Your Over-35 Week-by-Week Pregnancy Guide: All the Answers to All Your Questions About Pregnancy, Birth, and Your Developing Baby [Paperback]

M. Kelly Shanahan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 4, 2001

Know What to Expect Week-by-Week
Preparing for the arrival of a new baby is both a joy and a challenge. This is true at any age, but as an expectant mother over the age of 35 you want real answers for your unique needs and concerns. With wisdom and compassion, Dr. Kelly Shanahan shares her own experiences as an obstetrician and over-35 mom. Her detailed and reassuring approach will help you understand the significant changes in your body and life as well as your baby's development. Inside, you will find:
·Explanations and answers for your special health concerns
·Advice about making career, relationship, and lifestyle adjustments
·Practical tips for safe weight gain, exercise, and travel
·Excerpts from Dr. Shanahan's journal of her over-35 pregnancy
From pregnancy planning and proper nutrition to labor and delivery, this informative book will fully prepare you for the birth of your healthy, happy baby.
"A must-read for expectant couples over the age of 35 and a valuable reference for pregnancy at any age." —Lynn D. Montgomery, M.D., director, Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Rocky Mountain Perinatal Center, Missoula, Montana
"This book addresses virtually all of the questions commonly asked by expectant couples. Great job." —E. Albert Reexed M.D., professor and chairman, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Temple University
"A work of art and a work of love, with a lot of good science thrown in along the way." —R. Daniel Braun, M.D., FACOG, clinical professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Indiana University School of Medicine
"What a great, week-by-week, commonsense journey through pregnancy!" —William F. von Almen II, M.D., FACOG, editorial adviser, obgyn.net

Editorial Reviews

Review

Know What to Expect Week-by-Week

About the Author

M. Kelly Shanahan, M.D.:

When I was a small child, I wanted to be a jockey, but I soon grew too tall. Then, when I was 11, a fall from a trampoline changed by life: I ruptured my spleen and had major surgery. From that time, I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up: a doctor.

My course never faltered. I graduated from high school, attended Bryn Mawr College, majoring in biology, and was accepted at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. When doing my obstetrics rotation and delivering a baby to a woman having her fourth child, I found my specialty. I did my ob/gyn residency at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia. It was trial by fire. The program at the time was in a state of transition and we were short-handed and under supervised, but I learned how to think on my feet. I came out of that program well equipped to handle any emergency.

After almost three years in practice, I decided to look West for a more balanced life. I found a job at Lake Tahoe, with another woman. Shortly after I moved here, I met a wonderful man, and we were married. He always knew he wanted children, and convinced me that starting a family would be a good idea. I agreed, and being the successful physician who had always accomplished everything I set out to do figured getting pregnant would be easy.

I was wrong. I was not ovulating. I embarked on the rocky pathway of infertility, treating myself for almost a year. I got pregnant on Clomid, but miscarried. I miscarried again in 1997. That loss was devastating. I felt like I was a double failure—both as a woman and as an ob/gyn. I joined an e-mail support group and told my story on the Women's Health Forum at obgyn.net, a site for which I acted as an advisor and expert. It took me six months to get the courage to try again.

I conceived, and thanks to treatments for the antiphospholipid syndrome that was the cause of my miscarriages, this third time was a charm: after Pergonal, progesterone, aspirin and twice daily heparin shots, I delivered my daughter on 12/1/98. She is a miracle, and I am so grateful to have her. I now know how lucky we really are; in May 2000, I miscarried again, despite treatment.

I am still very proud of the "MD" after my name—I worked very hard to get it—but now it stands for more than "Medical Doctor." Now it stands for something much more important and rewarding "Mother/Doctor."

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press; 5th edition (January 4, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761526986
• ISBN-13: 978-0761526988
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.9 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #359,035 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars my favorite pregnancy book (& I've read them all), October 18, 2003

By 

Carol C. "ccjello" (Kansas City, MO USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Your Over-35 Week-by-Week Pregnancy Guide: All the Answers to All Your Questions About Pregnancy, Birth, and Your Developing Baby (Paperback)

This is the one book I turned to again & again during my pregnancy, particularly during the latter half of the pregnancy. There is a chapter for each week of pregnancy, and over the course of forty weeks, the book covers all the topics. I especially enjoyed the sketches of a pregnant woman's body at different stages of the pregnancy, showing the size & position of the uterus and the fetus, and the commentaries about the size of the baby at different times pregnancy (most of which relate to food -- your baby is now the size of a pea, a grapefruit, a banana, a loaf of zucchini bread, etc.) The book also features plenty of photographs of pregnant women of all shapes & sizes, and you get a sense that Dr. Shananan really admires their beauty and their "pregnancy glow." I thought that the book celebrated pregnancy -- one of the other reviewers found that the book was too scary, talking about all of the risks of pregnancy, but I found it to be much less so than many of the other books on the market. Dr. Shanahan discusses risks realistically (she had three miscarriages before her daughter was born), but she doesn't dwell on them.

Dr. Shanahan is very candid in her discussions of her own pregnancy -- like a friend telling you about her own choices, what she would have done differently, and discussing those areas in which she didn't really follow her own advice. For example, she discusses her teenage bout with eating disorders that led her to gain less weight than she should have during pregnancy, and the small (but perfectly healthy) baby that resulted. There is a picture of her in the delivery room with her baby five minutes after birth, looking like she doesn't have a clue about what to do next. She shares her journal entries to the baby, written while pregnant, about how she's not going to feed her baby fast food or stick her in front of the TV. Obviously, she knows her stuff -- but she's also a real person and her willingness to show that makes the book all the more enjoyable.

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars not a doomsday book!, January 25, 2003

By 

"herhonor" (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Your Over-35 Week-by-Week Pregnancy Guide: All the Answers to All Your Questions About Pregnancy, Birth, and Your Developing Baby (Paperback)

I wonder if bsobwick was reading a different book than I was since I found this book to be unusual in how positive it was -- a couple of the other over 35 pregnancy books out there really did scare me! Yes, there are discussions of what can go wrong, but in every chapter (I'm up to week 32) there is affirmation of how blessed a time pregnancy is.

My husband is a doctor and although he is not an ob, he has commented on how accurate the medical information is. My own doctor recommended this book to me. I may be highly educated (I'm a lawyer), but I don't know medicine, so I appreciate how this book is written in laywoman's terms and is understandable without being condescending.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A necessary book for your over 35 pregnancy., January 22, 2004

By 

"keriann_h" (Jacksonville, Florida United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Your Over-35 Week-by-Week Pregnancy Guide: All the Answers to All Your Questions About Pregnancy, Birth, and Your Developing Baby (Paperback)

This book was a lifeline for me during my last pregnancy. Although it was my 4th time expecting a baby, being over 35 does change the way you react both physically and emotionally to pregnancy. The book is meant to be personalized to your particular pregnancy, with spaces for you to write the dates and record your emotions and physical feelings each week. The author is an over 35 mother herself and she discusses her personal history of loss and infertility just as if she were a close personal friend helping you navigate your own pregnancy. The analogies to help you picture what your baby looks like are especially innovative (she uses food items as examples of weight and length) and really gives you a peek into what's happening inside you when you can't actually see it yourself.