Before Your Pregnancy: A 90 Day Guide for Couples on How to Prepare for a Healthy Conception

This book was disappointing, it was more of a general nutrition/health book than a guide for preconception. Most of the recommendations were common sense, eat healthy, don't drink, try to be at your target weight, ect. I guess I was expecting advice I had not heard before (and this was the first book I read on the topic). However, the BMI chart was good, and there is some interesting information about vaccines.

I found the book to be easy to read and motivating. It covers nutrician and specific vitamins and supplements, how much you need and what foods contain them, to using the food pyramid to make healthy changes in your diet. Also a good chapter on excercise before and during pregnancy which I found motivating. There were even a few specific excercises and illustrations to do to help strengthen muscles that will be challenged during pregnancy.

Overall I would definitely recommend this book. If you're looking for something to help you understand your cycle and when your best chances of conceiving are, read Understanding your Fertility or Dr. Shettle's How To Choose the Sex of Your Baby (even if you don't want to choose the sex or dont' believe in it!). This book doesn't give enough information to really grasp the method of charting your temperature.

This is light reading. I read it cover to cover in about a day. Like other reviewers have mentioned, a lot of it is really basic. Don't smoke, don't do drugs, do lose weight if you are overweight. I did like the descriptions of vitamins and minerals, and the part where they make some healthy menus is pretty good as well, but it didn't tell me a lot I didn't know. I think it was pretty good, but nothing fabulous that I would tell someone they HAVE to read.

My husband and I were so excited to start planning for our first pregnancy and we wanted to know we were preparing our bodies in the best way we could. Before Your Pregnancy was so thorough and helpful in answering our questions and educating us on things we didn't know to ask our doctor about. It gave us great peace of mind. We are now past the first trimester and still find ourselves referring to the book for the items that help both before and during pregnancy especially the nutrition, vitamin, and medication sections. It's very well organized to be able to find a the info you need when you have a question. I've also found that many relatives and girlfriends who are ready for kids have loved it as a gift. I'm sure this book has helped many moms have healthier pregnancies and babys.

This book really freaked me out. I learned a lot, but concluded from my readings that no one is fit to have a child and that everyone interested in conceiving should have been raised in a bubble. The book uses the theory that you are better safe then sorry, but all of the claims are not backed up scientifically. My recommendation is to read the book and not take it too seriously, then make a prenatal appointment with a gynecologist. The doctor will put your mind at ease.