Product Description

Provides the most current information linking maternal nutrition to infant behavior and health while addressing such areas as teen pregnancies, after-forty pregnancies, and AIDS. Original. 25,000 first printing. $15,000 ad/promo.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1392869 in Books
• Published on: 1995-08-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

From Booklist
There is no shortage of books on how pregnant women should conduct their lives, especially when it comes to eating. But here experienced nutritionist and author Somer (her works include Nutrition for Women and Food and Mood) has capsulized basic nutritional information in an easy-to-use, helpful guide. Some advice is a little unrealistic, such as suggesting that women consume no caffeine at all during pregnancy. Generally, though, this resource offers both basic tips on good health and more advanced nutritional recommendations. Also included are recipes that fit most active lifestyles. A nice addition to a library's pregnancy shelf. Mary Frances Wilkens

Review
"This is the first book of its kind to present sound dietary guidelines on all aspects of pregnancy."
-Miriam Erick, M.S., R.D., author of No More Morning Sickness
-- Review

Review

Customer Reviews

good book for vegetarians, too
I bought this book after returning a vegetarian pregnancy book, and I'm really pleased with it. I find the nutrition information detailed, easy to read and understand, and well-organized. The author is positive about vegetarian diets (many pregnancy authors are way too conservative about this, in my opinion). She makes easy to follow dietary recommendations for each stage of pregnancy--it's very easy to fit "your own" diet into it, including a vegetarian diet. I really appreciate the tables listing calcium-rich foods, iron-rich foods, etc.

Out-of-date...
Though there is useful information about the nutrients in different food groups, I got this book at the same time as a "mayo clinic on healthy weight" and the differences were striking. Somer appears to base a lot of nutritional advice on the US RDA and "old school" food pyramid, which has been subject to lobbying by farmers and large food corporations rather than sound medical advice, and the latest research by health-based, rather than profit-biased, scientists.

Also, the author tends to leave the subject matter and speak on other pregnancy health issues. Since this wouldn't have been the only book I buy to learn about my pregnancy, much of the information was redundant and less well-informed than books that make overall pregnancy health their goal.

If you'd like something more concise, I'd recommend "Eating for Pregnancy - an essential guide to nutrition for the whole family" which has a shorter section on nutrients and their use for the baby, then a whole slew of recipes with their nutritional content. Then for the overall pregnancy health to fill in the gaps, "Mayo Clinic guide to a healthy pregnancy", with medical advice and information about the baby's development at each 4 week segment.

Useful advice? It's in there...somewhere...
My wife and I came to this book for advice on our first pregnancy and had to work hard to get to the useful stuff.

Let's start with the chapter on "Nutrition During the First Trimester" (which is where we were when we bought the book). There's a section called "Optimal Weight Gain" where the author talks a lot about gaining too much weight and not gaining enough, but little on what is just right. There's plenty of Cosmo-esque "advice" ("You are eating for two, but that second person is a baby not a linebacker", "If you want that prepregnancy little black dress to fit after pregnancy...") before you get to anything useful ("Aim for a 25 to 35 pound gain, but don't worry if you're short or over this mark as long as you are monitored by a physician.").

The author advises pregnant women to not obsess over their weight. This advice would have been helpful for the author, who open each pregnancy chapter with a long section on weight gain. These sections contain a lot of harping on "don't gain too much!" and "don't gain too little!" without the corresponding "just right" information.

Ironically, the author clucks her tongue at pre-liberation women who would obsess about gaining too much weight. I wonder if the author realizes how much she perpetuates such obsessions with her "little black dress" references. As you read the book, you get the impression that she's a little obsessed herself and you find yourself wanting to comfort the author that you fully understand the perils of too-much-or-not-enough weight gain, and could we please change the subject?

Also annoying is Somer's tendancy to talk down to her readers. Lots of advice is doled out with a "Do this" or "Don't do that" attitude, sometimes falling annoyingly short on the reasons why.

That's not to say the book isn't useful. Once you get beyond the unnecessarily stylized content, you'll get a good education on supplements, what foods to avoid, and foods that are especially helpful during pregnancy (or "SUPER FOODS!!!").

But the overall tone of the book is more fashion magazine than professional (especially compared to the far superior "What to Expect When Expecting" books). It is pretty telling that the "about the author" credits list "The Today Show", "Good Morning America" and "Shape" magazine first. It reads like something stylistically packaged that occasionally contains useful information.