Customer Reviews

Pregnancy: The Ultimate Week-by-Week Pregnancy Guide

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When we had our first child my wife got all of the other pregnancy books that tracked the process week by week. We found many of them helpful but we still went to each doctor's visit with a long list of questions. We grabbed this book as a reference guide towards the end of my wife's second pregnancy and found it to be the most informative, direct, and comprehensive pregnancy book on the market. Every basic day to day question that we ever brought to our doctor was answered simply and directly in this book.

If we were having a baby for the first time again, we would without hesitation make this our number one source of information outside of our obstetrician.

The post partum section is great too. It really gives insight in to what it's like to have a newborn in the house and how to deal with the challenges of the first few weeks.

Great book!!!!

I am a childbirth educator and mom to four children - now happily pregnant with number five. I was really weary of the traditional pregnancy fare ["what to expect" "your pregnancy week by week" etc] - I found them full of scariness for first time moms, often inaccurate or poorly written, and, in one case, kind of creepy with repeated mention of aborting the baby for different reasons.

So, I was SO pleased this time around to find this book! The book follows the "week by week" format that I really enjoy - tracking both the baby's development and the mom's changes and questions that may arise.

I found the author [an OB with a very respectable set of credentials]enjoyable to read. She has a conversational style that is very informative while at the same time being very reassuring. She seemed like someone I would like if I met her in real life - someone easy to talk to who knows a lot and actually cares about people. Her "voice" gave the book a very nice "feel". She is also obviously very knowlegable and did a great job including an amazing amount of information in this book.

In the first part of the book there are really neat full color photographs of babies at different stages of development... really incredible.

HOWEVER, as I delved deeper into the book [I've been reading it along as my pregnancy progresses], I've been more disturbed. The first trimester section is upbeat and excellent. As we move into the second trimester though, the author starts talking more about all the testing that can be done and all the scary things that can go wrong. I question whether moms in the general population [99% of whom won't have to deal with these problems] really NEED to read about every scary, awful thing that might possibly happen? If something does go wrong, I'm sure the mother's OB or Midwife will give her tons of information, so why should every pregnant woman have to worry about every detail of every awful thing that might possibly [but most probably will not] go wrong?

In addition, in the second trimester abortion is mentioned over and over. It culminates in Week 17 [page 145] with a DETAILED description of *how* a 17 week baby would be aborted and what techniques the doctor would use to kill the baby and remove it! I was really astounded and emotionally pained. I am at 17 weeks and I just can't imagine - surely very few women consider aborting at this late stage? Why on earth would the author choose to subject all her readers to this kind of description?

The last thing I want to read about is babies dying - I was so excited to make it past that 12 week mark when the risk of miscarriage goes down, and now I have to read details of second trimester abortion? It just seemed bizarre to me and very discomforting. So, expectant moms be warned - you may want at the very least to skip that section!

Also, this book is targeted exclusively to working mothers. There is much to be found on day care, maternity leave, etc but *NOTHING* for moms who are choosing to make the sacrifice to stay home with thier babies and forfeit their income at least while the babies are little. I didn't think that was very fair or balanced, because many women DO make the choice to stay home and they definitely need support for that because it can be hard going - especially trying to survive financially. Those moms deserve just as much support and help as the moms who put their kids in daycare and return to work. [I myself am a working mother, so this is NOT a judgment against working moms, just an opinion that stay at home moms deserve support too].

So, my advice? This book will get through your pregnancy and will teach you all about your growing baby, and it is probably better than the other books out there, but its not the perfect answer by any means. [I'm still looking for that perfect pregnancy book! :) ]

Regardless, you will need to get yourself a couple of good books on birthing [check out "Birthing from Within" and "The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth"] because birth is covered inadequately in a small section of this book.

I bought this for my sister who is pregnant for the first time and she LOVES it. I also checked out several other popular pregnancy books from the library for her and she kept going back to this one and did not want any of the others. Dr. Riley goes into great detail from week to week about the development of the baby, what the mother could be experiencing and what can be expected and yes she does cover the negative aspects. No one wants to read or hear about what bad situations could occur but it is better to be informed of what could go wrong than be surprised if something does happen. It is a great book and I highly recommend it!

I really wanted a week by week guide this time around, and surprisingly there are very few on the market. i liked the format, and it was written in an engaging and clear way. i decided to keep it despite my issue with it, as shipping back is expensive, and i have other books to read.

Now to the issue. seeing as how this is my fourth pregnancy, i have read a lot, and have quite a few different types of books. I was disappointed (though if i would have thought about it before buying it, maybe i would have realized this problem) because it seems that because the author is a doctor she has all the technical information correct, but her attitude, that she imparts to the reader, is your doctor knows best, just follow whatever your doctor says.... etc. She does give options, but she says, your doctor may decide.... she does not empower the mother to make decisions and know what is best for herself.

you can never just decide to follow your doctors lead, as excellent as your doctor is (barring any type of complications) because doctors often do what is best for them, and not what is best for the patient. that is why there is such an unnecessarily high c-section rate. (yes it's happened, and yes it's extreme, that the doctor just wants to go home to sleep, so he decides labor is not progressing, and it spirals downhill from there.)you can check out the business of being born, for a phenomenal documentary.

I gave it 3 stars because of the updated info, but was disappointed that especially as the author is a woman, she does not inform women of the necessity to empower and inform themselves, for their good.

The book itself is written well. It lacked the week by week or even month by month photos that I had hoped for. I was really searching for a book that was full of photos. I already have the "What to Expect When Your Expecting" book. "Pregnancy" was too similiar to the book. Almost all the same things covered. Though I would have to say I would give "What to Expect" as a gift not this one. I had a miscarriage and this book didn't cover what to do if something goes wrong, "What to expect" does. It also doesn't cover spouses or other important peoples roles. All in all I'm still enjoying the book but it didn't meet my expectations.

This book is almost entirely week by week information, so what you get is more detailed. At the end there are small sections on feeding your baby, the postpartum weeks, and questions for your doctor. Each week has sections on Your Baby, Your Body, Your Self, Diet and Exercise, and Common Questions. It also includes a pregnancy wheel and full color photos of a fetus at different stages, which are nice bonuses. The writing is simple yet thorough and I found that the topics she chose to write about were often extremely relevent to what I was going through each week.

I really appreciated all the detail about the fetus and the expectant mom and unlike many other books, there is a chapter for each week in pregnancy.

When I found out I was unexpectedly (but excitedly) pregnant for the first time, I immediately logged onto to Amazon and ordered several books. Even at 30, I was clueless as to what to expect and was not prepared.

Out of all of the books I got, this is by far my favorite. It goes week by week and tells you what to expect, what should/could happens and what to talk to your OBGYN about. Most importantly, it tells you what is normal and what is not. It also goes into detail about prenatal testing and when you should expect different milestones (like feeling the baby move, etc etc) will happen.

Lots of extras, and a great honest approach to pregnancy. I highly recommend to all of my friends and family who are expecting.

I found this book to be an excellent reference and informative of my weekly progress, as well as what to expect in coming weeks. The color photos of the baby's progress are amazing, the section layout comprehensive, the glossary and relative questions helpful. I felt it was a bonus for Dr. Riley to cover post-partum and baby care, questions and information about the many pre-natal testing out there. It helps educate and inform without overloading the reader.

I felt the book was easy to understand, educational and in my opinion this is one of the best books that a mom-to-be could enjoy, and have recommended it to many friends who are newly expecting.

I got really, really lucky when I picked this book out at my local bookstore. Being a first time expectant mother (the first among my siblings), I really did not know at all what to expect! This book covers everything you need to know, without overloading you with medical terms in a really simple, easy to read format. And if you do find yourself stumbling over a medical term, there is a Labor and Delivery Terms section.

The book itself is chaptered into the three trimesters, then week by week, and finally ending with Labor and Delivery, Feeding Your Baby, and Postpartum and Baby Care. It really covers everything! Each Trimester has it's own index, so you can easily find whatever issue is pertinent at that time (then of course, has a nice large index in the back, in case you're curious about something concerning a later stage in pregnancy). Also within the week by week pages are little sections that concern not just you, but your baby, your body, diet & exercise, common questions, your partner, etc etc. There are pages in the back with suggestions for questions for your doctor, and spaces to write the answers. I've also found the Resources pages and Prenatal tests pages to be super helpful. It also comes with a due date calculator (an easy to use wheel) and some really gorgeous color photos of babies in the womb (that I found myself repeatedly referring to each new week, imagining my own baby growing and growing!). You & Your Baby- Pregnancy definitely taught me a lot more than what I thought I would get out of a baby book. People (including my doctor) are impressed by what I know!

I've raved about this book to anyone that will listen and promised my almost 30 year old sister that when she gets pregnant, this is the first thing I will buy her. I've never reviewed a product online until this book. I can't stress enough how helpful this has been :)