The Book: Pregnancy Sucks: What to Do When Your Miracle Makes You Miserable, by Joanne Kimes
The Story: The story is simply this: Joanne got pregnant after months and months of trying. Joanne got whiny.
That’s basically it.
This book is set up in a month-by-month format, which is kinda funny because in the start of the book she talks about how pregnant women tend to think and talk in weeks then watch non-pregnant people scratch their heads and try to figure out how far along they are.
The idea behind this book is that women get pregnant all the time and are expected to just be overjoyed. Meanwhile, they are getting fat, puking every hour or so, and peeing even more often than that. But as a pregnant woman, if you mention these things you are kind of treated like a black sheep. So the author mentions them. And mentions them and mentions them.
What I Thought: Other pregnant mothers may want to kick me. I may want to kick myself later for jinxing it, but I just have to say: I just cleared my first trimester and I’ve had a pretty easy, pretty smooth pregnancy. Sometimes so easy that I wish that I had a symptom or two so that it seemed real. Maybe that is why this book kind of grated on my nerves a little bit.
The thing that turned me off was that it was just full on complaining. And saying she’d never do this again. If I were her daughter, I’d be horrified to read this when I got older and realize how miserable I’d made my mom and how she chose to share it with the world. I don’t know why, but I kept thinking of that the whole time I was reading this book.
I’ll give it to Joanne, there really were some funny parts, but for me, this book was pretty much right in the middle of Belly Laughs and What to Expect. Where Belly Laughs was mostly silly little stories that were easy to relate to, and What to Expect was pretty much full blown fear mongering, this one was funny in parts but also chock full of medical advice. It says in the acknowledgements that she teamed up with a OB/GYN who filled her in on medical stuff and checked her on everything, which was comforting. I did get good tips from this book, so I can’t bash it too hard- I just wish that she would have balanced her complaints with some cheery stuff every once in a while.
My husband actually bought the companion to this book, Pregnancy Sucks For Men, and he said he’ll do a guest review when he’s done. He’s been reading The Stand since last February though, so he’ll probably get through this one when our kid is in 4th or 5th grade.
Conclusion: More informed than Belly Laughs, but not as funny. Less scary than What to Expect, but just as negative. I would maybe recommend this to someone who is being put through the ringer by her belly buddy, but not to someone who is having an easier go, or is just more relaxed about pregnancy in general.