Expecting Better
After I announced my pregnancy at my last book club meeting, one of the members insisted that I had to read this book. Getting good information about pregnancy isn't easy. In a lot of cases, this is because it isn't ethical to run the experiments (you can't deny a woman nutrients or insist she drink or smoke while pregnant). A lot of information is anecdotal and a lot of recommendations are conservative, because most people agree that it's better to be safe than sorry. But this wasn't good enough for Emily Oster (or, honestly, most women). She wanted to understand where the recommendations were coming from, gather as much information as she could, and make informed decisions for herself.
Oster is aware that, given the same information, different women will make different decisions. Her goal with the book is to present as much information as she can, so her audience can make their own decisions. That said, every now and then it felt like she was pushing her own agenda, especially when it came to epidurals and medical intervention in general. But that might just be a point of disagreement between the two of us. I was happy to go to the hospital and put myself entirely in the hands of the doctors and nurses, assuming they knew more than I did. Oster was more critical of the constant monitoring that happens.
That said, she did change my mind on a couple of things. Well, maybe not entirely changed my mind, but made me feel more relaxed about alcohol and caffeine consumption. And while I happily ate turkey sandwiches throughout my first pregnancy, and I've now given them up entirely on my second one.
In general Oster does a good job of tracking down what data exists, analyzing across various studies, and pulling out common conclusions. Or saying that this is something we really don't understand. She points out the FDA classification of drugs is frustratingly vague, and while I agree I don't know that there's a clear path to making it better.
Still, there were a couple of places where I felt like her analysis fell short. One of the most frustrating things you learn when you're getting close to your due date is that it's an educated guess, and barely educated at that. The day really comes with a +/- two weeks caveat, and that can feel like eternity when you're 38 or 39 weeks pregnant. Oster digs into the data, showing the average gestation period for all babies and does some statistics so you can figure out the probability of giving birth on any given day around your due date. But she also points out that first babies tend to come later than second and third babies. Knowing this, I was expecting to see a chart showing gestational period of first babies, which ought to be skewed later and would change those statistics. The lack of this (and Oster's seeming blind spot around it - she doesn't even mention it as a possibility) frustrated me and made me question some of her other conclusions.
Overall this was an interesting book and I'm glad I read it. I think it might have actually stressed me out more in my first pregnancy. There were some things here that I never even considered and didn't particularly care about. And there were others (like listeria risk) that I researched pretty thoroughly on my own. If nothing else, it's a good primer if you're wondering why your doctor advises this or that.
Oster is aware that, given the same information, different women will make different decisions. Her goal with the book is to present as much information as she can, so her audience can make their own decisions. That said, every now and then it felt like she was pushing her own agenda, especially when it came to epidurals and medical intervention in general. But that might just be a point of disagreement between the two of us. I was happy to go to the hospital and put myself entirely in the hands of the doctors and nurses, assuming they knew more than I did. Oster was more critical of the constant monitoring that happens.
That said, she did change my mind on a couple of things. Well, maybe not entirely changed my mind, but made me feel more relaxed about alcohol and caffeine consumption. And while I happily ate turkey sandwiches throughout my first pregnancy, and I've now given them up entirely on my second one.
In general Oster does a good job of tracking down what data exists, analyzing across various studies, and pulling out common conclusions. Or saying that this is something we really don't understand. She points out the FDA classification of drugs is frustratingly vague, and while I agree I don't know that there's a clear path to making it better.
Still, there were a couple of places where I felt like her analysis fell short. One of the most frustrating things you learn when you're getting close to your due date is that it's an educated guess, and barely educated at that. The day really comes with a +/- two weeks caveat, and that can feel like eternity when you're 38 or 39 weeks pregnant. Oster digs into the data, showing the average gestation period for all babies and does some statistics so you can figure out the probability of giving birth on any given day around your due date. But she also points out that first babies tend to come later than second and third babies. Knowing this, I was expecting to see a chart showing gestational period of first babies, which ought to be skewed later and would change those statistics. The lack of this (and Oster's seeming blind spot around it - she doesn't even mention it as a possibility) frustrated me and made me question some of her other conclusions.
Overall this was an interesting book and I'm glad I read it. I think it might have actually stressed me out more in my first pregnancy. There were some things here that I never even considered and didn't particularly care about. And there were others (like listeria risk) that I researched pretty thoroughly on my own. If nothing else, it's a good primer if you're wondering why your doctor advises this or that.
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