What to Expect When You're Expecting: 4th Edition

Seriously! If you take this book to heart, you *will* have a miserable pregnancy and an even worse birth. The basic gist of it is all women's bodies aren't meant to birth, and we should have every medical procedure done under the sun.

Better books out there are "Ina May's Guide to Birthing," and "The Birthing Partner" (gives *fantastic* suggestions for alternative birthing positions to help with less painful births).

I ordered this book when I found out I was pregnant with my first child. Many of my family members had used earlier editions with their pregnancies. I was not disappointed. I like how it breaks up the chapters into months (weeks) of pregnancy. It goes into details about symptoms and reliefs, development of the baby, and questions you may have. I love the pictures of the growing baby and also the size of it compared to your body. It's amazing how much the baby develops when it's not even bigger than a prune. I would strongly recommend this to anyone who's pregnant or knows someone who is.

This book was wonderfully informative. I had a tough pregnancy and ever time something happened I panicked. I found that by reading this book 1 chapter ahead I saved myself alot of sleepless nights and trips to the ER. Alot of little things change and develop during pregnancy but unless you have a thousand friends who just went through it you need a point of reference. Just like everything else you choose which parts to hold on to but if I was unsure about something contained inside the book I asked my Dr about it. No one source of information should ever dictate everything you do. Use multiple sources to establish the correct road for yourself.

This book will scare the ever living crap out of any pregnant mother-to-be. We picked it up due to its inexplicable popularity to find it's full of useful little tidbits like "too much sugar will permanently ruin your child" and "if you drink unfiltered tap water, your baby could DIE". It's like handing someone a medical journal and watching them self-diagnose terminal illnesses. Mothers, unless you want to find out how every little thing you do is going to damage your fetus, DON'T BUY THIS BOOK. Fathers, unless you want your wife to break down in tears because they thought they were giving your unborn child brain damage (like my wife did), DON'T BUY THIS BOOK. Friends, unless you think 9 months of OCD makes a great baby shower gift, DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK.

Useful recommendation: Your Pregnancy Week by Week, 6th Edition (Your Pregnancy Series). After chucking "What to Expect", we found this book told us everything we actually needed to know without causing us to wake up in cold sweats.

All the reviewers who said that this book does nothing but scare expectant mothers must be reading an earlier edition. I didn't see one thing in this book that would be frightening to a first time mom and it was FULL of up to date relevant information. It even covered breastfeeding and nipple piercing. I would recommend the 4th edition to anyone expecting for the first time!