Review: Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy

I recently finished the Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy. Of the books I’ve read, it is most comparable to Our Bodies, Ourselves: Pregnancy and Birth. I’m not sure which I like better. The Mayo Clinic guide contains more details about pregnancy, including more information about the development of the fetus itself and useful information on gentle exercises to perform during pregnancy.

However, it is missing the key things I appreciated from the Our Bodies, Ourselves book: the sense of educating the reader about the various options available to her and empowering the reader to make the choices that are best for her situation. The Mayo Clinic guide is much more prescriptive, and it spends a lot less detail helping women decide why they might want to follow or deviate from standard practices.

I’m glad I read the Mayo Clinic guide; I did learn some things. But if I had to recommend just one or two books, I’d still go with Out Bodies, Ourselves: Pregnancy and Birth, and Expecting Better combined with an app like I’m Expecting (Android) to provide more details about the week by week development of the baby.