I will admit that I have consumed A LOT of prenatal, postnatal, and parenting advice during my pregnancy. I read too many books, listened to too many podcasts, read too many articles, talked to too many experts, and took too many classes. Still, I’m sure I’ll feel completely unprepared once baby arrives.
Even so, after consuming piles of information and (mostly) opinions, I really only needed one book during my pregnancy. Before my love letter to that book, here is the stuff that I could take or leave:
The trendy: Expecting Better & Cribsheet the Emily Oster books
Ughhhh. I get why these are so trendy. They have a new and fresh perspective on pregnancy and raising children. The point is that they are not meant to be dogmatic. They are meant to present you with recommendations and the actual studies behind them so that you can make an informed decision about how you want to proceed. Most notably, Oster is very favorable to having a glass of wine once a week during pregnancy without an consequences. The problem I have with these books is that so much of it ends with basically, do this or don’t there haven’t been enough studies to prove that it’s worth it. But then when she does have I strong opinion about something there are still many unaddressed gaps in the research. As a nutrition focused person my biggest gripes are with alcohol during pregnancy and feeding babies formula postpartum. I have read other research about both of these topics and feel like there are dangerous gaps that are left out. Babies need to sleep most of the time they are in utero in order to grow. Alcohol will wake them up. All formula contains inflammatory seed oils. These cause metabolic and gut issues down the line. These are just top of mind claims for me, but claims that nevertheless are left out of the book. The problem I have is, is this new bold claim 100% worth it? I guess time will tell.
I don’t hate these books. I do actually like them and they did make me think about things that I had not given any thought to. They are easy to read and can be refreshing after reading so many dogmatic approaches to pregnancy. I just think that readers should be cautious and take the opinions with a grain of salt.
The classic: What to Expect When You’re Expecting by Heidi Murkoff
I wasn’t going to read this, but my doctor recommended it and my thirst for as much information as I could possibly get got the better of me. This book is written by a crazy person. The author makes so many many cheesy plays on words that it is almost unreadable. If you want the content of this book, just get the What to Expect app. It has all of the same information, but fair warning, a lot of annoying ads too.
Now, for my pregnancy bible: Real Food for Pregnancy by Lily Nichols
I love this book. It was the best source for me in actually understanding what to eat and WHY to eat it. For me, it is not helpful when doctors say, try to eat nutritious whole foods. Yes, I already do that. But what does the baby need? Real Food walks through exactly what nutrients are needed for your growing baby and which foods are the best sources for those nutrients.
Her philosophy comes down to 3 things: 1) your plate should be 1/2 veggies, 1/4 carbs, and 1/4 protein & fat, 2) water intake needs to go up to 12 glasses a day, and 3) salt intake should not go down.
When it comes to which types of foods you should eat, it’s basically: eggs, liver, bone broth, leafy greens, salmon, and full fat, fermented dairy. Avoid: alcohol, too much caffeine, refined carbs, sugar, artificial sweeteners, vegetable oils, trans fat, and soy.
OK, that’s all very practical. You can kinda stop there. But my favorite part was actually understanding what these foods contain that is helpful or harmful to the growing baby. Her book is chock full of that information. I could go on and on, but the book exists and is a much better source for understanding this information.
Ultimately, when you are pregnant you get so much information from the doctor, from classes you have to take, and from the other professionals you decide to work with. It becomes overwhelming and inevitably very contradictory. You will still have to make decisions based on your own body and values and there will always be research that can tell you that you are right or wrong. Throughout this journey, the only thing I felt that was really lacking in all of the literature was understanding nutrition and how important what you eat is for baby. I am not going to stop reading more books; I have no self control. But I do strongly believe this book was 100% worth my time.