Lovely Little Shelf

The Book: What to Expect When You’re Expecting

This review is going to be a little bit different than my normal review set-up.  The reason? I do not want to pass on any of the information that I got from this book.  I don’t want to tell you the “story,” so I’ll just hop right to what I think.

I know that being pregnant is a miracle and that it is important to protect that and just do everything you can to make your baby strong and healthy.  I get it. This book made me feel like I needed to be locked in a sterile room for the next 6 months, and even then that there would probably be serious issues.

The book is set up in kind of a Q&A format of questions that moms-to-be may ask, broken down by month.  These questions brought up worries that I didn’t even think to have.  And it seemed like to me that every answer was just this negative, scary thing.  Literally one question says, “It seems it isn’t even safe to breathe when you’re pregnant.  Will polluted air hurt my baby?”  The answer is pretty much, “Yeah, it’s risky.  But so is NOT breathing.  So just put plants around you so the air quality in your home is better. If you work in a bus terminal ask for a transfer.”  I never even thought to be worried if BREATHING was hurting my little baby.

Not that I don’t want to know about legitimate dangers. I do. I just don’t want to worry about things I can’t control and get myself worked into a frenzy. There is a whole chapter at the end that pretty much lists all the things that could be wrong with my baby, even if I somehow manage to make it to delivery.  It’s nothing that I have control over now or that I can change.   Not to say that this information in inaccurate.  It is just totally unbalanced.  In the list of what to expect for each month, there is never a positive item.  It is just plain old negative.

It seemed to focus only on what could go wrong and on high risk pregnancies.  It pretty much ignored the vast majority of women, but spoke in this way that would make you think that every little ache or pain probably means something is horribly wrong.

All this to say, I hated this book.  I read it and for the first time in my pregnancy got truly worried that something was wrong with the baby I’m growing.  I even had two miscarriage dreams last night- the first since I found out I was having a baby.  I told my husband not to read it and to immediately throw it away.

I haven’t read any other pregnancy books yet, although I have one waiting for me that my mother-in-law got me for Christmas.  I’ll let you know when I find one that has a more balanced look at pregnancy and that allows me to sleep without nightmares.