Expecting Better – Emily Oster
A book review by doula Nadine Lloyd
I loved every minute of reading this book, its wasn’t like reading your typical pregnancy book. Whilst reading, it made me feel like I was sitting down with a friend chatting all things pregnancy over a cup of coffee.
I found that more pregnancy books I have previously read just accept and talk about the advice/ guidelines given to them by their doctor. This is where I think Emily’s book is fantastic – she digs further! She wasn’t satisfied with the information her doctors were giving her, so she completed her own research and with the help of her husband Jesse they chose to do what they believed was safe for not only her, but their baby.
This book covers everything! From the preparation to pregnancy, the positive test, the do’s and don’ts during pregnancy, nausea, testing, premature births, high risks, inductions, labour, birth, and the aftermath. Emily provides everything she found whilst pregnant and included it. This book is from someone who went through it all.
Pregnancy, labour, and birth are typically treated as a ‘one-size fits all’, which is just ridiculous!! Doctors are always contradicting each other, books contradicting other books, people’s experiences/ recommendations always contradicting others. After reading Emily’s book and seeing how much research went into her pregnancies, it clicked to me that the key to good decision making is to take all information you get given, by doctors, data, books and other women and combine it with your own estimates of positives and negatives.
Throughout this book, it was proven that pregnancy, labour and birth statistics are quite outdated, hidden or not easily accessible to the public. You really must search for the answers! It had me questioning, why are we still utilising this data? Why have no recent studies been done? Why don’t doctors/ midwives seem to care enough to provide relevant information, they portray it in a way that will sway our decision to easily benefit them.
At the end of each chapter in the book, Emily included a little “The Bottom Line” section, which lists all the important things covered and a little conclusion. This would really benefit pregnant women to tab and refer to if they ever need throughout pregnancy without having to re-read the whole book, because let’s face it, pregnancy brain is real!
‘Expecting Better’ is not about making recommendations for you, but it acknowledges that if you have been provided with all the information, you can them tailor it and make the right decision for YOU.
On the cover of the book, it says, ‘This may be the most important book about pregnancy you read’ and I honestly couldn’t agree anymore.
I had a few friends recently announce their pregnancy and have reached out for some advice and I’ve loved every minute of being able to help but one of the first things I mention is to purchase a copy of this book because it seems to provide all information without trying to persuade you in any direction. The information provided isn’t anywhere near as detailed as you would receive from a doctor/ midwife (even though it should be!).
I couldn’t recommend this book enough.
My name is Nadine Lloyd, and I am a qualified doula who has trained at the Doula Training Academy. If you would like more information about my doula services, then I would love to hear from you!
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