Your Over-35 Week-by-Week Pregnancy Guide: All the Answers to All Your Questions About Pregnancy, Birth, and Your Developing Baby by M. Kelly Shanahan Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Your Over-35 Week-by-Week Pregnancy Guide: All the Answers to All Your Questions About Pregnancy, Birth, and Your Developing Baby
Book Review: my favorite pregnancy book (& I've read them all)
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the one book I turned to again & again during my pregnancy, particularly during the latter half of the pregnancy. There is a chapter for each week of pregnancy, and over the course of forty weeks, the book covers all the topics. I especially enjoyed the sketches of a pregnant woman's body at different stages of the pregnancy, showing the size & position of the uterus and the fetus, and the commentaries about the size of the baby at different times pregnancy (most of which relate to food -- your baby is now the size of a pea, a grapefruit, a banana, a loaf of zucchini bread, etc.) The book also features plenty of photographs of pregnant women of all shapes & sizes, and you get a sense that Dr. Shananan really admires their beauty and their "pregnancy glow." I thought that the book celebrated pregnancy -- one of the other reviewers found that the book was too scary, talking about all of the risks of pregnancy, but I found it to be much less so than many of the other books on the market. Dr. Shanahan discusses risks realistically (she had three miscarriages before her daughter was born), but she doesn't dwell on them. Dr. Shanahan is very candid in her discussions of her own pregnancy -- like a friend telling you about her own choices, what she would have done differently, and discussing those areas in which she didn't really follow her own advice. For example, she discusses her teenage bout with eating disorders that led her to gain less weight than she should have during pregnancy, and the small (but perfectly healthy) baby that resulted. There is a picture of her in the delivery room with her baby five minutes after birth, looking like she doesn't have a clue about what to do next. She shares her journal entries to the baby, written while pregnant, about how she's not going to feed her baby fast food or stick her in front of the TV. Obviously, she knows her stuff -- but she's also a real person and her willingness to show that makes the book all the more enjoyable.
Book Review: Very helpful and informative
Summary: 4 Stars
I had read "What to Expect When You're Expecting" but when I saw this book in the library I was all over it - something that caters to the over 35 woman! It was easy to read and had a lot of good technical information as well as a personal touch as the author herself had an over 35 pregnancy as well as some miscarriages. I'm not pregnant (yet!) but I look forward to being able to go back and take advantage of the week by week format that the author presents. UPDATE 4/26/05: My baby is now 3 months old and I can say that this book as well as "The Pregnancy Journal" were the two books I referred to throughout my pregnancy and were both so helpful.Book Review: Best Pregnancy Guide I've Used
Summary: 5 Stars
The week-to-week layout is very digestible and it has just enough of her personal experience and her professional expertise to make it very informative. I actually look forward to reading it from one week to the next.Book Review: not a doomsday book!
Summary: 5 Stars
I wonder if bsobwick was reading a different book than I was since I found this book to be unusual in how positive it was -- a couple of the other over 35 pregnancy books out there really did scare me! Yes, there are discussions of what can go wrong, but in every chapter (I'm up to week 32) there is affirmation of how blessed a time pregnancy is.My husband is a doctor and although he is not an ob, he has commented on how accurate the medical information is. My own doctor recommended this book to me. I may be highly educated (I'm a lawyer), but I don't know medicine, so I appreciate how this book is written in laywoman's terms and is understandable without being condescending.
Book Review: Don't Rub it In
Summary: 1 Stars
I am 36 yeards old and pregnant. Of course, I received books from everybody. Although well-intentioned, I wish the giver had read through the first few chapters. I know there are more risks associated with pregnancy as a woman ages. We all know it. I think all women worry about miscarriages, birth defects, and other horrible things that can happen. This book spends much to much time going into the detail of all the risks, and only a scant amount of time on the rewards. I wanted to be excited about my pregnancy, not terrified. I found this book to be negative and worrying, and not the least bit encouraging. I threw the book away after my eighth week. It was all that I could take. I suggest to all well-meaning gifters that you pass over this book and look for something more positive.