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

This a great book. Well researched and divided into easy to find topic groups/chapters. If I had one recommedation, it would be a suggested list of vitamin manufacturers. I have not been able to find one that meets all of her recommendations.

I really wanted to like this book. I wasn't even expecting it to have lots of information that I didn't already know, having done a ton of research myself in my role as fertility counselor, but thought that it would be slightly helpful at least. It was not. It was instead incomplete and incorrect.

Conclusions made are inconsistent - thing A is to be treated with caution because its safety for pregnant women is unproven, whereas thing B is considered safe because it has never been shown to cause problems. Where is the logic here? There is no difference between "never been shown to cause problems" and "safety unproven". And if there is a difference in the proven safety of these two things, it should be stated explicitly rather than left at these two vague comments.

Some statements are just plain incorrect. For example, it is stated that ovulation is the day of the basal body temperature rise, when in fact the temperature rise usually occurs the day following ovulation. Also, intercourse on this day is stated to give the best chance of conception. This is incorrect whichever way you look at it - intercourse on the day of the temperature rise is usually too late (being the day after ovulation, the egg is often dead by then), and intercourse on the day of ovulation is still not the best timing (for those who are interested, intercourse the day before ovulation is best, although difficult to time). I have to wonder what other "facts" in this book are downright wrong.

Finally, conclusions are drawn without sharing the information used to make them. It is claimed that a woman who has no immunity to rubella must get vaccinated, stating that the potential risks of the vaccine far outweigh the benefits. Nowhere is it mentioned that an adult woman receiving the rubella vaccine has much higher risk of serious medical conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and thrombocytopenia, and that according to the CDC the incidence of rubella in the US is extremely low. Whether or not the benefits of this vaccine outweigh the risks is something for women to decide for themselves, with all pertinent information.

Now, I would expect a book written by two doctors to side more often with medical gospel than not, but I was very surprised by the lack of portrayal of the other side of the issues. Or more to the point, that some things were treated as complete non-issues: women are encouraged to run right out and get the flu and chicken pox shots, with no mention of their risks or efficacy.

I should say that I did find the information on weight, diet, and exercise to be very thorough and mostly consistent with other reading I have done. Still, I simply cannot recommend this book.

I spent 3 hours in the bookstore looking at different conception and pregnancy books. I found a lot of real good books but found that I would have to buy about 4 or 5 books to get all the information I got from this book. This touches on all aspects including financial, emotional, and physical readiness for pregnancy. It is also very easy to reference back to because of the format. I am yet to find another book as good as this.

This book is full of valuable facts for anyone planning to become a parent. This book is valuable if read 90 days or 2 days before conceiving. The advice is easy to follow. The book has advice that everyone already knows (ie. not to drink), but surrounds it with detailed information about why things are important and when idealy you would make the changes to your lifestyle. The book is so full of facts and details you can make decisions for yourself on what you think is best. The ideas expressed are what I would consider to be mainstream - they are not radical nor difficult ideas to implement. I consider myself a well educated person about pre-pregnancy health concerns (read other books and did research on the internet) and I learned lots from this book.

This book is great! There aren't many books out there for those who want to make sure they are on the right track to pregnancy. I highly recommend this to people who like to make to do lists and are extremely organized. Those type of people will really like this book because it helps you to be organized and answer questions when you aren't sure.
It is very easy to read from beginning to end but also easy to flip pages to find the answer that you are looking for. There are several sections that are for if you have preexisting conditions but they are easy enough to flip over. Helps you calm any fears about conceiving and is there for you when you can't get to the doctor.