Vicki Iovine

I'm at that early stage in my pregnancy that has me diving into all kinds of research. This is my first pregnancy and I have no idea what to expect, so I'm buying as many books as I can and devouring them, one by one. I started with THE GIRLFRIEND'S GUIDE TO PREGNANCY because it came highly recommended, and seemed to be less panic-inducing than WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU'RE EXPECTING. I have enough panic in me for a dozen other pregnant women, and I don't need anyone else adding to it. I found this book to be comforting, informative, and written in a very easy to read style. The author clearly has her biases and beliefs, and I took some of what she said with a grain of salt, but overall I found the book a great addition to my prenatal library.… (meer)

I read this guide from cover to cover a decade ago now, and I decided to revisit it as an older person thinking about having another baby. My original score for this book was somewhere around 4 or 5 stars, but now it's 3. The first time along I was a very young woman who was very taken in by the humor and the way the author encourages women to do things whatever way that they need to. It's very much a calm down, everything will be fine, even if you're a little crazy right now book. I still like the humor and the message to just get it done whatever way you need to, but older me has more reserve. I know now that she is a bit misinformed about some things, and that there are things that you can do to screw the pooch in pregnancy. These days I'm more of a there's very little that you can do to really mess things up person. So my overall opinion on this book is that it is good for the humor and calming yourself down when you're about to melt down, but I wouldn't advise taking all of the information inside to heart. This is feel-good reading, not hard hitting research. Treat it accordingly.… (meer)