An innovative guide to pregnancy: empowering women with the facts and allowing them to make their own decisions. FREAKANOMICS meets WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU'RE EXPECTING.

Award-winning Emily Oster debunks myths about pregnancy to empower women during their wait. Pregnant women are often treated like children, receiving long lists of things to avoid - alcohol, coffee, sushi - with no real explanation from their doctors as to why. They hear scary and contradictory myths about everything from weight gain to how to sleep on their backs, as well as mandatory rest from friends and pregnancy books.

In EXPECTING BETTER, Oster shows that the information given to pregnant women is sometimes wrong and almost always oversimplified. EXPECTING BETTER overturns conventional recommendations for alcohol, coffee, sushi, mandatory rest, and labor induction, while putting into context the general guidelines for prenatal testing, weight gain, pregnancy risks over age 35, and nausea, among others.

Oster offers the real advice that no one would get in the doctor's office. Knowing that your baby's health is paramount, readers can know more and worry less. Knowing the numbers is a huge relief - and so is that occasional glass of wine.

Pages: 368, Year of Publication: 1210, Dimensions: 12.6x12.6cm