciences Libs., Philadelphia
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Many women with risk factors from age to medical conditions to genetic histories take advantage of pre-pregnancy counseling to ensure their health and that of their not-yet-conceived children. Ogle, a registered dietitian and exercise physiologist, and Mazzulo, a practicing OB-GYN, offer a revised edition of their guidebook for all women, at-risk or not, to ensure healthy pregnancies and babies. Drawing on the latest research on preconception health care, the authors offer 12 steps for women to optimize their health before conception, new body-weight guidelines, and preconception menu planning. The book also focuses on men's health and the issues that may affect the ability to conceive. The authors tackle everything from urban myths about pregnancy to the latest on technology and natural herbs and supplements, as well as new safety information on mercury and fish. Advice ranges from the basic (avoiding alcohol and tobacco and checking for environmental hazards in the home) to the more complex (getting fertility treatments). This is a comprehensive and user-friendly guide for couples who want to get pregnant. --Vanessa Bush

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; 1 edition (September 3, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 034544096X
• ISBN-13: 978-0345440969
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 1 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #59,722 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #38 in Books > Medical Books > Nursing > Women's Health, Obstetrics & Gynecology

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

422 of 451 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars not so good, April 1, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Before Your Pregnancy: A 90 Day Guide for Couples on How to Prepare for a Healthy Conception (Paperback)

I really wanted to like this book. I wasn't even expecting it to have lots of information that I didn't already know, having done a ton of research myself in my role as fertility counselor, but thought that it would be slightly helpful at least. It was not. It was instead incomplete and incorrect.

Conclusions made are inconsistent - thing A is to be treated with caution because its safety for pregnant women is unproven, whereas thing B is considered safe because it has never been shown to cause problems. Where is the logic here? There is no difference between "never been shown to cause problems" and "safety unproven". And if there is a difference in the proven safety of these two things, it should be stated explicitly rather than left at these two vague comments.

Some statements are just plain incorrect. For example, it is stated that ovulation is the day of the basal body temperature rise, when in fact the temperature rise usually occurs the day following ovulation. Also, intercourse on this day is stated to give the best chance of conception. This is incorrect whichever way you look at it - intercourse on the day of the temperature rise is usually too late (being the day after ovulation, the egg is often dead by then), and intercourse on the day of ovulation is still not the best timing (for those who are interested, intercourse the day before ovulation is best, although difficult to time). I have to wonder what other "facts" in this book are downright wrong.

Finally, conclusions are drawn without sharing the information used to make them. It is claimed that a woman who has no immunity to rubella must get vaccinated, stating that the potential risks of the vaccine far outweigh the benefits. Nowhere is it mentioned that an adult woman receiving the rubella vaccine has much higher risk of serious medical conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and thrombocytopenia, and that according to the CDC the incidence of rubella in the US is extremely low. Whether or not the benefits of this vaccine outweigh the risks is something for women to decide for themselves, with all pertinent information.

Now, I would expect a book written by two doctors to side more often with medical gospel than not, but I was very surprised by the lack of portrayal of the other side of the issues. Or more to the point, that some things were treated as complete non-issues: women are encouraged to run right out and get the flu and chicken pox shots, with no mention of their risks or efficacy.

I should say that I did find the information on weight, diet, and exercise to be very thorough and mostly consistent with other reading I have done. Still, I simply cannot recommend this book.

57 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Book On Pre-Conception and Pregnancy Too!, August 8, 2003

By 

K (Pittsburgh, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Before Your Pregnancy: A 90 Day Guide for Couples on How to Prepare for a Healthy Conception (Paperback)

I am usually too lazy to bother to type reviews. However, I HAD to write on on this book. If you are like me in that you want from a pre-pregnancy/pregnancy book:

- thoroughness
- inclusiveness
- reliability
- readibility

then you will not be disppointed by this book. I bought this first, before I conceived, to make sure that I was doing all I could/ should to prepare my body for pregnancy. This book addressed the whole range of issues related to this, and in a very clear, readable (lots of graphics to explain things) yet extremely authoritative manner. The authors have their credentials and this comes through clearly.

I have very high expectations of books, especially when they are on such an important topic as pregnancy. Up-to-date info. is mandatory--not optional--and this books has it.

After I became pregnant, I bought many other pregnancy books, but kept coming back to this one. The others are better for describing what is going on month-by-month, etc., but NONE are better for general medical reference info. For example, this is the only book I have found that breaks down herbs into 3 categories ("Safe During Pregnancy", "Herbs That Warrant Caution" and "Herbs to Avoid") and clasifies every major herb you are likely to encounter (in teas, body creams, etc.). They also describe common concerns/ probelms in a very user-friendly yet authoritative manner, and told me all I needed to know about continuing to exercise safely throughout pregnancy. Plus the tone of the book is very positive, reassuring and upbeat.

I can't say enough about this book. It is my pregnancy bible.

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very helpful, very informative, September 19, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Before Your Pregnancy: A 90 Day Guide for Couples on How to Prepare for a Healthy Conception (Paperback)

I've read and looked through a lot of "pre-pregnancy" books over the past few months but this one is not only the most helpful and up-to-date one I've come across, but also it is the LEAST panic-inducing. So many other books devote more than half the text to fertility problems, which only served to heighten my paranoia and fear about that very issue. This book took a very calm and rational approach to ALL topics that need to be covered during the pre-conception time, and I really appreciated that.

I also really liked the tone of this book. It was friendly and informative yet confident and authoritative. I did not feel like there was lecturing going on (which is good as lecturing, let's be honest, can sometimes trigger a "I don't care what you say, I'm gonna do such-and-such anyway!" reaction), but rather like the authors were part of my "preconception team," working WITH me and my husband towards achieving the goal of a healthy and happy pregnancy.