Hands Off My Belly: The Pregnant Woman’s Survival Guide to Myths, Mothers, and Moods
Product Description
Expectant mothers are virtual magnets for unsolicited advice. Mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, sisters-in-law, new mothers, friends, and even strangers offer what seems to be an endless supply of supposedly authoritative opinions on every aspect of pregnancy: A craving for spicy food denotes a boy. Carrying the baby low denotes a girl. Besides gender predictions, a pregnant woman is also apt to acquire an earful of advice about miscarriage, dietary habits and cravings, hair growth, weight gain, and childbirth. And, of course, everyone wants to touch her belly. In this engaging, humorous, and very informative book, Drs Shawn A Tassone and Kathryn Landherr – experienced gynaecologists, a husband-and-wife team of physicians, and parents of four children – explore the most common superstitions and myths surrounding pregnancy. From their combined twenty years of work in a clinic, as well as their own parenting experience, the authors review the anecdotes and beliefs, from the slightly unusual to the stranger-than-fiction, and compare them with the scientific evidence. Moving through each stage, from the early weeks of pregnancy to delivery, they examine the legends about diet, gender identification, pre-term labour, the umbilical cord, initiating labour, and the size and movement of the foetus. As they detail the scientific perspective on these varied and often amusing beliefs, the authors not only entertain but provide a great deal of practical information, which will ease the fears and anxieties of expectant parents as well as clear up many confusing notions. If you are pregnant, you owe it to yourself to get this book. Better yet, suggest it as the perfect gift to all those well-meaning advice givers.
Hands Off My Belly! has won Gold for the Mom’s Choice Award: Adult Books Pregnancy & Childbirth.
The Mom’s Choice Awards® is known for establishing the benchmark of excellence in family-friendly media, products and services. This annual competition recognizes authors, inventors, companies, parents and others for their efforts in creating quality family-friendly media products and services.
MomsChoiceAwards.com
Hands Off My Belly: The Pregnant Woman’s Survival Guide to Myths, Mothers, and Moods
Tags: Belly, Guide, Hands, Moods, Mothers, Myths, Pregnant, Survival, Woman's
These authors combine factful information with humor. This is a great pregnancy book for a first, second, third, or any other time mom!!! I bought this for a babyshower and now that I’m expecting, would love one for myself!!! I strongly recommend this book!!!
Rating: 5 / 5
Wow, if you are looking for a great baby shower gift, look no further. The authors reveal the truths to all the myths and wives tales that often create fear and anxiety with real life cases from thier practice. Thier wonderful blend of humor with real world medical truths will help all who experience the pregnancy process both woman and man alike. If you are trying to get pregnant or are pregnant this is the new “pregnancy bible” you must have.
Rating: 5 / 5
This book is one that every pregnant woman or woman who is planning to get pregnant must have on their bookshelf! Dr. Landherr and Dr. Tassone incorporate real life experiences that they have had in their practice as well as research to help dissect the myths that women hear when pregnant and help explain where these myths have come from and how much of them are in fact true. They cover all the bases: infertility, diet, mood, gender, delivery, etc. You will get so much from this book including a few laughs!
Rating: 5 / 5
Hands Off My Belly is a brilliant book that every pregnant woman should read. I now have it on my required reading list for my doula training and recommend it to all of my prenatal yoga students.
My name is Jennifer Wolfe and I am a doula, prenatal yoga instructor, childbirth educator, and creator of Prenatal Vinyasa Yoga & Short Forms 2 DVD Set and the Dolphin Method Doula Training program. I have worked with thousands of pregnant women and am constantly dispelling myths and urging women not to listen to the horror stories their friends and co-workers tell them about pregnancy and childbirth.
What I love most about this book is that it dispels myths while respecting the diversity and beliefs of cultures from around the world. Dr. Tassone and Dr. Landherr bring humor to their readers in this easy to read, fun and educational “Survival Guide” for pregnant women everywhere.
If you are pregnant or know someone who is, this book is a must have!
Rating: 5 / 5
Whether or not you’ve actually had a baby or just been around friends or family that has, you’ve most likely heard a myriad of pregnancy myths; these range anywhere from cultural sayings, pregnancy fears or straight out old-wives-tales. A large sampling of the most common of these are explored and explained in this book by two doctors. The chapter subjects range from infertility issues to menstrual myths all the way through to trimester superstitions, along with a mystery grab-bag of the non-categorical oddities which have surfaced in the two doctors’ practices.
Laughter being the best medicine, Tassone and Landherr included some downright hilarious examples which provide a good belly laugh, yet also alleviate the sometimes irrational fears which can plague new moms-to-be. The last section features the “seven habits to a highly enjoyable pregnancy” which started out listing the Biblical seven deadly sins; the doctors compared these nicely to some of the avoidable pitfalls of pregnancy like “envying” a slim family member who “just didn’t gain anything” during her pregnancy, or gluttony (curing depression by overeating). I especially enjoyed the advice “be nice but don’t listen to Grandma,” as anyone will who’s ever been inundated with unconfirmable pregnancy advice by the unofficial matriarch of the family.
Rating: 5 / 5