Customer Reviews

Belly Laughs: The Naked Truth About Pregnancy and Childbirth

5 star:		(407)
4 star:		(87)
3 star:		(42)
2 star:		(25)
1 star:		(34)

 

 

My best gave me two books to read when I became pregnant. The first one was Jenny McCarthy's book which I could not put down once I started reading it. It literally made me laugh out loud! Every thought expressed in this book popped in my mind when I was pregnant so it was nice to know I wasn't the only crazy pregnant lady.

The other book given to me was actually a book on healthy eating during your pregnancy, which I thought so highly of, I'll mention it here also.

Nutritious Diet During Pregnancy: A Must For Delivering a Healthy Birth Weight Baby

I thought this book was truely hilarious, and like many others read it in one sitting.

This book is the antithesis to the matronly and patronising "What to Expect" books. The purpose of this book was not to be educational in this style (she doesn't pretend to be a medical professional) but to be frank about the things most of us are reluctant to discuss.

I for one am so sick of celebrities giving interviews about how wonderful, miraculous and perfect their pregnancies and births are (not to mention the hallmark-card motherhood sentiments). Sure, we all can appreciate just how wonderful the whole process is, but this is written about ad nauseum. It makes us 'real mothers' feel ashamed about our less-than-perfect experiences and feelings. Its time pregnancy/birth/motherhood was represented more realistically in the media.

I think for too long it has been 'taboo' for mothers to complain at all, or admit that things are not always wonderful (perhaps this is contributing to the worrying rates of PND?) I see this open and honest book as a step in the right direction for demystifying the whole process. It tells you the things other books either don't or gloss over, and I applaud her for her courage.

Can't wait to see what she comes up with for the second installment..I hope she is able to be open and honest about more than just her bodily functions but also the mixed feelings that sometimes go along with motherhood.

I'm not expecting, but one of my best friends is expecting her first child. My coworker brought this book into work, and she said we had to read this book. I had tears running down my face. This book is a quick read and you can finish it easy in 1 - 2 days. This book takes a light hearted look at pregnancy. Pregnancy is a beautiful experience, but it was fun to read her frank and funny views on gas, the belly expanding, and the all so quiet topic of pooping on the delivery table. There were so many moments when I laughed out loud and had to look around to make sure no one was looking at me all strange.

Some of her other funny stories includes; craving mustard, when she hated mustard. Jenny liking mumus because nothing else fit. Jenny having strange dreams while pregnant. Dealing with hemorrhoids, weighing her breast. Her trying to keep her boobs from hanging off the sides of the mattress due to their size. Surrender to the maternity bra. A pregnant woman's fart can truly bring a man to his knees. I had to find tissue after reading that line. I had so many laughing tears running down my face. The different changes the body go through. Crying for no reason due to hormonal changes, and pregnancy stupids. Skin changes, pregnant head, bad headaches and wanting to saw the head off. Premature labor. Hating skinny women. How she panicked when the epidural wore off and her concerns was still "Am I pooping on the table." Don't make a pregnant woman want to pee.

This book is not meant to be a pregnancy guide, it's meant to take a light hearted comical look at going through the pregnancy experience. I mean the book is after all called Belly Laughs. If you are expecting this book to have some new insight on pregnancy then you will be mistaken. If you have a great sense of humor you will find yourself enjoying this book a lot.

This book will make you laugh and laugh some more. I bought a copy for my best friend, and she loved it. This book is hilarious!!!!!!!!

If you are tired of people telling you what a beautiful experience pregnancy is, this is the book for you! Sure, it is crude, but she tells it like it is. I was shocked at what happened to me during me first pregnancy and would have appreciated Jenny's frank talk, as I didn't hear about these things from anyone else. I thought that I was a freak of nature. At least now I know there were at least two of us! Belly laughs indeed!

So, for the most part the reviews are either 'OMG, this book is so funny' or 'OMG this book is so offensive!'
It's funny, no questioning that. It's crude, no questioning that either. If you find the "F" word offensive, don't buy it. If you find referring to your privates in "crude" language offensive, don't buy it. For those of us who have conquered the world of adult language and realize that words are just words there are no real problems.

Don't buy this book if you are looking to be educated about pregnancy. It's entitled "Belly Laughs". These are Jenny's anecdotal stories that we all ge to laugh about.

If you are one of those people who is horrified if you hear a pregnant woman call herself fat, say she isn't going to breastfeed or is more concerned with her own image than this "perfect beautifu life inside her" don't buy. For those of us who have actually been through pregnancy without sugar coating it, some days you do feel fat, sometimes you DO want to have sex without jr. kicking you and every once in a while we want to think more about ourselves than being pregnant. It's good that there is a book in the mainstream that validates that feeling instead of saying "all you should think about is this life inside you". Sometimes us pregnant girls want to think about our OWN lives.

I bought two books during my last pregnancy on the same day- "Belly Laughs" and "The Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy." I read "Belly Laughs" first, and truly considered it to be written on about a 10th grade level, it was so immature, unenlightened, and truly filled with absolutely no useful info whatsoever. It wasn't even very entertaining! I read the entire book in one day, and returned it to the store the next day, it was so disappointing. Incidentally, "The Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy" turned out to be EXACTLY what I was looking for- a book that would provide some good advice, but would mostly be truly entertaining and make me laugh out loud at the ridiculous predicaments of pregnancy. I have given 4 copies of "The Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy" to friends as they got pregnant, and they agreed wholeheartedly with my opinion. Avoid "Belly Laughs" like the plague, and get "The Girlfriend's Guide" instead!!

Candid, often hysterical "up close and personal" accounts of some of the most embarrassing, annoying, confusing experiences a mother-to-be (or in my case a mother pregnant with her second child) is faced with. It was pure joy and instant relief!...It's as if I was talking to a close girlfriend over a cup of coffee only too happy to discover that I am truly not alone in the occasional feelings of anxiety, guilt, envy, paranoia and general frustration the hormones seem to stir up during this otherwise blessed 9 month period. Humor is indeed therapeutic, an essential tool for successful parenting. Another book that I highly recommend for the same reasons is called "The Pocket Parent." This book is loaded with humor, compassion and hundreds of sanity saving suggestions written exclusively for parents of toddlers. The many short true annecdotes included from the true experts--moms and dads in the trenches of parenthood--continue to help me keep in mind that I am not alone in my hair-raising experiences, thoughts and feelings especially on a really bad day! Both books are excellent additions to your home library that will make you laugh while replenishing your spirit as a more confident parent!

Pregnancy BBS's are riddled with the abbreviation "TMI," meaning "too much information," which drives me crazy. Posters use it when they're about to timidly discuss the really horrible aspects of pregnancy, usually involving orifices or bodily fluids.

Well, you won't find the abbreviation in Jenny McCarthy's book, and that's 'cuz there's apparently no such thing as "TMI" in her world. Orifices & fluids aplenty: what a refreshing approach!

I read this book, then passed it along to my husband so he can see that even glamourous, beautiful celebrities suffer from hemmorrhoids and other afflictions.

This book is down to earth. I didn't find it laugh-out-loud funny, but it is realistic and cheerful, and that's exactly what I look for in a "middle-trimester-doldrums" kind of book. Enjoy!

Say what you will about Jenny McCarthy, the girl is funny, and she tells it like it is. I had seen her talking about her pregnancy on tv, so that sparked my interest in this book. For any woman going through a tough pregnancy who needs a pick-me-up, this is definitely it. It is difficult to get the honest truth about pregnancy from women, but Jenny McCarthy is not one of those women. She bares all, but, in the end, all the pain and suffering was worth it. And that's what we want to hear, isn't it?

McCarthy's sense of humor can sometimes be like a 7th-grade boy's, which will suit her well as a mother to a young boy. Most of what she says is painfully true, and you will find yourself smiling through the short chapters.

Model, actress and spokewoman Jenny Mccarthy shows the lighter side to pregancy, birth and future motherhood in this humorous novel. She makes you laugh at her personal asides which happened during her pregnancy of her son Evan. She pulls no punches. Her book is funny because she tells it like it is..Everything from Mood Swings to Weight Gain is covered honestly, which makes this humor real (and it is!)

Thank God I am a man, but the next friend who states that she (or in the case of her husband telling me that his wife) is pregnant-will get a copy of this book from me, NO QUESTIONS ASKED! With a yellow sticky note posted on the cover READ THIS NOW!

And Jenny, thanks for the laughes-i just hope men never get pregnant or have babies...It would kill me!

Bennet Pomerantz AUDIOWORLD