Great Expectations: Your All-in-One Resource for Pregnancy & Childbirth

Rating:
Summary: Great New Resource for Pregnancy/Childbirth
Review: As a childbirth educator/doula and trainer for both, I will be referring this spectacular book to my trainees and to all of the expectant families with which I work. Clear and concise, current and objective, this book is the first to contain such complete information!

Rating:
Summary: Best New Resource for Pregnancy & Childbirth
Review: As a nurse, childbirth educator and doula with over 20 years of experience in the field, I will be recommending this complete and concise book to not only my colleagues but also expectant parents. This is truly the best new resource for pregnancy and childbirth!

Rating:
Summary: scary and hard to read
Review: Great Expectations makes you expect the most horrible pregnancy in which everything can go wrong. Everytime I read something in the book, it makes me think I'm going to miscarry, or something is wrong with me.

Also, I agree with the other reviewer that says the orgnaization is bad. It really is! I don't have time to read the whole book at one sitting, but if I want to find something out about a symptom I'm having, there's no easy way to find it. The index is very weak.

I want a pregnancy book that doesn't make me worry about everything -- even the normal things. This book is a waste of money because all it does it scare people.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Pregnancy Book--Had all the answers.
Review: I am 4 months pregnant and this book was so concise and thorough. I have read a bunch of the other books out there but none of them had as much well written information as "Great Expectations" did.

Rating:
Summary: Badly organized and missing a lot of info
Review: My husband just bought this book for me. I'm newly pregnant (3 months). But I'm finding it so hard to read this book. I have to flip pages all the time because of the way it is organized. First I have to go to the section that is organized by weeks to read about my body changes. But then, if I want to read about morning sickness, I have to find it somewhere else in the book. Then, if I want to read about gaining weight, I have to find in another section. Also, since I have never been pregnant before, I don't know what to expect -- so until I have a symptom, I don't know what to read about. It's not preparing me for my pregnancy at all. Too disorganized. I think I'll buy the Pregnancy Week by Week book or What to expect when your expecting instead.


Rating:
Summary: Smart and informative.
Review: My wife truly appreciated this book. She needed a resource for the 1,000,000 and 1 questions about everything that was going on and this actually fit the bill.

Kudos to the author.
:)

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful guide
Review: The index for this book is really bad. I looked up "spotting", and it's not there. So I looked up "bleeding" and all it has is postpartum bleeding and placenta previa bleeding. I can't find anything about spotting, and there's no way I'm gonna read it cover to cover. But you'd think a book that calls itself "your all-in-one resource" would at least make it easy to find a discussion about spotting.

Rating:
Summary: It's like a textbook -- and that's not a good thing
Review: This is my second pregnancy, so I thought new pregnancy, new book. So I ran out to the store and got Great Expectations because it's hard not to miss (because the bookstore is the one who published it, so they're really pushing it hard). Unfortunately, it does not live up to it's hype.
First of all, it's very heavy -- not a very comfortable read when you're already carrying a heavy load up front. But that's the least of this book's problems. Sure it's comprehensive -- but it's like reading a medical textbook that's been dumbed down a bit. There's no humor or personality in this book at all. My last pregnancy I read What to Expect when You're Expecting (the third edition) and not only was that one comprehensive, but it at least had some personality to it. There were times I laughed out loud when reading What to Expect -- but Great Expectations was so dry and boring... it really put me to sleep (though that's not so hard to do with a toddler and being pregnant).
During my sister's pregnancy last year, her bag of water broke early. When that happened, I read tons about it in What to Expect for her. The first thing I looked for in this book was preterm premature rupture of the membranes (that's what it's called) and it says absolutely NOTHING about it in the book. And this is supposed to be a comprehensive book!!!???
It barely talks about things that you really want to know about: sex during pregnancy, weight gain during pregnancy, things like that And it's already behind the times on things -- like flu shot. I remember reading that the CDC says all pregnant women in any trimester should get the flu shot -- this book says something like only second and third trimester women should get it.
And not to be petty, but the illustrations of the women make them look like neanderthal women. That's not going to make a pregnant woman feel very good about herself - is it?
I remember when I was pregnant the first time, people warned me that the What to Expect book would be scary -- but it wasn't. This book is VERY SCARY -- they don't reassure you at all. This book says: if you use a hot tub, then you're much likelier to miscarriage or have a kid with birth defects. What about if you used a hot tub before you knew you were pregnant... or before you realized that hot tubs aren't good during pregnancy. At least What to Expect reassures you that most women leave the hot tub before it gets dangerously hot.
Reading What to Expect makes you feel like you're getting advice from your sister or best friend. It's fun, and makes pregnancy fun. Reading Great Expectations makes you feel like you're getting advice from a college textbook.
My advice: Save yourself the $15 dollars and look elsewhere for a book for pregnancy -- unless you want to read a dull dry textbook.

Rating:
Summary: Just What I Needed
Review: When I found out I was pregnant a few weeks ago I started reading EVERYTHING. So far, GREAT EXPECTATIONS, in tone, organization, and informativeness has it over all the other books. When I have a question about my body or my baby, I don't want jokes and cute puns, I don't need wisecracks, and I don't want to be talked down to. A new arrival on the scene, this book is the antidote for the reader who doesn't want a "Girlfriend" when she needs an expert.