Baby & Me: The Essential Guide to Pregnancy and Newborn Care

Summary (from the publisher): Offering solid guidance for mothers and mothers-to-be whose reading skills are limited and who may have limited access to adequate health care, this guide focuses on basics like prenatal care, lifestyle choices, nutritional advice, and baby’s first few months. This fifth edition includes updated and expanded information on mental health issues, including postpartum depression and anxiety, for both moms and partners; hot topics such as immunizations, breastfeeding, and coping with inconsolable crying; best-practice guidelines for car seats, safe sleep, baby wearing, and fall prevention; the value of having effective support during labor, birth, and the postpartum period; and insurance coverage, including the Affordable Care Act, and medical assistance for low-income pregnant women. Checklists, a glossary, and an expanded list of reliable internet resources round out this invaluable book.

 

Review: This book is an introductory level guide to pregnancy and newborn care that offers coverage of basic topics like prenatal care, lifestyle choices, diet, and life with a newborn. Although certainly not as comprehensive or in-depth as the perennial classic What to Expect When You're Expecting, this offered a much briefer overview of most of the same topics.

 

Although it did not explicitly state this anywhere in the edition I read, this book was clearly written for women with limited education and/or literacy skills. While this is certainly admirable and worthy, I still felt that the authors were over zealous in defining basic terms. While its safe to assume that some readers may not recognize terms like doula or episiotomy, the book also assumes that its readers won't recognize basic terms like diarrhea, car seat, heartburn, pus, and genitals. Some of the advice also seemed condescending, such as both stating and illustrating not to hold your baby while drinking hot coffee or eating hot soup. That being said, I received this book free as part of prenatal program offered by my employer and am likely not the primary target audience.

 

This was a fast read that covers all the basics for someone with little knowledge or experience with pregnancy or newborn care. I think this book might be particularly well suited to expectant mothers and fathers with lower educational attainment.

 

Stars: 3