Expecting Better, Emily Oster
Expecting Better, Emily Oster
8 Rating(s)
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Expecting Better
Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong--and What You Really Need to Know

Author: Emily Oster

Narrator: Emily Oster, Jonathan Todd Ross

Unabridged: 9 hr 58 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 03/09/2021

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included

Synopsis

“Emily Oster is the non-judgmental girlfriend holding our hand and guiding us through pregnancy and motherhood. She has done the work to get us the hard facts in a soft, understandable way.” —Amy Schumer

What to Expect When You're Expecting meets Freakonomics: an award-winning economist and author of Cribsheet, The Family Firm, and The Unexpected disproves standard recommendations about pregnancy to empower women while they're expecting. 

Pregnancy—unquestionably one of the most pro­found, meaningful experiences of adulthood—can reduce otherwise intelligent women to, well, babies. Pregnant women are told to avoid cold cuts, sushi, alcohol, and coffee without ever being told why these are forbidden. Rules for prenatal testing are similarly unexplained. Moms-to-be desperately want a resource that empowers them to make their own right choices.

When award-winning economist Emily Oster was a mom-to-be herself, she evaluated the data behind the accepted rules of pregnancy, and discovered that most are often misguided and some are just flat-out wrong. Debunking myths and explaining everything from the real effects of caffeine to the surprising dangers of gardening, Expecting Better is the book for every pregnant woman who wants to enjoy a healthy and relaxed pregnancy—and the occasional glass of wine.

* This audiobook includes a downloadable PDf of charts, graphs and an Appendix from the book.

About The Author

Emily Oster is a professor of economics at Brown University and the author of Expecting Better, Cribsheet, and The Family Firm. She writes the newsletter ParentData and her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and Bloomberg. She has two children.

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

Quotes

Praise for EXPECTING BETTER:
 
"A revelation for curious mothers-to-be whose doctors fail to lay out the pros and cons of that morning latte, let alone discuss real science. And it makes for valuable homework before those harried ob-gyn appointments, even for lucky patients whose doctors are able to talk about the rationale behind their advice."-- New York Times
 
"A book... that pregnant women won't want to miss." --Parents Magazine
 
"Oster's advice cuts through the emotion, myth, fear of malpractice litigation and looks at the numbers. A mother herself, Oster's interest isn't just curiosity, it's the same thing that motivates every new mom... and Oster's ability to break down the data into informed analysis is a refreshing break from the hysterical hearsay that often dominates the conversation.—Babyzone
 
"Gives moms-to-be a big helping of peace of mind!" --Harvey Karp M.D., bestselling author of The Happiest Baby on the Block
 
"It took someone as smart as Emily Oster to make it all this simple. She cuts through the thicket of anxiety and received wisdom, and gives us the facts. Expecting Better is both enlightening and calming. It almost makes me want to get pregnant."--Pamela Druckerman, New York Times bestselling author of Bringing Up Bébé 

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