Although I am not pregnant and already given birth to Alyson 4 months ago, it is still interesting to read a book which comes packed with advices and tips from lots and lots of doctors who are also mothers! So here goes my review for the "The MD Guide to Pregnancy and Birth" book:
Title: The Mommy MD Guide to Pregnancy and Birth
Authors: Rallie McAllister MD MPH & Jennifer Bright Reich
Publisher: Momosa Publishing LLC; Original edition (June 12, 2010)
ISBN-13/-10: 978-0984480401 / 0984480404
Paperback: 512 pages
Dimension: 8.9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
Description from the product page:
"Dr. Spock is dead. Familiar pregnancy books are outdated. Neither of them speak to the mom who needs advice when her child cries in the night. To whom do women turn for the latest information and advice about conception, pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood? The Mommy MD Guides
The first book in our Mommy MD Guides book series, The Mommy MD Guide to Pregnancy and Birth, is filled with tips that doctors who are also mothers use for their own families during their own pregnancies and births. To create it, we spoke with 60 doctors who are also mothers; we call them Mommy MD Guides. We spoke with many Mommy MD Guides who are still in the trenches with their babies. Some of them were even pregnant when we talked. We also spoke with Mommy MD Guides whose babies are grown up with babies of their own. They are Grammy MD Guides!
Combined, these physicians have centuries of experience as doctors, and among them they have 146 children. The 900+ reassuring, trusted, and often even humorous tips in this book are presented in the Mommy MD Guides own words, and each tip is clearly attributed to the doctor who lived it. Because doctors so often see the things that can go wrong, they try to do everything as right as they can for their own health and for that of their families. Physicians are a healthier group than the whole. Even though women physicians sometimes will just suffer with things that take time and that affect them alone, pregnancy is different. Most doctors go the extra mile to take care of their own bodies while they are carrying their babies.
The Mommy MD Guide to Pregnancy and Birth offers tips on both the challenges and also the celebrations of pregnancy. You will discover how Mommy MD Guides made it through pesky pregnancy challenges such as morning sickness, back pain, and heartburn, and you will also learn how they enjoyed wonderful celebrations of pregnancy such as telling their partners the good news, baby showers, and meeting their babies for the first time. This book is a reassuring look at pregnancy that is filled with practical, actionable tips that work. After all, if a physician juggling a busy practice and a hectic home or a resident working 110 hours a week used a tip, no doubt it worked. And if it worked for her, it will likely work for you too.
The book is divided into 43 chapters, one for each week of pregnancy plus chapters about the birth. Each chapter opens with a Your Baby This Week section and is filled with tips about the topics particular to that week. In addition to more than 900 tips in the book, it features the following three types of sidebars. When to Call Your Doctor or Midwife sidebars offer critical information of when to seek medical help. Mommy MD Guide Recommended Product sidebars feature products that Mommy MD Guides found invaluable during their pregnancies, including cost and availability information. MomMy Time sidebars suggest ways for moms-to-be to relax, de-stress, and enjoy this amazing, wonderful time in their lives. Welcome to the Mommy MD Guides!"
My feedback:
- On page 7 under the topic of "Taking Prenatal Vitamin", I think there should be a mention on the over-the-counter multivitamins. I am lucky to know about this through my 1st gynae when we mentioned about me still taking my normal multivitamins. From our 1st gynae, we found out about this and realised for example, certain over-the-counter multivitamins contain higher dosage of vitamin A which could cause blindness in the foetus.
- On page 16, I learned something new, which is about taking green teas and herbal teas during pregnancy. I didn't know about green tea which should be avoided.
- On page 140, I also reviewed the Bella Band as well during my 2nd pregnancy and am happy to read about this product being mentioned in the book as well.
- On page 451 under the topic of "Inducing Labor", it will be good to mention that inducing will also caused unnecessary stress for the baby.
Room for Improvement?
- As a mother who breastfeeds her child throughout her pregnancy, I would prefer if the authors write about this topic as well. It is not easy to find resources and information about breastfeeding during pregnancy so I think this would be a plus point to include this information in the future.
In summary, this is a very good book to have, whether for yourself or as a gift to someone who is expecting a child as the information and tips provided are different from other books of this genre! I mean, to read a book packed with tips from other mummy doctors? Why not?
You can get this book from Amazon
and Mommy MD Marketplace.
I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with a PDF copy of the book by the author in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine. And if you'd like to read my previous book reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My Book Reviews"
