Customer Reviews

The Whole Pregnancy Handbook: An Obstetrician's Guide to Integrating Conventional and Alternative Medicine Before, During, and After Pregnancy

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am currently pregnant with my second child and thought I did not need any more pregnancy books. However, I was recently browsing in a bookstore and came across the Whole Pregnancy Handbook and quickly found myself engrossed in its clear explanations of pregnancy and birth and the conventional and alternative approaches to both routine and more unusual pregnancy and birth situations. In the past, I have been put off by "over-zealous" pregnancy books so I loved the way that this book offers clear, non-alarmist and non-judgmental information on a wide range of ways to promote healthy pregnancy, babies and birth. The anecdotes from real women are particularly great--- they give you a sense of how many different women experience pregnancy and birth. I also loved the yoga section and the timeline that describes what is happening in the mother's body and in the fetus month-by-month throughout the pregnancy. I recommend this book highly for anyone who is looking for "one-stop shopping" that brings together a wide range of approaches to conception, pregnancy and birth that, until now, have been isolated from one another in "conventional" and "alternative" pregnancy books.

Burning the evil "What to Expect when You're Expecting," I bought this book and I was amazed and how thorough this book was. It cover all the bases. All the natural remedies for common ailments, yoga poses, pregnancy diet, and everything you need to know. No scary stuff here. It's all straight forward and very comforting to read. If you want a pregnancy book, buy this book!

As a mother of 2 little ones, I found this book right on target for my needs as an educated professional pregnant woman though I only wish I could have had it about 9 months ago! It provided me with just enough medical knowledge so that I could have had a professional conversation with my OB during my pregnancy. I also found it quite comprehensive about my choices of caring for myself and my baby.

I hope that the word gets out that this book is available.

We've collected a shelf full of books during my wife's (first) pregnancy. While all serve a purpose, the Whole Pregnancy Handbook has become our go to book for just about everything. It's great information written in an easy to digest style that makes sense from a holistic and conventional medical point of view.

I read every single book I could get my hands on when my wife was pregnant with our lovely daughter. Almost all of them made me frustrated, angry, or worse. We wanted to make our own decisions about childbirth, and MORE IMPORTANTLY, understand fully the plusses and minuses of all the available options. The standard books from the medical establishment were usually condescending to any choice other than "whatever the doctor tells you." The "alternative" books usually make the reader feel like a bad person if they even consider pain medication, hospital birth, or any other mainstream decisions. And almost every book dwells endlessly on all the potential negatives, and turn you into a basketcase about all the things that could go wrong.

This book is a life saver. It presents the medical standards for pregnancy and childbirth. It presents many alternatives to that standard. It fully explains them all, with interesting anecdotes from real parents. And the tone is delightful. Easy to read, but never dumbed down. Full of real information, but never judgmental about whatever decisions you might make. A great read that we turn to over and over again for reference.

It's SO refreshing to have a book that explains all the options available without judging the reader if they choose one over the other. A fantastic book! Get it!

I checked this book out of the local library to look a up a couple of things before my first OB appointment. I had loaned out most of my own pregnancy library and just needed a little information. Any old pregnancy book would do, so my selection was kind of random. I ended up reading it almost cover to cover. Now that I have to return the library's copy I need to purchase my own.

I thought, in contradiction to the earlier reviewer's statements, that the book was highly detailed and very informative. What it lacked was the hysteria making format of other popular books on the subject. It was certainly organized differently so that might have thrown her off.

The information was well balanced and fairly comprehensive. I really enjoyed the section on nutrition and the chapter on prenatal yoga has certainly motivated me to find a class. What I liked most though was the reassurance that even at my advanced age (over 35) that I had a really good chance of having another healthy, uneventful pregnancy. Wonderful book!

My husband and I are working on becoming pregnant for our first time. I like to be well informed and I hoped this book would do that for me. I thought I was pretty well studied on pregnancy until I read this book, now I know I had a lot to learn! I have had the book for 48 hours and am already 150 pages into it. Besides being incredibly informative and interesting, it is written in a descriptive way that allows a layperson to better understand the more confusing subjects. The book covers all areas of pregnancy. So far, the areas I have found incredibly helpful are how to prepare for pregnancy (physically, mentally, and emotionally), how ovulation works, determining if a doctor, midwife, or doula is best for me and what questions to ask these people, herbs, vitamins, and medicines to take and avoid. This book offers non bias details on each type of birth, birthing practices, medications, medical procedures, etc. It is also organized in a way that you can read it from front to back, or use it as a reference book. I can't say enough about it!

Excellent book outlining what to do to get pregnant, how to optimize the health of you and your baby during pregnancy, and what to do afterwards. Very thorough, personal and well presented.

I purchased this book because I was interested in alternative medicine for conception help. This book didn't offer much in practical info for that. It does however offer a wide variety of herbal remedies for pregnancy which I hope I will be able to use soon. This book takes a different angle on pregnancy and looks at it as a natural state and one that should and can be enjoyed completely. I would highly recommend it for someone who is newly pregnant.

I got this book a year ago -- I was lucky to be in a pretty progressive bookstore at the time that we decided to start 'trying', and the staff there said they'd heard good things about it. Without that rec, I doubt I would have bought it because it doesn't have that name-recognition or reputation. I'm so glad I did. All the basics of pregnancy are here, in the same depth as a book like Dr.Sears's, etc, but in addition you get really thorough explanation of alternative medicine applications. It's a perfect resource if you really try to straddle both worlds. So don't be put off just because you may not have heard of this book! It's excellent! It was my only pregnancy book all thruout and I never felt that I needed to look at anything else.