Expecting Better, Emily Oster
Expecting Better, Emily Oster
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List: $19.95 | Sale: $13.97
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Expecting Better
Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is WrongAnd What You Really Need to Know

Author: Emily Oster

Narrator: Karen White

Unabridged: 9 hr 6 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/20/2013

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

An award-winning social scientist uses the tools of economics to debunk myths about pregnancy and to empower women to make better decisions while theyre expecting. Pregnancy is full of rules. Pregnant women are often treated as if they were children, given long lists of items to avoidalcohol, caffeine, sushiwithout any real explanation from their doctors about why. They hear frightening and contradictory myths from friends and pregnancy books about everything from weight gain to sleeping on your back to bed rest. Economist Emily Oster believes there is a better way. InExpecting Better, she shows that the information given to pregnant women is sometimes wrong and almost always oversimplified, and she debunks a host of standard recommendations on everything from drinking to fetal testing. When Oster was expecting her first child, she felt powerless to make the right decisions. How doctors think and what patients need are two very different things. So Oster drew on her own experience and went in search of the real facts about pregnancy using an economists tools. Economics is not just a study of finance. Its the science of determining value and making informed decisions. To make a good decision, you need to understand the information available to you and to know what it means to you as an individual. Take alcohol. We all know that Americans are cautious about drinking during pregnancy. Official recommendations call for abstinence. But Oster argues that the medical research doesnt support this; the vast majority of studies show no impact from an occasional drink. The few studies that do condemn light drinking are deeply flawed, including one in which the light drinkers were also heavy cocaine users. Expecting Betteroverturns standard recommendations for alcohol, caffeine, sushi, bed rest, and induction while putting in context the blanket guidelines for fetal testing, weight gain, risks of pregnancy over the age of thirty-five, nausea, and more. Oster offers the real-world advice one would never get at the doctors office. The health of your baby is paramount, and with this practical guide readers can know more and worry less. Having the numbers is a tremendous reliefand so is the occasional glass of wine.

About Emily Oster

Emily Oster is
an associate professor of economics at the University of Chicago. She was a
speaker at the 2007 TED conference, and her work has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street
Journal, Forbes, and Esquire. She is married to
economist Jesse Shapiro and is also the daughter of two economists. She has one
child, Penelope.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Sarah on October 10, 2019

I am an obstetrician and I was very interested to read this book, hoping to find an accessible resource that would resonate with my patients. Dr. Oster set out to do a very difficult task and I appreciate what she hoped to accomplish. Unfortunately, while there are sections of this book that provide......more

Goodreads review by Jaclyn on August 26, 2013

There is so much hubbub about this book right now. I was really interested to read it and before I started it, I read a few news articles and some of the dozens of 1-star reviews on Amazon. It turns out people are really upset with Oster primarily for the chapter on drinking alcohol during pregnancy......more

Goodreads review by Deana on May 19, 2016

After becoming pregnant, I quickly learned that there are two types of pregnant women (ok, there are a lot more than this, but keep reading). The first type says "Show me proof that this will NOT hurt my baby, and I will do it." The second type says "Show me proof that this WILL hurt my baby, and I......more

Goodreads review by Alex on June 23, 2014

As a physician, I was curious about this book, after a few of my friends read it during their pregnancy. First of all, I found much of the data that she presented was quite interesting, and I learned some of the more specific aspects of prenatal care. However, more importantly, her tone smacks of pr......more

Goodreads review by Meg on June 29, 2015

Based on the title, I expected to get more out of this book. I'd suggest that it should be renamed "Agenda-based Science: How to Mine Data to Support Your Favorite View". Oster likes to drink four cups of coffee a day, and the evidence magically supported her up to this amount of caffeine, although......more