What to Expect When You're Expecting

"I picked up this book at the start of my first pregnancy hoping for help in navigating this very new, very overwhelming journey. <br/><br/>Instead, this book left me feeling even more overwhelmed with the amount of information packed into each chapter. It tried too hard to be inclusive. Many of the information were either not applicable to me (a generally healthy, uncomplicated pregnancy) or were concerns for a specific scenario or demographic (there were some side notes in some chapters to address people like me as a minority, but that’s all it did - acknowledge my existence. Did the information help? Not really. In fact I felt even more like a minority by being addressed in a side note, thanks.) I had to spend the extra time to extract the information I was actually looking for in a sea of wordy, repetitive paragraphs in a considerably hefty book. <br/> <br/>I personally would have found it more helpful if the information were split into two parts - overall information applicable to a general, healthy pregnancy, followed by part 2: information for special scenarios and complications.<br/><br/>RECOMMENDATIONS<br/><br/>If you’re looking for a general book to guide you through your pregnancy, I found Mayo Clinic’s Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy to be a much better book. It is concise, science-backed, not wordy or repetitive, and help me feel more prepared.<br/><br/>As a supplementary read, Expecting Better by Emily Oster researches and informs readers of the thought processes behind common pregnancy claims (many of which were mentioned in this What to Expect book). It gave me the understanding I need to make my own informed decisions, instead of blindly following what people told me out of fear."