Customer Reviews

The Unofficial Guide to Having a Baby

5 star:		(60)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Finally, heres a book about pregnancy that addresses real issues for real moms. (I wish it had been available when I started my family, and not when I was pregnant with my last child.) In addition to what you might want a pregnancy book to include, this book covers so many important topics that others gloss over or simply omitinfertility treatments, bed rest, pregnancy loss, surrogacy (theres even a sample contract in an appendix), high-risk factors and treatments, emotional responses to pregnancy and motherhood. Although the book contains over 800 pages, its organized so that you can get just the straight facts quickly or read all the details at your leisure. The easy, approachable tone is also professional, so you intuitively sense the authors authority on the subject. And, unlike some pregnancy books that contain a lot of fluff and are mostly good for entertainment, this one is rich with useful information from the medical and maternal community. Throughout, the book reinforces the notion that although nearly every pregnancy has its own quirky personality, most pregnancies are normal. In short, it alleviates--rather than createsparanoia. For example, where many pregnancy books lay down the law on what you must eat, how often you must exercise, and so on, this book is entirely forgiving of the expectant mother who is so sick with nausea that she cant choke down her daily broccoli allotment, or too busy or exhausted from working or running after her other children that she cant exercise. Sprinkled throughout each chapter are helpful hints, warnings, practical sidebar information (which reads like the whispered advice from a good friend), and the quoted experiences of many real-life moms, all which give the book a broad swab-stroke of knowledge about this most mysterious, profound, terrifying, worrisome, and joyous time of life. This is the book that I expect to recommend to my girlfriends.

I bought this book when we decided we wanted a baby. I really wanted to get The Mother of All Baby Books, but my store didn't have it. Turns out, Ann Douglas wrote both books, so it didn't matter.

I found the preconception advice wonderful. It also gives you an overview of what to expect when you're actually pregnant, and breaks it down week by week. There are several helpful charts in the book, such as one that goes over the most common prescription and non-prescription drugs and the effects they have on the baby. There's also information on fertility testing when things don't go as planned.

However, now that I'm 7 months pregnant first time mom-to-be, I find I don't use the book very often. The week-to-week information is great when you want to know what to expect before you get pregnant/just get pregnant, but it's not sufficient information to keep you really informed when you're actually at those critical points. I find that the book is lacking in details on those conditions that can pop up during pregnancy, such as increased heart rate, shortness of breath, etc. These are normal events, but I just wanted more information on what to expect and when to expect these kinds of conditions.

Overall, it's still a great book. I definitely recommend it to those who are trying. However, if you're already pregnant, I recommend Your Pregnancy Week By Week. This has been my favorite book so far.

I'm trying to get pregnant for the first time. The Unofficial Guide to Having a Baby has proven invaluable. I've poured over practically every chapter -- preparing for pregnancy, misconceptions about fertility and infertility, getting pregnant, fertility treatments, symptoms of early pregnancy, how to choose a doctor and hospital or birthing center, childbirth education, and so much more! There are also chapters jam-packed with great information that I'll need to know later on, like carrying multiples, coping with a high-risk pregnancy, going through each trimester, delivery, and getting ready for the baby. To me, this book seems like a godsend. Lots of my friends have given me copies of other pregnancy books, but I like the Unofficial Guide to Having a Baby the best -- it's incredibly reader-friendly (finding information is a breeze!), and I have yet to look up something in this 800-page book and not have it be in there! Plus, there are short information blurbs on almost every page that offer terrific extra information, from recent studies to how to to save money to quotes from women like me. I can't imagine anyone not loving this book.

I found this book much more helpful than What to Expect When You're Expecting, mainly because it contained more practical information and less preaching. I would have liked a better sense of a week-by-week analysis of the stages of pregnancy and fetal development, but I did appreciate the way the book organizes some of its other major sections. The very best section is Chapter 13: The Dirt on Diapers and Other Baby Gear. This kind of advice would be very hard to find on sponsor-supported internet sites, since it advocates less consumerism and more practicality about what you really need to take care of a baby. I found this book less maudlin or "cute" and more intelligent than most of the baby guides I have read. What a relief to find a book that wasn't pastel and that didn't sport lots of sentimental claptrap! The guide to websites is also very helpful. My husband and I have read and enjoyed Unofficial travel guides for years, and we were thrilled to find that they had branched out to cover this important topic, too.

I owe my doctor a huge thank you for giving me a copy of this book. (Yes, I have the nicest doctor in the world. He gave me a copy of this book as soon as I announced that I was planning to get pregnant!) It has saved me so much anxiety. Whenever I've been tossing and turning at night, worrying about some aspect of my pregnancy, the answer has been right here in this book. Let me give you a few examples:I experienced a really scary episode of spotting when I was about eight weeks pregnant. The authors of this book gave me an idea of what was probably going on (spotting after my pelvic exam), something that really helped to ease my mind. I was positive I was going to miscarry.When I was about three months pregnant, I fell down about half a flight of stairs. I was totally panicstruck until I dug out my copy of this book and read about how well the fetus is protected during pregnancy.Around the same time, I got a terrible yeast infection. I was desperate for relief, and yet I was scared to use Monistat in case there were harmful effects on the baby. When I looked up the active ingredients in the drug on the prescription drug chart in the book, I discovered that there was no apparent link to birth defects--something that really helped to reassure me.When I was about six months pregnant, I was involved in a minor car accident. Once again, the book had reassuring words for me.The book has a list of the top ten worries of pregnant women. The list really helped me to realize that I was not the only one freaking out about whether or not my baby would be normal, how having a baby would affect my relationship with my partner, etc.I gave a copy of this book to my sister, who is trying very hard to conceive (unfortunately, without any luck so far) and she says that it's explained the mechanics of conception more clearly than any other book she's ever read. She found out that she has been miscalculating the timing of ovulation by nearly a week up until now. Hopefully it'll be just a matter of time before she ends up pregnant.I have so many positive things to say about this book. When I think of how many pregnancy books are scary or insulting, I'm just grateful that I happened to be given a copy of this book.

I debated about whether or not to buy the second edition of this book because I already own the first edition and I own The Mother of All Pregnancy Books, too (a book written by Ann Douglas, one of the authors of The Unofficial Guide to Having a Baby). But I can tell you that the second edition is a huge improvement over the first edition, and that's really saying something, because the first edition was pretty exceptional (we're talking mega-comprehensive).

So why would you want to own two pregnancy books by the same author? Because they are two completely different books. The Unofficial Guide to Having a Baby gives you a highly comprehensive medical look at pregnancy, structured in a week-by-week format. The Mother of All Pregnancy Books give you a much chattier insider guide to pregnancy: the kind of stuff that your sister or your best friend would tell you if you were having a heart-to-heart the night the pregnancy test came back positive. The two books cover totally different turf, which is why I bought them both.

Other books that are pregnancy must-reads, in my opinion: The Expectant Father (for fathers); The Pregnancy Journal (if you want to keep track of your baby's changes/growth day by day); and Pregnancy Fitness (for staying fit during pregnancy).

I bought this book, on the recommendations of other Amazon readers, because my husband and I are planning on trying to conceive our first child in about 3 months. I wanted to get as much pre-conception information as I could, in addition to pregnancy info. This book surpassed everything I expected! Tremendous amount of information, from pre-conception thru post-partum. An excellent source of medical and emotional support. I highly recommend this book to anyone considering a pregnancy or currently pregnant.

This book is an extremely comprehensive resource on all that is involved in having a baby. It is more than a pregnancy book. It covers pre-conception, including how to get your body in shape for pregnancy, what to do if you have trouble conceiving, "tricks" for optimizing your chances at conception, and ways to keep the fun in your love life when trying to make a baby can make sex anything but fun. It covers the pregnancy itself, including the emotional and physical issues through each stage of pregnancy, the various tests that a pregnant woman might undergo, how to find decent maternity clothes, how to find a health care provider that is right for you. It covers (in an unbiased way) the circumcision decision and natural childbirth vs. medicated childbirth. It has a chapter on pregnancy loss, and a chapter on special-needs children. It covers the post-partum period, including C-section recovery tips, nursing tips, bottle-feeding tips, and baby care tips. It even discusses the various emotions and physical changes that happen when you resume your sex life!

No other book out there is as comprehensive as this book is. Don't have a baby without it!

When I had my first child, I bought every pregnancy/childbirth book known to womankind (or so it seemed). I bought all these books partially because I was so excited about becoming a mom that I wanted to read everything I could get my hands on. But as I embark on my second pregnancy, I've learned to streamline. Just as I came to appreciate the versatility of a pair of black leggings and a huge black maternity shirt (they can take you anyplace from a candlelit dinner to a morning at Gymboree), I value the all-inclusiveness of Ann Douglas' "Unofficial Guide..." Who needs a shelf full of pregnancy manuals when one will do the trick? I'm throwing out all those other books. This one does it all. From medical advice to empathetic hand-holding, Ann Douglas has got it covered. Now, if she'd only write a book on dealing with toddlers...

When my wife and I asked what books would be most valuable to us for learning about her pregnancy, invariably the monolithic What To Expect... series was foisted on us. Those books are good, but they provide only one angle on pregnancy, that is, Arlene Eisenberg's. It's as cold as a sterile lab. We like a little bedside manner, and obviously want to hear more than one opinion.

This book, like all the others in the Unofficial Guide series, is the result of surveying people who are in the situation that the book describes, in this case - Pregnant or Trying.

The insight that other pregnant women can give is invaluable, since every pregnancy can be different. It's the next best thing to having a bunch of friends with kids. This was helpful for us since we don't!

While the What To Expect books might describe something clinically, this Unofficial Guide tells you how this might affect you during the pregnancy. There is a great chapter which is dead on, entitled somthing like, "What the other pregnancy books won't tell you". It's full of answers that you really want to know but are too scared or embarassed to say aloud.

I recommend this book as an excellent alternative to any woman or couple that is going to have or is trying to have a baby.