Your Pregnancy Week by Week, Fifth Edition

Rating:
Summary: NOT a positive book!
Review: Each week starts out explaining physiological changes in the baby, changes you may experience and then describes everything that could possibly go wrong! Who needs that kind-of worry? What a negative way to look at the miracle growing inside you. Pass this one up and find a supportive, celebratory book instead.

Rating:
Summary: Repetitive and Biased
Review: I bought this book early in my pregnancy and the only good thing about it, in my opinion, is the weekly explanation of how baby is growing and developing (which you can find on the Web for free). Because it is broken up week by week, I found it quite repetitive especially about diet. Nearly every week we're told 'not to gain too much weight.'
This book is extremely biased towards the medical point of view. Barely any information is given to alternatives in prenatal care and labor - such as Certified Nurse Midwives, Doulas, birth centers, and home birth. In fact at times this book is downright misinforming its readers regarding these alternatives.
Almost as an afterthought in week 28, the author devotes three paragraphs to homebirth in which she states it is unsafe and an extremely risky undertaking, hazardous to both Mom and baby. Why is it then that Northern European countries, where most births are attended by midwives at home, have the lowest infant and mother mortality rates in the world? While the U.S. ranks 23 highest infant mortality rate in the world and number 21 highest mother mortality, despite the majority of births occuring in a hospital? In fact, there's plenty of research that shows it is just as safe having a baby at home if you are a healthy mother as in a hospital.
Of course the author of this book is an OB/GYN herself, so she has a vested interest in not giving us information, let alone the truth, regarding the alternatives to doctors and hospitals during pregancy and labor.
If you want balanced information that respects alternatives and your intelligence, skip this book entirely.