Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy (Paperback)

~ Mayo Clinic (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Would-be mothers looking for precise, accurate information from a reputable source will appreciate this mammoth pregnancy guide from the celebrated Mayo Clinic. The volume actually provides much more information than most parents will need: week by week accounts of the baby’s development, entries on how pregnancy can be affected by dozens of previous health conditions (such as HIV and diabetes), self-care tips for side effects like nausea and back pain, sidebars that explain the difference between identical and fraternal twins, etc. But the book contains at least one feature that most pregnant women will find indispensable: charts that indicate how to handle "troublesome signs and symptoms" during each three week period. For example, if a woman has slight spotting during the first four weeks of pregnancy, the chart tells her to notify a doctor during her next hospital visit. But if she has any bleeding at all during weeks 29 to 32, the chart indicates that she should tell her doctor immediately. Another stellar feature is the book’s even-handed series of "decision guides," which help parents make those hard (and even guilt-inducing) choices about breastfeeding, circumcision and whether or not to go back to work. Some parents may find the book’s cool, no-nonsense tone intimidating, or even scary, but when deciding what to do about mid-term cramps or pain, most readers will find great reassurance this volume’s carefully vetted facts.
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Review

...clear and compassionate answers to many of the questions and decisions that parents often encounter. -- Total Health

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Product Details

• Paperback: 624 pages
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks; 1 edition (April 13, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060746378
• ISBN-13: 978-0060746377
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (191 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #298 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #1 in	Books > Science > Medicine > Specialties > Obstetrics & Gynecology
  #2 in	Books > Professional & Technical > Medical > Medicine
  #4 in	Books > Parenting & Families > Pregnancy & Childbirth

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

385 of 390 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superior to "What to Expect...", August 14, 2005

By	J. Radley - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Back when babies were just daydreams, I recieved "What to Expect When You're Expecting" (3rd ed.) from a pregnant friend who had an extra copy. Not knowing any better, I was quite pleased. Once I became pregnant and actually needed a guide, however, that changed. I found the book to be poorly organized, overly conversational and condescending in tone (especially given my plans to be a stay-at-home mom), and generally useless for anything other than instilling fear and paranoia. Most exasperating, though, was the "organization." Symptoms that can arise during varying parts of pregnancy are scattered haphazardly amongst the monthly chapters. This means that the book must be read cover to cover and all material retained in memory if hunting through the index and flipping back and forth between sections doesn't sound appealing.

Enter the "Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy." Hallelujah! Not wanting to suffer through another mediocre guide to pregnancy, I looked through every book I could get my hands on, and this was the only one that satisfied my criteria. It is written by trustworthy professionals in clear yet -professional- language, it provides information on "pregnancy, childbirth and your newborn" in chronological order, and best of all, it contains separate sections entitled, appropriately, "decision guides for pregnancy, childbirth and parenthood," "pregnancy reference guide," and "complications of pregnancy and childbirth," each with a table of contents at the beginning of the section. Instead of having to take a wild guess at which chapter (or, more likely, chapters) cramping might have landed in in "What to Expect" or searching the entire index, I could find it, along with all the other things I might be wondering about, in the reference guide. Blessed simplicity!

The "Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy" was the only book I needed. Once I found it, "What to Expect When You're Expecting" went back on the shelf and stayed there.

149 of 151 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best pregnancy book ever, May 6, 2005

By	A reader (California) - See all my reviews

When we started trying, I bought a lot of pregnancy books. I am now towards the end of my first trimester and this book has been by far the best book I own on this topic.

This book is extremely well organized, very informative and objective, and covers a wide range of topics from pregnancy to birth to breastfeeding.

It is very easy to find what you are looking for. For each week, it explains what your body is going through, how your baby is growing and what emotional changes you could expect. In each month, there is a summary page that lists the problems you may have in that period and tells you when you should call your doctor. There are very nice drawings that show what your baby looks like and how big it is. (Some pictures are real size, for others the book tells what percentage of the real thing the picture is.)

This book had answers to all my questions so far - and I should say, being a very curious first time mom, I had a lot of questions.

Thanks and congratulations to Mayo Clinic.

143 of 149 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Saved my Baby, October 10, 2005

By	Rebeca (Upstate, NY) - See all my reviews

This is the best book out there by far. I had 3 other pregnancy books in addition to this one. This book answered every question I had during pregancy. And I had lots of them. At the week 38, I wasn't feeling great but I wasn't dying either. Just not feeling too well. I was having some minor chills, and NO fever. No other symptom. I opened the book and it said to call my OBGYN right away. I did so and my OBGYN wasn't too sure that it was urgent. My OBGYN then changed her mind 5 min later called me back and told me to go to the hospital for a quick checkup. My babies heartrate was over 200/min. They managed to stabilize him and 15 min his heartrate dropped to 80/min. Needless to say, my OBGYN did and emergency C-section. Had I not had this book and been so persistent with my doctor, my baby might be not be alive. Well worth every penny it costs.