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1.46k reviews for:
Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong--And What You Really Need to Know
Emily Oster
4.24 AVERAGE
1.46k reviews for:
Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong--And What You Really Need to Know
Emily Oster
4.24 AVERAGE
First, shoutout to my students who used Goodreads as a clue to confirm my pregnancy. I'm proud of you for reading books.
Anyway, my OB recommended this book to me because I had questions about listeria. She told me that she doesn't love everything Oster has to say — especially the liberties Oster takes with alcohol — but she feels that the book provides some good insight. Overall, I liked the book. It made sense, and some of the sections calmed me down. A takeaway I have is that you essentially need to do some research and make choices that work for you based off of your research. I've read other reviews on Goodreads — some from OBs — that hate what Oster has to say and argue that she leaves a lot out. I'm sure that's true. Regardless, it helped me calm down a bit, and it helped me know what I should continue to research and ask my OB about.
Anyway, my OB recommended this book to me because I had questions about listeria. She told me that she doesn't love everything Oster has to say — especially the liberties Oster takes with alcohol — but she feels that the book provides some good insight. Overall, I liked the book. It made sense, and some of the sections calmed me down. A takeaway I have is that you essentially need to do some research and make choices that work for you based off of your research. I've read other reviews on Goodreads — some from OBs — that hate what Oster has to say and argue that she leaves a lot out. I'm sure that's true. Regardless, it helped me calm down a bit, and it helped me know what I should continue to research and ask my OB about.
In spite of the (unfortunately inevitable in our current pregnancy discourse) ant-fat bias and gendered language in this book, this book is the most useful, clear, and supportive book I've read so far on pregnancy and labor, by a mile and a half. It's incredibly straight forward, not condescending, and full of very helpful evidence based guidance and advice. Would recommend to any pregnant person above any other book.
informative
medium-paced
I loved this book. She openly questions American standards and suggestions for pregnancy that are not only unrealistic but lack data. It helps relieve some of the stress and pressure on new expecting Moms and gives you real stats.
I thought this was well written, especially with Emily not being a medical professional. She presented good questions to ask your doctor and backed it up with research.
Oster is an economist, not a medical professional. This book feels like she was looking to be contrarian because it makes for an interesting subject for a book. Some of it is helpful context to allow readers to evaluate their own risk comfort threshold. But Oster paints with broad strokes on some topics and I’d say some of her points can be taken with a grain of salt medically.
funny
informative
medium-paced
slow-paced
Oster asks interesting questions, but has clearly never practiced medicine. Although she states at the beginning these are her opinions in review of the data, the remainder of the book often has a tone that these opinions are correct and the only possible reasonable interpretation of the data. In particular the summary section for each chapter leaves very little nuance which seems dangerous for those that might just skim the book for takeaway points. While a good amount of data is cited, at other points conclusions are made with no reference to a source (e.g. definitively stating the cause of fetal alcohol syndrome as a justification for why occasional drinks may be justified, while a reasonable hypothesis this has NOT been definitively proven; also seeming to very much underplay the risks of high birth weight with no mention at all of shoulder dystocia risk). Her interpretation of data also seems questionable - sometimes a small study shows promise even if it’s non statistically significant, other times a small study with a significant finding is too small to be reliable. The complete lack of error bars in any graphs also makes it difficult to have confidence in her interpretations.
informative
slow-paced
informative
medium-paced